, it prompted widespread confusion. Many fans assumed that this meant McCartney was using AI to bring his bandmate’s voice back from the dead, generating some kind of new recording of Lennon’s out of thin air. Quickly, McCartney clarified onthat “nothing has been artificially or synthetically created.” Instead, the singer is using AI to clean up an old recording made by the bandmates while they were still living using a process known as “stem separation.
Not every use-case of the emerging technology involves generating computer-made songs or voices instantaneously. While some applications of AI certainly present urgent legal and ethical concerns, there are also many applications that give musicians and rights holders new creative opportunities from the way it’s created to how it’s released and beyond.
, known as stems. Having those audio building blocks can be essential if, for example, a movie wants to use an instrumental version of a track in a film trailer, or a brand wants to incorporate a vocal a capella into a commercial. Some musicians have lost their stems over time; other artists may have cut albums before recording technology existed to isolate all the different parts, and those albums may now be in the hands of catalog owners looking for new revenue opportunities.