Changing Its Tune In April, Universal Music Group — one of the biggest record labels in the world — demanded the takedown of a song which used voice cloned vocals of its artists Drake and the Weeknd. Now apparently changing its tune, the Financial Times reports that UMG has begun negotiations with Google over how together they could license artists’ melodies and voices for use in AI generated songs, with Warner Music also said to be in on the talks. If the plans come to fruition, the result will be a tool that fans can use to deepfake their favorite musicians. Should they desire it, artists could choose to opt out of being included in the system. “With the right framework in place,” said Warner Music CEO Robert Kyncl at a Tuesday meeting with investors, per the FT, AI could “enable fans to pay their heroes the ultimate compliment through a new level of user-driven content… including new cover versions and mash-ups.” Under the Bridge According to the report, music executives have learned from the last time the internet posed a thorny copyright conundrum: YouTube. The video platform, owned by Google, played host to countless user-made videos featuring copyrighted music. After years of tiresome legal battles, the music industry came to a happy compromise through a lucrative deal with Google that earns it billions of dollars per annum for the use of its music. Likewise, it was only a few months ago that UMG threw a hissyfit over fan-made deepfakes of…Google and Universal Music Reportedly Want to Monetize Deepfaked AI Songs