For the first time since a 2013 stroke left country singer Randy Travis unable to speak or sing properly, he has released a new song. But he didn’t sing it; instead, the vocals were created with AI software and a surrogate singer.
The song, titled “Where That Came From,” is very much the kind of folky, sentimental song I grew to love as a kid when Travis was at the height of his fame. The producers created it by training an anonymous AI model, starting with 42 of his isolated voice recordings. Then, under the supervision of Travis and his career producer Kyle Lehningfellow country singer James DuPre laid down the vocals which would be transformed into Travis by AI.
Besides being on YouTube, the song is on other streaming platforms like Apple Music And Spotify.
The result of Warner’s experiment is a gentle melody that captures Travis’ laid-back style, which rarely strays from his baritone base. This feels like one of those singles that would have lingered on the charts long enough for me to nervously rock out to it once after I had the courage to ask a girl to dance at a middle school party. I wouldn’t say it’s a great Randy Travis song, but it’s certainly not the worst, I would even say that I like it.
Dustin Ballard, who runs the various incarnations of the There I Ruined It social media account, creates his AI voice parodies pretty much the same way as Travis’ team, spawning wacky mash-ups like AI Elvis Presley singing “Baby Got Back” or synthetic Johnny Cash singing “Barbie Girl.”
It would be easy to sound the alarm on this song or Ballard’s creations, declaring the death of man-made music as we know it. But I would argue that it does just the opposite, reinforcing what tools like an AI voice clone can do in the right hands. Whether you like the song or not, you have to admit that you I can’t get something like that from casual prompts.
Cris Lacy, co-president of Warner Music Nashville, said CBS Sunday morning that AI voice cloning sites produce approximations of artists like Travis that don’t “sound real, because they’re not.” She called the label’s use of AI to clone Travis’ voice “AI for good.”
Right now, Warner can’t really do much about AI clones which, in his opinion, don’t fall under the umbrella of “AI for good.” But that of Tennessee Recently passed ELVIS lawwhich takes effect July 1, would allow labels to take legal action against those who use software to recreate an artist’s voice without permission.
Travis’ song is a good example of using AI to create music that actually sounds legit. But on the other hand, it could also open a new path for Warner, which owns the rights to vast catalogs of music from famous and dead artists, ripe for digital resurrection and, if they want to go for it, profit potential. As heartwarming as this story is, I wonder what lessons Warner Music Nashville – and the recording industry as a whole – will learn from this song.
