Universal Music Group (UMG) has partnered with Splice to “collaborate on joint exploration of the next generation of AI-powered music creation tools for musical artists,” as a press release puts it.
Ahead, UMG and Splice will be developing “commercial AI tools” and “AI-powered virtual instruments,” but little is known about what those tools will be. It’s unclear if these tools will be generative AI or an extension of Splice’s pre-existing non-generative AI tool Create, which helps users sort through the Splice library of millions of sounds and samples with greater ease and creativity, mixing and matching samples that might work together for a song.
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A press release about the deal notes that the partnership is “guided by a shared commitment to creative expression and artistic empowerment[.] The partnership will also explore AI-powered virtual instruments and tools that enable UMG artists to bring their own sounds into Splice’s AI workflows.” It adds that UMG artists “are expected to” play a role in guiding the development of these forthcoming products.
In a previous interview with Billboard in August 2023, Splice CEO Kakul Srivastrava expressed her views on AI, saying: “One of the things that we find disturbing about a lot of the work that is happening in generative AI is that it is ‘push button’ creativity. You push a button and poof, a song comes out. For us, that’s eliminating the creative as opposed to putting tools into the creatives’ hands. Our tool has been built with that mindset at the core of it.”
This is not the first time Splice and UMG have joined together in regard to AI development. In June 2024, the two companies — and others, including Roland — released a series of guidelines called “Principles for Music Creation With AI,” detailing the guardrails the companies vowed to put in place. This included statements like, “We believe human-created works must be respected and protected,” “We believe that transparency is essential to responsible and trustworthy AI,” and “We believe the perspectives of music artists, songwriters, and other creators must be sought after and respected.”
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In the August 2023 conversation with Srivastrava, she also left the door open for generative AI samples to enter Splice’s library — but only if its customers say that they want it. She said, “Right now, our customers tell us that they love the sounds we have. They love the sonic complexity of our sounds. They love that it’s human-created. If it feels like this is something that people are curious about, we’ll certainly explore it. Because our training data is so good, we could probably do a pretty good job of it, but it’s not a focus for us right now.”
Michael Nash, executive vp & chief digital officer of Universal Music Group, said in a statement on the Splice deal, “We’re excited to form this alliance with Splice to promote the alignment of innovation and ethicality in addressing the interests of the creative community to leverage cutting-edge AI-enabled tools to further their artistic expression. We look forward to partnering with Kakul Srivastava and her team on this critically important strategic technology front.”
“We’ve spent time building AI tools designed to fairly compensate creators and keep them in control,” added Srivastava. “We’re thankful for Universal’s continued support, and excited to work together to put these commercial tools in the hands of artists everywhere, knowing they can trust the end result.”
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