AI-Generated Frank Ocean Music Reaps Thousands Of Dollars From Unwitting Fans
Frank Ocean’s last released album, Blond, hit the music scene in 2016, and since then, the singer has yet to be heard from again. Desperate for music from Ocean, fans have now been scammed into thinking that some leaked songs had come from the artist when it was created by artificial intelligence, and from which the scammer had made thousands of dollars.
The songs came about after the mastermind, who goes by the handle ‘mourningassasin’, hired someone to use snippets of Ocean’s music and voice to create nine pieces. They then posted the knockoff tracks online, and people started believing they were real.
What sold the idea was that Ocean had recently teased new work to follow up Blond.
With that, the scammer noticed great interest from fans wanting to procure the fake work. Selling leaked songs is not an uncommon practice; however, it is illegal. Discord servers usually host such transactions where fans can crowdfund money to purchase unreleased pieces hacked or stolen from artists, such as rapper Lil Uzi Vert and Ed Sheeran, who had their work stolen and sold for US$147,000. The perpetrator was promptly sentenced to 18 months in prison.
In this case, it’s not a matter of stolen property as it is of stolen identity. The songs had conned fans enough that they amassed up to US$9,722 for something Ocean had no part in. Engadget reported that the person behind the scheme has since been banned from leaked-music forums.
The Ocean saga comes on the heels of other big-name celebrities using their voices in AI work. For example, rapper Drake and singer The Weeknd previously went through the same issue with a viral song, Heart on My Sleeve. Their shared label, Universal Music, immediately called for it to be removed from all streaming sites, and social media platforms also began taking it down. However, after a quick search on YouTube, it looks like it is still making its rounds online.
On that note, not all artists appear to oppose the rise of AI. For example, Grimes has offered to let people use her voice and split the profits 50/50. She took it one step further by developing software to give fans direct access to her vocals.
In the case of Ocean, Insider noted that the singer has not yet responded to the issue.
[via Engadget and Insider, Photo 30603768 © Laurence Agron | Dreamstime.com]
