UPDATED: The soundalike song in question began to disappear from streaming services throughout the day Monday. Universal Music was identified by YouTube as being behind the takedown notices sent to the DSPs

UPDATED: Are you ready for deep-fake-Drake? Many fans are, at least as an amusing lark, as an apparently artificial-intelligence-generated “collaboration” between “Drake” and “the Weeknd” began to go viral over the weekend, for how closely the styles of the two superstars are mimicked in a track titled “Heart on My Sleeve.”

It’s no joke, though, to artists and labels wondering whether such soundalike tracks can quickly be quashed, and whether gullible fans may have a hard time telling the difference if the trend accelerates.

As Monday began, “Heart on My Sleeve” was racking up enough listens and views that it appeared to be on track to become a charting song when this week’s chart results are released next Monday. However, DSPs began deleting the track during the day, presumably under pressure from Universal Music Group. After initially disappearing from Tidal and Apple Music, it also became invisible in Spotify search results and was “greyed out” as unplayable on a bookmarked page.

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Universal provided Variety with a statement about how it plans to deal with AI-generated music, but the company did not respond specifically to requests for comment on whether it was issuing takedown notices for “Heart on My Sleeve.” But that finally became clear when YouTube became the last of the major DSPs to remove the song, with a message that read: “This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Universal Music Group.”

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Which leads to the question: If the song itself is an original composition, can you copyright a voice? Universal, obviously, would answer that in the affirmative — and there’s legal precedent for that position dating back before the advent of AI — although it seems inevitable the issue will wind up in courts.

The mystery account behind the AI song, identifying as Ghostwriter, left no clues about how the imitative track was brought into being, or what information was fed into programs to create it. But in two minutes and 16 seconds, “Heart on My Sleeve” consists of two distinct verses and a chorus sung by voices distinctly resembling the two stars, with lyrics referring to Selena Gomez, who was reported to have been dating the Weeknd in the mid-2010s. Sample lyrics: “I came in with my ex like Selena to flex, aye / Bumpin’ Justin Bieber the fever ain’t left, aye”… And, “Talkin’ to a diva yeah she on my nerves / She think that I need her, kick her to the curb ‘ All I know is you could’ve had the world … yeah, you were my world.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VszJPLAtK0U

Some are wondering if Drake and the Weeknd were picked arbitrarily for such a convincing cloning — which seems plausible, given their reigning superstar status — or if they were particularly selected for prodding because Drake and Universal Music Group have shown a public antipathy toward AI in the creation of soundalike music in recent weeks.

Last week, UMG asked the major streaming services to block AI companies from “scraping” the music they host to create imitations. Drake posted a headline about that, along with a mention of a viral recording that had what sounded like his voice rapping the lyrics to Ice Spice’s “Munch,” with the caption, “This is the last straw AI.” It seemed as though Drake’s comment at the time might have been tongue-in-cheek, but it’s possible he’ll have a less tolerant attitude now that original songs are being released using a facsimile of his vocal likeness.

“Heart on My Sleeve” is credited on Spotify to Ghostwriter, who has a verified account despite having posted only this single track. There, as of Monday at 10 a.m. PT, it was shown as having picked up 253,900 listens from 161,100 users. The names of Drake and the Weeknd do not appear in the artist or track descriptions, but word of mouth is obviously drawing a crowd.

On YouTube, “Heart on My Sleeve” had 197,000 views after two days. On that platform, Drake’s and the Weekend’s names are included in the song’s subtitle, as “(Drake AI Song feat. The Weeknd).”

The Ghostwriter account vowed: “This is just the beginning.” Comments from YouTubers under the video include: “This would literally go No. 1 on the charts if Drake released it.” “If you told me this was just an unreleased song I’d believe it.” “I wish I could be a fly on the wall when Drake himself first hears this. This slaps.” And: “What a time to be alive.”

A spokesperson for Luminate said that any chart positions for “Heart on My Sleeve” — assuming it continues to pick up in streaming and does not become the subject of a takedown notice — will have to wait a week, due to the track coming out toward the beginning of the current chart eligibility period.

Universal Music Group issued a statement to Variety Monday afternoon in response to a request for comment, without addressing the new song specifically. “UMG’s success has been, in part, due to embracing new technology and putting it to work for our artists–as we have been doing with our own innovation around AI for some time already,” the company said. “With that said, however, the training of generative AI using our artists’ music (which represents both a breach of our agreements and a violation of copyright law) as well as the availability of infringing content created with generative AI on DSPs, begs the question as to which side of history all stakeholders in the music ecosystem want to be on: the side of artists, fans and human creative expression, or on the side of deep fakes, fraud and denying artists their due compensation. These instances demonstrate why platforms have a fundamental legal and ethical responsibility to prevent the use of their services in ways that harm artists.  We’re encouraged by the engagement of our platform partners on these issues–as they recognize they need to be part of the solution.”

Although the technology used to create such high-level fakery is fairly new, plenty of other such tracks preceded “Heart on My Sleeve” to the starting gate.

EDM artist David Guetta posted a clip with more than a million views that shows him playing a track using what sounds like Eminem’s voice. “I’m not releasing it commercially, obviously,” he wrote in the parentheses in the very title of the Eminem-soundalike number on YouTube.

Jay-Z’s longtime engineer, Young Guru, responded to phony Jay-Z vocals on AI tracks by writing, “On one hand I’m well aware that you can’t stop technology. Once the genie is out of the box you can put him back in. On the other hand we have to protect the rights of the artist. Not only artist but everyone in society. … People (are not) able to take your name, image and likeness without permission. We have to add the voice to this law.”

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