The Recording Academy just made a move that's splitting the music world down the middle. Their stance on AI-generated music promises to protect human creativity-but the guidelines? They've opened more questions than they've answered. The declaration sounds straightforward: only music with "significant human creative contribution" qualifies for Grammy consideration. Dig into the details, though, and you'll find a policy so riddled with ambiguity that artists, producers, and industry insiders are left guessing where the boundaries actually lie.
"I've always believed that music is about connection and emotional truth. What interested me here was the idea of using my voice and new tools in service of expression, not instead of it. This project respects the artist's voice, the artist's choices, and the artist's ownership. I grew up watching my parents create wonderful dreams that were owned by other people. ElevenLabs makes it possible for anyone to be a creator and owner. That matters."
H ave you heard Solomon Ray's new album Faithful Soul? It's number one on the gospel charts-and entirely AI generated, just like the musical artist behind it. The idea that a hit Spotify artist might not be human is a satire of the attention economy itself: an ecosystem once based on authenticity and connection now topped by a synthetic voice engineered for maximum uplift. What does "soul" even mean when it's made by software trained on real music?
In October, a song called "I Run" materialized on TikTok, an unrepentant earworm of an EDM track that seemingly commandeered everyone's For You Page. Users fell hard and fast with some even crowning it the "song of the year" in between pleas for its release on streaming platforms. The production, tight and unrelenting, received a lauded boost from siren-like vocals that fans insisted belonged to British R&B songstress Jorja Smith. Before long, the song climbed to #11 on Spotify's U.S. chart.
For decades, the country music industry has billed itself as the rough-hewn, rural cousin to the effete sounds of the city. That appears to be going out the window, as more and more country producers embrace San Francisco's AI over Nashville's homespun troubadours. In a detailed reporting on changes in the country music industry, spoke to a number of professional song-writers, producers, and artists about the rise of AI in country music. Their responses point to a scene that's changing fast - and leaving human artists in the dust.
When it happened, the right was quick to tear down anyone who didn't suddenly forget his prejudiced rhetoric when he was killed , but in the months since, a lot of the fallout of Kirk's death has been in memes, whether that be in "Kirkifying" images by photoshopping his face on anything you can find, AI mock-ups of gunpla sets of his death, or creating characters that look like him in video games .
Streaming service Deezer ran an experiment recently, with the help of research firm Ipsos. The finding - that 97 percent of people can't tell the difference between fully AI-generated and human-made music - was alarming. But it's also not the whole story. In the survey, 9,000 participants listened to three tracks and were asked to guess which, if any, were completely AI-generated.
Walmart is testing advertising within its new AI-powered shopping assistant, Sparky, as part of a broader push to reshape digital retail experiences. Introduced to the company's mobile app in June, Sparky functions like a conversational agent, helping users compare products, summarise reviews, and suggest items for different occasions. Sources familiar with the initiative say Walmart has been experimenting with a format called "Sponsored Prompt," which integrates ads directly into Sparky's chat interface.
What is the most powerful performance driver in advertising? Keller answers his own query this way: 'Not your media plan. Not your targeting strategy. Not even your click-through rate. Creativity. Full stop.' In a new column (HERE), Keller asserts that audio is effective explicitly because it is invisible. Sound invites imagination by tapping into a 'theater of the mind,' speaking directly to emotion and memory. One key: 'Build audio in, don't bolt it on.'
Adobe said the Generate Soundtrack feature runs on the Firefly Audio Model. The feature creates commercially safe, fully licensed, studio-quality instrumental tracks that sync with your video footage in seconds, even offering multiple track variations. The commercially safe element of the feature is important, as creators don't have to worry about copyright strikes or takedowns on YouTube or Instagram.
According to YouTube posts, the celebrity tributes were plentiful. They came from Ed Sheeran, Eminem, Taylor Swift, Celine Dion, Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Post Malone, Dax, Lil Wayne, Jelly Roll, Selena Gomez, Justin Bieber and Imagine Dragons. But none of them were real. They were all generated using artificial intelligence. And they often featured fake thumbnail images that showed the artists in tears or with mournful expressions.
Two weeks ago, record company Hallwood Media signed a deal with Telisha "Nikki" Jones after negotiations that purportedly included an offer of $3 million, Billboard reported. Jones is a Mississippi-based lyricist behind the R&B artist "Xania Monet" whose most popular song on Spotify racked up over 1 million listens, and whose Reels regularly top 100,000 views on Instagram - despite her likeness, vocals, and music being AI-generated.
For many SMEs, advertising, marketing, and content creation are constrained by tight budgets and limited time. In today's short-video era, where social media plays a central role in communicating brand value, music has become a key part of marketing campaigns. Yet sourcing the right tracks is rarely straightforward. Royalty-free music often requires additional licensing fees, and even then it may not fully match a brand's identity or deliver the desired emotional impact.
