YouTube is stepping up its AI music capabilities, now allowing select creators in the U.S. to remix popular songs using new features in its Dream Track toolset. Originally launched last year, Dream Track enables creators to generate AI-driven songs using vocal likenesses of stars like Charlie Puth, Charli XCX, Demi Lovato, John Legend, Sia, T-Pain, and Troye Sivan. Today, the platform is adding a new remixing feature that lets creators modify these songs’ styles based on custom descriptions.
Creators selected for this experimental feature can use the “Restyle a Track” option to describe their desired remix style. The AI then produces a 30-second snippet aligned with their creative vision, ready for use in YouTube Shorts.
According to YouTube, if creators want to adjust the genre or mood of a song, they can simply input their vision into the “Restyle a Track” prompt. This will then generate a fresh, unique sound while preserving the original song’s vocals and lyrics.
To ensure proper credit, remixed audio clips are attributed to the original track within the Short and on the Shorts audio page. AI-modified snippets will also display a label to clarify that the music was transformed by AI tools.
Dream Track, powered by DeepMind’s Lyria music generation model, originally launched in November last year, and also includes a tool allowing users to create tracks by simply humming a melody.
Addressing music industry concerns, YouTube preemptively announced in August that it would compensate artists and rights holders for AI-generated uses of their work. In partnership with Universal Music Group (UMG), YouTube has outlined a framework to ensure fair compensation for rights holders whenever their material is used in AI-driven creations.
