Country Musicians and Labels Battle AI: Tift Merritt Speaks Out Against “Stealing” in Music
Country musician Tift Merritt’s most popular song on Spotify, “Traveling Alone,” is a ballad filled with lyrics that evoke solitude and the open road. However, when prompted by Reuters to generate an “Americana song in the style of Tift Merritt,” the AI music website Udio instantly produced “Holy Grounds,” a ballad about “driving old backroads” and “watching the fields and skies shift and sway.”
Merritt, a Grammy-nominated singer and songwriter, dismissed the AI-generated song, stating that it “doesn’t make the cut for any album of mine.” She further criticized the technology, saying, “This is a great demonstration of the extent to which this technology is not transformative at all. It’s stealing.”
As a longtime advocate for artists’ rights, Merritt is not alone in raising concerns. In April, she joined Billie Eilish, Nicki Minaj, Stevie Wonder, and dozens of other artists in an open letter warning that AI-generated music, trained on their recordings, could “sabotage creativity” and marginalize human artists.
Major record labels are also taking action. Sony Music, Universal Music Group, and Warner Music filed lawsuits in June, marking the music industry’s entry into high-stakes copyright battles over AI-generated content. These cases are beginning to make their way through the courts, challenging the boundaries of copyright law in the AI era.
“Ingesting massive amounts of creative labor to imitate it is not creative,” Merritt stated, emphasizing, “That’s stealing in order to be competition and replace us.”
AI companies like Suno and Udio, which have both attracted venture capital funding, have defended their technology in court, denying any copyright violations. They argue that the lawsuits are attempts to stifle smaller competitors and liken the labels’ protests to past industry concerns over innovations like synthesizers and drum machines.
The lawsuits have raised complex questions for the courts, particularly around the interplay of melody, harmony, rhythm, and other musical elements, making it difficult to determine when AI-generated content infringes on copyrighted works. The cases may ultimately hinge on the concept of “fair use,” a contentious area of copyright law.
Mitch Glazier, CEO of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), condemned the actions of AI companies, stating, “The lawsuits document shameless copying of troves of recordings in order to flood the market with cheap imitations and drain away listens and income from real human artists and songwriters.”
The ongoing legal battles are expected to set important precedents for the future of music and AI, with the outcomes likely to have far-reaching implications for the industry.
“Robots and AI do not get royalties,” Merritt remarked, underscoring the economic threat posed by AI to human artists.
