After a song using AI deepfakes of Drake and the Weeknd’s voices was taken down after becoming a viral hit, Grimes shocked the general public when she tweeted that she would split 50% of the revenue with anyone who wanted to make use of her voice in AI-generated songs. Per week later, Grimes debuted Elf.Tech, an open-source AI voice software that enables artists to duplicate her voice of their songs and pocket half of the royalties.
Despite many musicians feeling threatened by AI, the Canadian electronic artist (and co-parent to children with Elon Musk who has just launched an AI company of his own) is doubling down on her stance regarding the usage of AI music tools.
Music tech studio CreateSafe, co-founded by Grimes’ manager Daouda Leonard, officially launched today its generative AI-powered platform, Triniti– available on the net as a free open beta. Triniti enables artists to create an AI voice clone, generate text-to-audio samples, ask a chatbot music industry-related questions, monetize creations and manage music IP.
Elf.Tech is the prototype of CreateSafe’s Triniti platform. Elf.Tech has created over 1,000 songs replicating Grimes’ voice. Grimes recently joined the CreateSafe’s advisory board.
As well as, CreateSafe revealed that it raised $4.6 million in funding, the corporate exclusively told TechCrunch. The seed round was led by Polychain Capital with participation from Kendrick Lamar’s manager Anthony Saleh, Paris Hilton-founded 11:11 Media, Unified Music Group, Crush Ventures, MoonPay, Chaac Ventures and Dan Weisman, the vp of Bernstein Private Wealth Management. CreateSafe will use the brand new capital to further develop the Triniti platform.
CreateSafe refers to Triniti as an “artistic intelligence” platform since its most important purpose is to empower creators to make music.
“It’s not going to be fully AI because you may have this interface to mess around with and make the music on your individual,” Leonard said during a demo with TechCrunch. He has worked with many top artists, including DJ Snake and Skrillex. “That’s why we call it artistic intelligence because we would like everyone to own their AI and find a way to collaborate and scale themselves in a latest way.”
Triniti leverages a customized version of an RVC (Realistic Voice Cloning) model, in addition to OpenAI’s ChatGPT for its virtual companion and Stable Diffusion to generate images for album covers. CreateSafe can also be constructing a music model based on MusicGen that focuses on audio techniques like traditional DSP (Digital Sound Processing).
“Our goal shouldn’t be to switch humans with computers. It’s to present humans computers that collaborate with them to create a latest experience across the creation of music, assisted by AI… We don’t wish to contribute to the large amount of fraud that’s happening with music now where persons are uploading music simply to game the system,” Leonard added.
For context, it’s estimated that at the least 10% of streaming activity was fraudulent in 2022, in response to Beatdapp, an organization that makes a speciality of audit and fraud detection.
Image Credits: CreateSafe
The voice transformation and cloning feature is essentially the most notable AI tool that Triniti offers. It allows singers to record their voices and train the AI with different voice patterns and styles. Artists are then given a digital voice clone together with a “voice likeness” certificate, allowing them to set terms on how their voice is licensed. Songs created using the voice may be distributed, managed and monetized directly from the platform.
The licensing part is vital here since lots of debates around voice AI within the music industry are centered on copyright protections.
“Giving the licensing framework and the distribution pathway for songs is a strategy to protect your voice when establishing ownership over this digital clone… If one other platform is potentially using your voice likeness together with your name, you may issue a takedown,” Leonard said.
Despite the fact that Grimes is the primary artist to make use of Triniti’s voice cloning technology, she won’t be the last. The platform has a cohort of 30 artists who plan to release digital voice clones in 2024 for Triniti members to utilize for their very own work. Leonard declined to share who, nonetheless, said they’re “well-known, legacy artists.”
“We wanted to begin off with a cohort of artists and record labels who really imagine on this technology… We showcase things just like the ethical use of the way you train a model and the consensual use of getting permission from the IPO holder,” Leonard explained.
Image Credits: CreateSafe
One other tool price touching on is Triniti’s AI sample generator, where creators input a genre or vibe that they need the audio to sound like. For example, “catchy yet haunting love song.” The generator creates 4 tracks to select from, each paired with album images. Meanwhile, if an artist needs advice, Triniti has a virtual companion that may answer questions similar to, “How do labels become profitable?” or “How do I get famous?”
Lastly, Triniti’s management tool uses LLMs to automate workflow, helping managers catalog deals, create invoices, add latest clients and organize projects.
As of today, anyone can access Grimes’ AI voice tech, audio samples and chat free of charge. Voice cloning, licensing, distribution and management apps can be found upon request/approval. The corporate eventually plans to introduce a subscription model, starting from $99 to $150 per yr.
Within the near future, Triniti will introduce editing tools, a MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface processing visual and more. It can also launch iOS and Android apps.