Grimes Says She'll Split Royalties With Anyone Who Deepfakes Her Voice Into a Song

"I'll split 50 percent royalties on any successful AI-generated song that uses my voice."

Sharing Royalties

While some music artists and their labels are increasingly becoming wary of those using AI models to clone their voices, others are choosing to ride the wave and embrace an AI-filled future.

Experimental artist and futurist Claire "Grimes" Boucher, for one, is looking at the new trend as an opportunity.

"I'll split 50 percent royalties on any successful AI-generated song that uses my voice," the artist tweeted in response to a story about Aubrey "Drake" Graham's voice being cloned for a viral song. "Same deal as I would with any artist I collab with."

"Feel free to use my voice without penalty," she added. "I have no label and no legal bindings."

In fact, Grimes admitted she was already "making a program that should simulate my voice well" in a followup, "but we could also upload stems and samples for people to train their own."

Heart on her Sleeve

The news comes after a viral hit called "Heart on My Sleeve" was taken down by record label Universal Music Group. The track featured cloned vocals of the voices of both Drake and singer Abel Makkonen "The Weeknd" Tesfaye and garnered millions of views on TikTok.

"We will not hesitate to take steps to protect our rights and those of our artists," UMG wrote in an email statement, as quoted by the Financial Times.

The conflict highlighted a brewing war between the music industry and the developers of tools that make it easy to masquerade as a popular artist with the use of AI.

But whether Grimes will end up successfully sharing royalties with creators, who use an AI clone of her voice remains to be seen. The artist has only hinted at how such a venture could end up working.

Besides, the singer later admitted that she's still willing to put her foot down if she doesn't like the end product.

"OK hate this part but we may do copyright takedowns ONLY for really really toxic lyrics with Grimes' voice," she tweeted, adding that things like "baby murder songs" or "Nazi anthems" were off the table.

"I think I'm Streisand effecting this now but I don't wanna have to issue a takedown and be a hypocrite later," she added.

But given the amount of media attention her comments have already generated so far, there's a decent chance she may have to do just that sooner than later.

More on AI music: Drake's Label Is Still Absolutely Furious About That AI-Generated Song