The use of AI in music has been met with a lot of friction, but also a lot of embracing. In fact, some big-name artists have found transformative ways to integrate it into their production.
From having AI tools renovate lost vocals, to making themselves heard in new ways to an international audience, and in some cases fully recreating a stolen voice… There have been some very interesting uses of AI music software in mainstream music over the past few years. Let’s take a look at a few examples.
Lauv
Back in 2023, pop-music performer/composer Lauv teamed up with Grammy-winning mixing engineer and producer Jordan “DJ Swivel” Young to translate his voice into Korean for a song.
Young started Hooky, a popular AI voice cloning/licensing platform. Together, they developed an AI voice model of Lauv’s voice and translated his hit single “Love U Like That” into Korean. According to a report from Billboard at the time, this was the first time a “major Western artist” participated “in the AI translation trend.”
When asked why he wanted “to get involved with AI voice technology,” Lauv replied, “I truly believe that the only way forward is to embrace what is possible now, no matter what. I think being able to embrace a tool like this in a way that’s beneficial and able to get artists paid is great.”
Jacob Collier
Jacob Collier has seen his popularity explode over the past few years. With all that newfound influence, he’s using some of his spotlight to promote AI musical assistance. In 2024, Collier partnered with Google on MusicFX DJ, an AI music production tool.
In his words, Collier said that he believes the software has the potential to create a “non-linear, weird, continuously evolving tapestry of sound.”
“As somebody who has long been obsessed by never-before-heard sounds, this process has fully delighted me,” Collier added. “[MusicFX DJ’s] continuous, evolving nature makes it feel like orchestrating or arranging – a marvellous sort of sonic soup that can be steered in meaningful and uncharted directions.”
It should also be noted that in October 2025, Collier offered additional comments on the use of AI in music. “I think an AI can learn skills, but it can’t learn a perspective or a sense of humour or an attitude,” he said, per Music Radar. “It’s almost too perfect to be interesting.”
He later added, “I think a person needs, like, an imperfect wiggly person to relate to. That’s my theory. And so I’ve spent a lot of time sort of trying to bully AI into being interesting because it’s quite hard to do, creatively.”
Randy Travis
In July 2013, legendary country music singer Randy Travis suffered a serious health crisis. The Country Music Hall of Famer was hospitalized with viral cardiomyopathy, a virus that affects the heart. He later suffered a stroke that left him having to relearn how to do things like walk and read.
After all of this, Travis came to live with a condition called aphasia, which limits his ability to speak. One of the most recognizable voices in all of country music had been silenced. One person determined to do something about it was Cris Lacy, the co-president at Travis’s label, Warner Music Nashville.
With Travis and his family’s blessing, Lacy enlisted some AI music specialists from London. They recreated the singer’s voice for a new song, “Where That Came From”.
Speaking to AP News, Travis’ wife, Mary, shared that hearing the track for the first time was an emotional experience. “Randy, I remember watching him when he first heard the song after it was completed,” she said. “It was beautiful because at first, he was surprised, and then he was very pensive, and he was listening and studying.”
“And then he put his head down, and his eyes were a little watery,” Mary added. “I think he went through every emotion there was, in those three minutes of just hearing his voice again.”
Paul McCartney
The death of Beatles singer-guitarist-songwriter John Lennon is a loss that still resonates throughout culture today. For his ex-bandmates, that has often meant a sorrow around unresolved relationships and creative partnerships.
However, in 2023, Beatles bassist Paul McCartney revealed to the BBC that a team of specialists had used artificial intelligence tools to “extricate” and polish some of Lennon’s vocals “from a ropey little bit of cassette” of an old track.
“It’s a very interesting thing, you know,” McCartney said, as transcribed by CNBC. “It’s something we’re all sort of tackling at the moment and trying to deal with.” He added, “So when we came to make what will be the last Beatles record, it was a demo that John had that we worked on, and we just finished it up. It will be released this year.”
The song turned out to be “Now and Then”. According to McCartney, it was Oscar-winning director Peter Jackson who helped make it all happen. Back in 2021, Jackson helmed a docuseries about the band, titled The Beatles: Get Back. This features cleaned-up and colorized archival footage of the band.
With Jackson in the driver’s seat, AI tools were recruited. They used the software to distinguish Lennon’s vocals from the instruments and background noise. Then, they pulled them out of the cocophany and to the forefront. “We were able to take John’s voice and get it pure through this AI, so that then we could mix the record as you would normally do,” McCartney explained. “It gives you some sort of leeway.”
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