Photo Credit: Timbaland.com
Timbaland faces pressure online after a video surfaced of him allegedly stealing music from artists to use in AI beat prompts in association with Suno.
Producer Timbaland is under fire after a video made the rounds online showing him allegedly stealing music from KFresh and using it for an AI beat prompt in association with Suno. Timbaland uploaded audio featuring KFresh’s beat from TikTok to Suno’s AI, with an artist named C-Red rapping over it, and created a new version using his “Baby Timbo” AI.
“Timbaland and Suno have some explaining to do,” said indie rapper, producer, and YouTuber Curtiss King in a post on X (formerly Twitter). “Suno was allegedly caught stealing [KFresh’s] beat and producer tag in [an] AI generated beat prompted by Timbaland.”
Timbaland has defended his actions, claiming he was making a remix using KFresh’s beat and producer tag. Yet KFresh says the legendary producer never reached out to him, despite his penchant for sharing beats in the past. Timbaland also claimed the move enabled the artist to work with Ghostface Killah, who had originally requested the beat.
Some fans agree with Timbaland’s move, claiming this merely continues hip-hop’s tradition of sampling and interpolating other artists’ work. But critics say the use of AI complicates things, bringing into question whether artists have the right to not have their music used to train AI without permission—an old chestnut with which the broader music industry is acutely familiar.
“Come talk to me, let’s have a conversation,” added KFresh in a video posted by Curtiss King. “More importantly, you guys got a responsibility to look out for the young guys who look up to you. […] There’s so much more you could be doing in terms of giving back. Change the game, like we know the music industry is messed up, but it don’t have to be like that. […] Y’all got way more influence than a lot of us.”
Before Timbaland became inexorably linked to Suno, the company was sued for copyright infringement by German collection society GEMA at the beginning of the year. Last June, Suno was also sued by major record labels, alongside fellow AI company Udio, for allegedly training their systems using copyrighted recordings without permission.
In court filings last August, Suno all but admitted to doing so. But that hasn’t stopped the AI company from getting in bed with Amazon for the tech giant’s new AI-powered version of its Alexa voice assistant. Nor has that prevented it from working with Timbaland to create the producer’s latest project: an AI-powered virtual artist called TaTa.
Content shared from www.digitalmusicnews.com.