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YouTube Working on Tool That Lets Creators Sing Like Drake

YouTube Working on Tool That Lets Creators Sing Like Drake

In a bold move at the intersection of technology, artificial intelligence, and the music industry, YouTube is reportedly working on a revolutionary tool that would enable content creators to record audio using the voices of famous musicians. This groundbreaking initiative could transform the way users engage with content on the video-sharing platform.

YouTube Working on Tool That Lets Creators Sing Like Drake
Image Source: bloomberg.com

According to individuals familiar with the matter who requested anonymity due to the confidential nature of the discussions, YouTube has initiated talks with major music companies to obtain the necessary rights to train this AI-powered tool. While negotiations are ongoing, no formal agreements have been reached with record labels. These discussions are expected to shape the future of content creation on the platform.

YouTube recently unveiled a suite of AI-based tools, marking its continued commitment to harnessing artificial intelligence for content creation. These tools, introduced just last month, encompass features like background creation for videos and automatic dubbing into different languages. However, the much-anticipated music tool was not released as planned due to the rights-related complexities.

The legal landscape concerning the use of artificial intelligence in conjunction with the names, images, and likenesses of public figures, including musicians, is still evolving and has already sparked legal disputes. YouTube faces the challenge of navigating this intricate path to ensure the technology’s legal and ethical use. Although YouTube has had a tumultuous relationship with the music industry in the past, the company has made significant strides in recent years by increasing royalty payments to artists and labels.

When contacted for comment, a company spokesperson declined to provide any additional information, maintaining a shroud of secrecy around this ambitious project.

YouTube, owned by tech giant Alphabet Inc., is no stranger to the world of artificial intelligence and machine learning. Alphabet has been at the forefront of developing cutting-edge AI products for several years, and YouTube’s latest venture is part of the race among tech companies, including Microsoft, to lead the charge into what many consider the next frontier in technology.

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With Alphabet’s substantial investment in AI, YouTube has been pushed to explore innovative solutions and tools that could transform the way content is created and shared on its platform. This development aligns with Alphabet’s broader vision to harness AI’s potential and offers creators a chance to explore new horizons in content creation by singing like their favorite artists.

As discussions between YouTube and major music companies progress, the future of content creation on the platform remains a tantalizing prospect. This tool, if successfully developed and implemented, could usher in a new era of content creation, where creators can truly embrace the voices of their musical idols to captivate audiences in ways previously unimaginable.

YouTube’s three principles to embrace generative AI in music: All details

YouTube’s Three Principles to Embrace Generative AI in Music: All Details

YouTube’s three principles to embrace generative AI in music: All details
Image Source: campaignasia.com

The Google firm’s to work with generative AI in music will be informed by the recently launched YouTube Music AI Incubator, which is expected to bring together several of the current top creative artists, songwriters, and producers, based on a statement made by YouTube on 21 August 2023. Additionally, it announced a relationship with Universal Music and disclosed three important AI music concepts.

The Music AI Incubator aims to integrate Artificial Intelligence technology in music production responsibly. Max Richter, Anitta, Ryan Tedder of OneRepublic, the estate of American musical legend Frank Sinatra, as well as other professionals in the field, are among those the firm is collaborating with.

YouTube’s CEO Neal Mohan along with Universal Music chief executive officer Lucian Grainge have written blogs.

The latter wrote: “Our challenge and opportunity as an industry is to establish effective tools, incentives and rewards – as well as rules of the road – that enable us to limit AI’s potential downside while promoting its promising upside. If we strike the right balance, I believe AI will amplify human imagination and enrich musical creativity in extraordinary new ways”.

completemusicupdate.com

Principle 1:

Artificial intelligence is here, and our team will properly use it alongside our collaborators in music. YouTube as well as our collaborators in the music business have decided to expand on our long history of collaboration and appropriately take on this quickly developing sector as generative AI enables enthusiastic new forms of innovation. Our objective is to collaborate with the music business in a way that advances our shared quest of ethical innovation.

Principle 2:

Artificial intelligence (AI) is bringing in a new era of creative language, but it must provide proper safeguards and open doors for musical producers who choose to take part. We’re maintaining our solid track record of safeguarding artists’ creative output on YouTube.

Throughout several years, the company has made significant investments in the mechanisms that support striking a balance between the needs of those who own copyright and those who create on YouTube.

Also Read:  Meta set to launch the web version of Threads this week.

Principle 3:

We’ve developed a reliable and secure organisation and set of content policies that lead the industry. To tackle the difficulties posed by artificial intelligence, we will scale them. We’ve invested a lot of time and money on the trust and safety teams, policies, and protections for the YouTube community, and we’re now extending these protections to AI-generated material as well.

Current issues including misuse of trademarks and copyrights, false information, spam, and others might be made worse by generative AI systems.

Trump

Trump returns to YouTube and Facebook after a two-year ban

The Facebook and YouTube accounts of the previous president of the United States Donald Trump were recovered on Friday after they were disabled just after his followers’ attack on January 6, 2021, on Congress.

Ever since his supporters attacked the US Capitol since Congress was declaring Joe Biden’s triumph in the 2020 election for president, Trump’s YouTube was blocked for breaching its policy against incitement to violence.

Trump
Image Source: investing.com

Trump declared his entrance on the Facebook and Youtube platforms once again by posting “I’m Back” on Friday.

Also Read: New Zealand to ban TikTok on devices linked to parliament

A clip on his page also depicted Trump’s election as president in opposition to Hillary Clinton in 2016. The display then tends to fade toward a ‘Trump 2024’ screen.

“Sorry to keep you waiting,” Trump could be seen saying in the video.

Source: indiatoday.in

“Starting today, the Donald J. Trump channel is no longer restricted and can upload new content,” YouTube said in a statement.

“We carefully evaluated the continued risk of real-world violence, while balancing the chance for voters to hear equally from major national candidates in the run up to an election.”

Source: france24.com

Republican politicians slammed Trump’s removal from Facebook, whereas a community of congressional Democrats pressured parent company Meta to prolong the ban to maintain threatening and baseless electoral rejection material off from its platform.

In January, both Instagram and Facebook declared that Trump’s accounts would be reinstated with new guardrails.

Trump’s lawyer, Scott Gast, wrote to the corporation, which is centered in the Bay Area of California, asserting this had significantly altered and hindered political discussion.

Following the violent protest, the former president’s Twitter account was also banned and at that time it had 87 million followers, forcing him to interact via his site Truth Social, which seems to have very few than five million followers.

Elon Musk, the new acquirer of Twitter, restored Trump’s account last November, just days ever since Trump declared his second White House bid, although he has yet to tweet on the platform.

Meta’s decision was commended by the American Civil Liberties Union, one that has filed over 400 court actions in opposition to Trump.

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“Like it or not, President Trump is one of the country’s leading political figures and the public has a strong interest in hearing his speech,” executive director Anthony Romero said in a statement.

“Indeed, some of Trump’s most offensive social media posts ended up being critical evidence in lawsuits filed against him and his administration.”

Source: france24.com
Susan Wojcicki

YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki steps down after nine years

On Thursday, Susan Wojcicki, the Chief Executing Officer of YouTube, announced her departure in a blog post after nine years in charge of the world’s most popular online video website.

chief product officer of YouTube, Neal Mohan, will take over as CEO, she officially confirmed. Wojcicki is currently 54 and was originally a senior vice president for brand promotion at Google prior to actually taking over as Chief executive officer of YouTube in the year 2014. Wojcicki worked briefly at Intel as well as Bain & Company prior to joining Google.

Susan Wojcicki
Image Source: reuters.com

Today, after nearly 25 years here, I’ve decided to step back from my role as the head of YouTube and start a new chapter focused on my family, health, and personal projects I’m passionate about,” said Wojcicki.

Source: theguardian.com

Susan Wojcicki will be recalled as Google’s first owner, despite being among the highly regarded female executives in this male-dominated technology sector.

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Wojcicki loaned the garage of her Menlo Park, California which is the home to Co-founders of Google Larry Page & Sergey Brin for 1,700 USD per month fairly soon after they integrated their web browser into a firm in 1998.

Page and Brin both were 25 at the time and spent five months refining their search engine in Wojcicki’s garage prior to actually shifting Google into a larger and official office and afterward convincing their previous landlord to consider working for them.

It would be one of the best decisions of my life,” Wojcicki wrote in the announcement of her departure.

Source: theguardian.com

she will indeed remain with YouTube momentarily to assist in the shift of management, and in the long run had also consented with Chief Executive Officer, Sundar Pichai, to consider taking an advisory position all over Google & Alphabet, providing “counsel and guidance”.

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Susan Wojcicki is the newest in a long line of highly advanced Technology executives to leave their positions, with Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos stepping down from his position in 2021, CEO of Pinterest Ben Silbermann having left in 2022 as well as Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg resigning in 2022. Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal was also fired in 2022 as an aspect of Elon Musk’s takeover of the firm.

YouTube has been dealing with the recent resurgence of TikTok, a brief video app that surpassed the Google-owned video streaming service in screen time at the end of 2022.

youtube

YouTube tests free ad-based service streaming TV channels

As per reports, YouTube is in discussions with media corporations to include their TV films and television shows in a hub of advertisement-supported channels. It is already trialing the concept of weighing viewer interest. As per The Wall Street Journal, the platform may make the hub available to many more consumers later this year.

Youtube
Image Source: gizmochina.com

If the strategy is implemented, YouTube will enter a sector referred to as Free Ad-Supported Streaming Television, or simply FAST, in the industry.

Roku, Fox’s Tubi, as well as Pluto TV, which is operated by Paramount Global, are among the players in this space. Based on the content it provides and how the proposed channels are set up, YouTube may end up drawing so much focus away from such services.

YouTube clarified to the Journal that it is currently testing ad-supported channels for a small group of users.

We’re always looking for new ways to provide viewers a central destination to more easily find, watch and share the content that matters most to them,” a spokeswoman said.

Source: engadget.com

For the test, the facility is said to have collaborated with A+E Networks, Lionsgate, and FilmRise. Such channels provide a way for media organizations to bring in revenue from material that would otherwise languish.

YouTube already has ad-supported films, but this hub can provide users with a larger selection of free shows and movies to stream. Its channels could function similarly to Pluto TV. That platform has channels for old episodes of certain shows, like Doctor Who, CSI, South Park, and Frasier, as well as reality shows, live news, or even sports.

The speculated move into FAST is consistent with YouTube’s strategy of diversifying further than the content that has traditionally been involved with the platform. It moved premium streaming channels from YouTube TV to its main app in November.

One of the first Primetime Channels was Paramount+, Showtime, Starz, and AMC+. A while back, YouTube secured promotional rights to the NFL’s Sunday Ticket kit in a multibillion-dollar deal of seven years.

As per Nielsen, YouTube already holds the largest proportion of Television watching time among many streaming services available in the United States.

In November, it outperformed Netflix for the third time in a row having 8.8 percent of watch time. Initiatives such as the FAST channels as well as the Sunday Ticket might help it gain so much more mindshare and also the attention of viewers.

Youtube shorts

Can you make money from Youtube shorts?

YouTube creators will soon have the opportunity to monetize their Youtube Shorts videos. This is an important development for YouTube creators who make money from YouTube.

The YPP, Youtube’s formal monetization program, does not include YouTube Shorts. Joining the YouTube Partner Program (YPP) as a Youtube Shorts creator is difficult unless one is releasing long-form videos and hitting the required benchmarks of 1,000 subscriptions and 4,000 watch hours. Additionally, there is no way to monetize short, vertical content with ads.

Youtube shorts
Image Source: variety.com

However, YouTube is altering these criteria. The platform will enable revenue sharing for Shorts advertising as of February 1, 2023. As a result, a creator may now profit from the advertisements that users watch on the Youtube Shorts Feed.

Youtube stated, “from the overall amount allocated to creators, they will keep 45% of the revenue, distributed based on their share of total Shorts views. We expect the majority of our Shorts Fund recipients to earn more money under this new model, which was built for long-term sustainability.

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Instead of a fixed fund, we’re doubling down on the revenue-sharing model that has supercharged the creator economy and enabled creators to benefit from the platform’s success.” This is an intriguing approach to rewarding creators and encouraging the entire community to support Shorts.

Creators must first be enrolled in the YouTube Partner Program in order to profit from Shorts monetization. YouTube is adopting new eligibility requirements in order to increase the number of creators with a concentration on shorts who join the Partner Program. By reaching a minimum of 1,000 subscribers and 10 million Shorts views over 90 days, creators will be eligible for the YouTube Partner Program beginning in early 2023.

With this update, creators will be able to join the Youtube Partner Program even if they don’t make long-form videos. When this move is implemented, YouTube will maintain its current requirements, which are 1k subscribers and 4k watch hours. Last but not least, YouTube claims it will drop the fan funding level in early 2023, enabling creators who are not part of the Partner Program to profit from viewer purchases.

If one wants to immediately generate income from YouTube Shorts the $100 million Shorts Fund is one method to go about it. YouTube vowed to reward producers with a monthly “bonus” coming straight from that fund when it made this announcement in 2021. The actual amount of the bonuses, which can vary from $100-10,000, is determined by how well a creator did with Shorts the previous month.

But starting in 2023, this YouTube Shorts incentive will disappear. As previously announced, starting in the following year, creators will generate money from advertising in the Shorts Feed. The final series of Shorts bonuses will therefore be distributed in February 2023. Here are the prerequisites for obtaining a Shorts bonus until then.

Publish an original YouTube short every 180 days and follow the monetization and community rules on YouTube. Once a creator fulfil these conditions, they are eligible to win a Shorts bonus.