Beatles fans will finally get a taste of a new song from the band over fifty years after the UK rock group last released an album.
Paul McCartney, one of the band's two remaining members, confirmed a “final” track featuring the late John Lennon on vocals would be released this year thanks to artificial intelligence.
Using AI, Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson was able to modify Lennon’s voice from a “ropey little bit of cassette and a piano” while producing the ‘Get Back’ documentary, McCartney explained on BBC radio on Tuesday.
"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,” he said.
“It will be released this year,” McCartney added, over 50 years since the band’s final album ‘Let It Be’ was released in 1970.
Who will own the track?
McCartney and Sony/ATV effectively share the rights to the Beatles' back catalogue, with the ownership having been passed around the likes of Lennon’s widow Yoko Ono and even Michael Jackson.
McCartney had sued the publisher in 2017, with a settlement giving him the rights to songs written up until 1962.
However, ownership of material created by AI is more complex, with the author of the computer-generated work granted “some” copyright, according to Clifford Chance lawyers.
AI has already sent shockwaves across the industry, with a computer-generated song mimicking the voices of artists Drake and The Weeknd racking up some 625,000 streams on Spotify before swiftly being removed in April.
“There is very little research on the legal, economic, or ethical consequences of AI-generated music in the music industry,” the law firm added.
Laws around originality do still apply though, Clifford Chance continued, including for ‘original’ lyrics.
The Beatles’ new tack, which is said to be based on Lennon’s own demo ‘Now and Then’ and recorded in his New York apartment before his death in 1980, could indeed be partly owned by Sony then.
If this is the case, Sony would reap the benefits, with record companies being paid by streaming services such as Apple Music and Spotify based on the number of listens a song gets.
Royalties are then passed down to artists by the record company, with Sony also representing the likes of Adele, Beyonce and AC/DC.