BBL Drizzy and the AI music industry
Plus, June platform updates on Meta, TikTok, 𝕏, advertising (but make it organic), and the first-ever AI beauty pageant.
AI is cracking open the music industry
I’m not sure why it took me so long to jump on the AI music train — probably because I’ve always felt somewhat let down by the results of early betas I’ve tested. But when I tell you that NOW the AI music tech is worth tapping back into, all you need to do is give it a test run and see for yourself (not sponsored).
I played around with the music generation tool Suno AI last week and for the first time in a long time, I got that “holy shit, this is insane” reaction. (The last time was when AI video took a leap with Runway’s Gen-2 and OpenAI broke the news of Sora.)
Below is a quick music video I made from a song I generated in Suno. Entire process took less than 30 minutes, starting with a simple 200-word prompt about the song I wanted to create, downloading some looped visuals from Envato, and putting it into CapCut with auto-generated captions.
The creative potential of AI in music is obscene. It’s exciting and also unsettling.
If a mere 30 minutes of effort with no skill can produce a super listenable song like this, imagine what a professional studio can do with it.
Actually, you don’t have to imagine because it’s happening.
An AI-generated song in the style of Drake and The Weeknd called “Heart on My Sleeve” went viral last year and kicked off ownership debates (wrote about it in The Sauce here). Universal Music Group filed a copyright lawsuit to take down the song after it got significant attention online.
More recently, there’s "BBL Drizzy,” which started as a joke by comedian Willonius Hatcher aimed at the Drake-Kendrick Lamar feud. It’s since become a viral greatest hit because, well, the internet.
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Hatcher used an AI tool called Udio to generate the retro-sounding vocals for "BBL Drizzy" after writing the lyrics himself. Drake and rapper Sexyy Red then sampled it in the track “U My Everything,” making Drake the first artist to legally clear a sample created by AI. It set a precedent where Hatcher's lawyers had to negotiate for him to receive royalties from Drake's song for using the AI sample.
It’s worth noting that these apps leverage advanced AI models trained on massive datasets of existing music to create new compositions mimicking various genres and artists' styles, so there’s bound to be legal recoil.
The potential for AI in music is huge, but it’s going to get tangled in legal battles before we see it taking off in mainstream labels. In the meantime, the tools and tech will continue evolving and independent artists will find unique and creative ways to integrate it — perhaps even leveling the playing against more resourced artists.
As Grimes put it, “When everyone has the same tools that can make professional quality stuff, then you get to see the actual talent really rise to the top.”
Exciting times ahead, as always 🍯
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AI & industry news
Advertising, but make it organic
Brands want more than paid ads can offer. A few weeks ago I wrote about how brands are showing up in the comment section and whether or not that’s something users actually want to see. A new report from eMarketer details how exactly brands are leaning into tactics beyond paid media and organic posting alone. Yes, brands are embracing ad-free features like comments and DMs.
Some highlights from the report:
Brands are more and more using organic content and interactions on social, from tapping creators and influencers to create native content to responding to comments in videos and replying to DMs and leaning into micro-interactions (liking, sharing). Commenting also happens to be the favorite social feature of US adults, so it makes sense that brands want to show up in the comment scroll.
Other reasons for brands’ organic approach come down to consumer ad fatigue, the rise of ad-blockers, and wanting to connect with audiences more authentically sans the promotional nature of paid ads. All of us are more receptive to brand content that doesn't feel like an aggressive sales pitch.
The strategy isn’t novel. The art of subtly promoting products/services through organic posts, interactions, and value-add content isn’t a new thing — but it’s making a resurgence. By tapping into the interactive and community-building layers of social, brands are looking to connect with consumers in a more organic (read: less disruptive) way.
If you post on Meta platforms, consider yourself training material
Meta has made it clear that no, users cannot opt out of content being used to train AI systems. This includes posts you’ve shared on Facebook, Instagram, and other Meta platforms. Any content willingly posted publicly is fair game for AI companies to collect and utilize in datasets for training language models and improving AI capabilities, which Meta claims is allowed under their data policy.
First-ever AI beauty pageant
AI models. Of course they compete in beauty pageants. The first AI pageant happened on Sunday, featuring AI creations who charmed judges with beauty and personalities. Here’s a “Miss AI finalist” who looks suspiciously like Margot Robbie:
We’ve been living in this weird new era of deepfakes and AI influencers for awhile now, but an AI beauty pageant doesn’t make it any less uncanny. It’s a new era of influencers, where AI models who look and act like humans can be the face card — whether it’s for selling products, influencing audiences, or hell, competing in beauty pageants.
platform updates
TikTok
🎻 TikTok’s Sympony drop. Advertisers will soon have a new creative suite of AI tools with "TikTok Symphony" which can help with scriptwriting, video production, idea generation — and can apparently turn out TikTok ads with just a handful of cues. Waitlist:
Meta (FB, IG, Threads, WhatsApp)
🚨 Engagement police. Remember that confusing video Instagram posted then deleted last week about how the algorithm treats CTAs in captions? The official IG Creators account posted a new video to clear thing up, confirming that single word comments (like those used in engagement farming) could trigger anti-spam measures, but that “open-ended questions and calls-to-action are a great way to engage with your audience.” Also, longer Reels can boost engagement. This isn’t a surprise, considering long form is literally the flavor of choice for every platform right now.
🔁 Feedback rounds on your Reels. IG is testing a new feature that lets creators share previews of Reels in the draft folder in order to collect feedback before posting. One option lets you send a preview to specific friends, who can't comment or share it, while another lets you share a Reel with non-followers to get feedback before the official release:
This definitely streamlines things if you’re working natively in the app to create content, whether it’s sharing drafts with clients for approval or throwing it in the groupchat, it means one less step for approval (or validation).
📱 WhatsApp cross-posting. You might be able to share your IG Stories directly to WhatsApp soon, which now has over 500 million users on WhatsApp Channels (the one-way broadcasting feature that feels like a Telegram-style interface).
🧵 Threads tests new hashtag feature. Instead of the # symbol, Threads is adding topic tags to posts activated by the hash symbol in a dropdown format:
Posts would be linked to related content on the same subject (similar to hashtags but without requiring the symbol itself). Hopefully it’ll encourage more specific tagging of trending/relevant content while throttling spam.
YouTube
🎮 YouTube gets games. YouTube is rolling out a new feature called Playables that lets you play free games directly inside the YouTube app and website. It includes games like Angry Birds, word puzzles, and trivia — with your game progress and high scores saved. To me, this sounds like new opportunities for developer monetization and new inventory for advertisers.
𝕏 (formerly Twitter)
📊 Advanced analytics coming soon. 𝕏 is reportedly testing advanced analytics tooling to provide deeper insights and performance analytics for X Premium subscribers.
✅ Verified search. 𝕏 has a new search filter that lets you refine results to only show posts from verified accounts — if that’s something you want.
You can narrow down search results to profiles that have been granted verification status by X, either by being a paying X Premium subscriber or a high-profile account among premium users.
sauce snippets
Stray news and trends from the internet ✨
How Fizz, an anonymous messaging app for Gen Z, tore a high school apart
Elon Musk brought Starlink nternet connection to a remote Amazonian tribe — and now they’re addicted to porn
The legacy of Chester Stone, Florida man and internet sensation
YouTube’s activation programming for Pride Month 2024
Adobe says it will never own your work or use it for AI training
Is TikTok breaking young voters’ brains? TikTok has made itself into a hub for Gen Z political expression
If you saw a typo, no you didn’t.