New musical hits get AI spin, raising concerns over wages, artist rights

Even as tracks of Yash Raj Films' latest hit Saiyaara top music charts, a separate ecosystem is benefiting from the popularity of romantic drama, having created AI versions of songs in late singer Kishore Kumar's voice.

- Lata Jha

Multiple versions of the recreation are on YouTube, some with up to 2 million views, raising concerns as they divert streaming revenue while original artists and composers remain unpaid. Furthermore, there is the issue of algorithmic abuse, where AI-generated tracks flood recommendation systems and crowd out legitimate content, and audio streaming platforms are left in a grey zone, unsure of how to attribute, moderate, or monetize such content fairly.

AI-generated renditions like the recent version of Saiyaara using Kishore Kumar's voice, pose serious intellectual property (IP) challenges, said Essenese Obhan, managing partner at Obhan & Associates. They frequently rely on copyrighted music and recordings without proper permission, which can violate the rights of composers, lyricists and music labels.

"Besides, cloning a singer's voice—especially one as iconic as Kishore Kumar—enters into the domain of publicity as well as moral rights that are increasingly recognized within Indian jurisprudence," he added.