YouTube has expanded its AI-driven music creation features by allowing selected U.S.-based creators to remix songs using artificial intelligence. Previously, creators could generate original AI songs by providing prompts, drawing on vocals from popular artists like Charlie Puth, Charli XCX, Demi Lovato, John Legend, Sia, T-Pain, and Troye Sivan. Now, YouTube’s latest addition, a feature within its Dream Track toolset, enables creators to transform existing tracks by describing a specific style or mood they want to achieve.
For this experiment, YouTube is offering a curated selection of songs that creators in the test group can remix by selecting the "Restyle a track" option. By entering descriptive prompts, users can generate 30-second snippets of customized music that can be shared on YouTube Shorts. According to YouTube’s update, this feature allows users to alter a song’s genre or mood while preserving the core vocals and lyrics of the original track.
To ensure proper credit, these AI-generated remixes include attribution to the original song on the Short video and on the Shorts audio pivot page. Additionally, each AI remix will carry a label indicating that the track has been modified with AI.
The Dream Track toolset, launched last November, is powered by DeepMind’s Lyria music generation model. Initially, the toolset allowed users to create tracks simply by humming a tune. With the addition of this remixing capability, YouTube is expanding its AI toolkit to offer more creative flexibility for music-related content.
To address concerns from the music industry, YouTube had announced in August that it would compensate artists and rights holders for AI-generated content that uses their work. In partnership with Universal Music Group (UMG), YouTube has committed to developing a framework to pay rights holders fairly for these AI-enhanced remixes.
YouTube is not alone in exploring AI-powered remix technology. Former JioSaavn executive Gaurav Sharma is developing an app called Hook, which also allows users to remix songs for short video content creation.
