Grimes performing live. Photo Credit: Caitlyn Ridenour
North of 15,000 individuals have already used Grimes’ Elf.tech AI platform to make their vocals sound like those of the Canadian singer-songwriter, according to her team, and the resulting music is now becoming available via streaming services.
The significant usership data point arrives just days after Grimes debuted Elf.tech in beta, having only announced her plans for the voice-modification tool in late April. Powered by generative artificial intelligence Triniti, according to Pitchfork, Elf.tech enables users to make their vocals sound as though they’ve been recorded by Grimes herself.
And in a contrast to the technology behind the abundance of other artificial intelligence music that’s making waves on social media, video-sharing services, and elsewhere, Elf.tech also includes distribution support and a framework through which Grimes will evenly split the royalties from songs featuring the AI depiction of her voice.
As initially mentioned, the wholly authorized artificial intelligence platform has attracted over 15,000 users only days after becoming publicly available, per Grimes’ team.
“Since launching GrimesAI-1 incredible new emergent creative behavior has taken off!” penned Grimes manager (and CreateSafe co-founder and CEO) Daouda Leonard, proceeding to identify 15,158 “total users,” 3,632 average unique daily users, an average of 250 “audio transforms” per hour, and 19,316 overall voice transforms for Elf.tech thus far.
Leonard likewise shed light upon several of the AI tool’s early creations, among them a track called “And I Never!” and voiceover for a video game. Meanwhile, entities operating in and around the crypto space appear to be taking steps to help facilitate the Elf.tech songs’ 50-50 royalty splits, with self-described “onchain payout infrastructure & creator tool” Reveel disclosing that it’s “built a template for artists who collaborate with” Grimes AI so that they can “easily share revenue on chain.”
Needless to say, it’ll be worth monitoring Elf.tech’s output in the coming days and weeks, as additional individuals learn of and utilize the new tool.
At present, no shortage of Grimes AI works (most made via Elf.tech) are popping up on YouTube, where fans can currently enjoy the Miss Anthropocene creator’s AI-powered renditions of Lana Del Rey tracks, A-ha’s “Take On Me,” and more than a few releases from emerging acts, to name just some.
Though it seems unlikely that today’s most well-known artists and music companies will embrace a similar AI model in the near future, it bears highlighting in conclusion that prominent acts’ (unapproved) artificial intelligence projects are only growing in quantity and in popularity. “AI Drake” has now gone ahead and released an entire album, for example, and listeners look to be expressing generally positive opinions about the effort.