The Beatles Now And Then First AI-Assisted Song With Grammy Nomination

“Now and Then” by the Beatles has been nominated for Document of the Yr and Greatest Rock Efficiency on the 2025 Grammy Awards — marking the primary time a music created with the help of synthetic intelligence has earned a Grammy nomination.

When “Now and Then” first got here out in late 2023, the disclosure that it was finalized using AI precipitated an uproar. On the time, many followers assumed that the remaining Fab 4 members — Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr — will need to have used generative AI to deepfake the late John Lennon. That was not truly the case. As an alternative, the Beatles used a type of AI often called “stem separation” to assist them clear up a 60-year-old, low-fidelity demo recorded by Lennon throughout his lifetime and to make it useable in a completed grasp recording.

With stem separation, the Beatles may isolate Lennon’s vocal and eliminate extra noise. Proponents of this type of expertise say it has main advantages for remastering and cleansing up older catalogs. Just lately, AudioShake, a leading company in this space, struck a partnership with Disney Music Group to assist the media large clear up its older catalog to “unlock new listening and fan engagement experiences” like lyric movies, movie/TV licensing alternatives, re-mastering and extra.

AI has been a controversial subject for the Recording Academy during the last two years. In the summertime of 2023, the Recording Academy, led by CEO Harvey Mason Jr., hosted a roundtable dialogue in regards to the matter, bringing in labels, tech executives, streaming companies and artists to collect their ideas on potential Grammy eligibility for AI-assisted or generated music. One of many artists included within the roundtable was Ghostwriter, the nameless producer who kicked off the AI music hype together with his music “Coronary heart on My Sleeve,” which deepfaked Drake and The Weeknd. Mason advised the New York Times that he contacted Ghostwriter immediately on social media and was impressed with “Coronary heart on My Sleeve.”

Later that yr, Ghostwriter’s staff submitted “Coronary heart on My Sleeve” for 2 classes on the Grammy Awards — Greatest Rap Music and Music of the Yr — each songwriting-based awards that might be credited to Ghostwriter, given he wrote the melody and lyrics of the observe with out the help of AI.

Later, Mason needed to make clear his feedback to the Occasions after the article caught hearth on-line with quite a lot of information shops reposting the Occasions story with headlines that equated permitting “Coronary heart on My Sleeve” be submitted within the songwriting classes with the Recording Academy condoning the best way that Ghostwriter used AI to deepfake Drake and The Weeknd’s voices within the manufacturing of his music with out permission.

“I’m sorry, however I’ve to clear up a few of this unhealthy and actually inaccurate info that’s beginning to float round,” Mason stated in a video posted to social media. “This model of ‘Coronary heart on My Sleeve’ utilizing the AI voice modeling, that seems like Drake and The Weeknd, it’s not eligible for Grammy consideration.”

When Ghostwriter spoke to Billboard for his digital cover in October 2023, he maintained he would nonetheless be eligible for the Grammy classes wherein he submitted. A Recording Academy consultant later confirmed that he was nonetheless eligible for the songwriting-related awards, however solely by means of the last-minute submission of a brand new model of “Coronary heart on My Sleeve,” launched on streaming companies, that stripped away the AI voice parts. The brand new model of the music was launched the identical day, Sept. 8, that Mason Jr. made his assertion clarifying that the AI-version of the music was ineligible, however by no means talked about the quietly-released model with out AI. Finally, Ghostwriter’s “Coronary heart On My Sleeve” did not earn a nomination final yr.

The 2 nominations for “Now and Then” mark the Beatles’ first nominations on the Grammy Awards in a long time and the fourth time the group has been nominated within the Document of the Yr class. They had been first nominated within the class within the mid-Nineteen Sixties with “I Need to Maintain Your Hand” and had been later nominated for “Hey Jude” and “Let It Be” as effectively.

The Beatles have by no means gained on this class.