The Beatles have scored Grammy nominations for Record of the Year and Best Rock Performance for their song “Now and Then,” a ‘lost’ track recovered and restored using AI. This is the first time a song produced with AI assistance has earned such recognition and could portend plenty of arguments ahead over the role of AI in music production.
“Now and Then” was released last year and garnered plenty of attention not only for being a Beatles song most have not heard but also for its AI-infused production. Rumors swirled that surviving Beatles members Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr used generative AI to clone John Lennon’s voice for the song. That wasn’t true, however. Instead, “stem separation” AI let the producers isolate Lennon’s vocals from an existing demo track that was too low-fidelity to be useful for a real track. The AI tools enhanced Lennon’s voice by removing background noise and tuning up the voice to make the audio better.
It’s a bit like how video call platforms use tech to filter out sounds that are not your voice to ensure the person on the other end of the call can hear you. Companies with a lot of archival audio that isn’t good quality are experimenting with stem separation too, including Disney Music Group.
AI Grammys
The Recording Academy, which gives out the Grammys, has been engaged in trying to work out how to incorporate AI used for music production into its infrastructure. Last year, CEO Harvey Mason Jr. spoke at length about AI and even held a roundtable with record labels, streaming services, artists, and the developers of AI for making music. Apps that use AI to make music, like Tad.AI, Suno, and Udio all face the issue of lawsuits from major music labels, which is only likely to get more complex if questions about award eligibility come into play.
Unless you’re in the music business, “Now and Then” is just a nice way to get a little more Beatles music with the aid of modern technology. Whether it’s an omen of a new way of making and selling music is still up in the air. As one of the most popular bands of all time, The Beatles are something of an outlier.
The nominations for “Now and Then” are The Beatles’ first Grammy nominations in decades, for obvious reasons. They’ve been nominated a total of four times for Record of the Year now. But “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” “Hey Jude,” and “Let It Be” all lost the Grammy. With some AI boosting, “Now and Then” might change that losing streak.
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erichs211@gmail.com (Eric Hal Schwartz)
