AI Ressurects Beatles’ Unfinished Song: Future Challenges to Our Assumptions About Creative Legacies
On November 2, 2023, The Beatles released a “new” single comprised of contributions by both surviving and deceased members. Upon its release, their song “Now and Then” debuted at number one on the Billboard Digital Song Sales chart and peaked at number seven on the Billboard Hot 100 chart - currently dominated by artists Taylor Swift, Doja Cat, and Drake. The song, whose origins began decades ago as part of a home recording by John Lennon, was made fit for release in its new context thanks to AI-powered technology enabling the separation of the demo’s audio components, providing the living members of The Beatles a basis to construct a whole song around John Lennons’ existing vocal track.
As the last year has already demonstrated, AI provides vast opportunities to streamline and improve creative processes and output. Further development of AI-enabled tools to support music creation, recording, and distribution will enable a new era of boundless creativity for a new generation of would-be artists. For those who have established decades-long careers and catalogs, AI will bring new challenges to their legacy and revenue-generating potential long after their death.
This raises the question of whether other demos from long-deceased artists will be released as the capabilities of AI-enabled technologies continue to improve and gain wider acceptance. One can easily imagine a near future when new works by Otis Redding, Elvis, Kurt Cobain, Janis Joplin, or Jerry Garcia grace the streaming charts, furthering the revenue potential desired by estate lawyers and music industry executives. Where does artistry end and a technology-produced facsimile begin? As Mary Megan Peer (CEO of Peermusic), who spoke to Billboard for their story, puts it, “To take a new creation and say that it came from someone who isn’t around to approve it, that seems to me like quite a stretch.” (Leight, 2023)
Controversy aside, AI will enable a new era of consumption to feed the never-satisfied nostalgic trip to keep the music machine profitable and fans happy. As the industry navigates this new frontier, it will need to balance the opportunities provided by AI with preserving the authenticity and integrity of the music it produces and the legacy of the artists it chooses to exploit. You may not want to hear Frank Sinatra drop bars over a dragging hip-hop beat, but AI will enable it.
Inspiration & Further Reading
Baker, Peter C. (2023, November 21). The Beatles Are Still Charting the Future of Pop. It Looks Bleak. New York Times.
Leight, Elias. (2023, November 29). Will AI Be Used to Raise Musicians From the Dead? Billboard.
Marr, Bernard. (2023, June 14). AI Creates ‘Final Beatles Song’: What Does It Mean For The Future Of Music? Forbes.
Shaw, Lucas. (2023, October 22). The Music Industry’s First Reckoning With AI Is Upon Us. Bloomberg.
