Imagine mixing your favourite songs in seconds using artificial intelligence like Charli XCX’s Apple blended with The Beatles’ Hey Jude on YouTube.
Now, YouTube is introducing a new feature to its AI music tool, Dream Track, allowing all US creators to remix songs according to their style.
The Google-owned video-sharing platform introduced the feature as “Restyle a track.” Earlier, the AI music remix capability was just available to select content creators in the US.
Content creators simply have to prompt the AI by describing their desired style or vision of the video. For instance, creators can input a text description stating: “Make it more rock and roll” or “Give it a 90s vibe.”
With the aim of expanding its AI capabilities, YouTube began experimenting with new tools to help creators enhance their content and make it more engaging.
Just last November (2023), YouTube announced the launch of its AI music capabilities. This includes the introduction to Dream Track for Shorts and other Music AI tools built in collaboration with Google DeepMind.
As part of the experiment stage, just a select few American creators were given the opportunity to create AI-generated songs with prompts using the vocals of artists like Charlie Puth, Charli XCX, Demi Lovato, John Legend, Sia, T-Pain, and Troye Sivan.
A year later, YouTube is finally opening up the new AI-powered remix creation tool to all creators by officially adding it to the Dream Track toolset.
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‘Restyle A Track’ Using AI on YouTube
YouTube said it’s making select songs available to creators for the remix experiment. The creators have to choose “Restyle a track” in the AI music toolkit, choose the song option and then describe their vision to the AI-prompting tool.
This AI-powered tool, built on DeepMind's Lyria model, generates 30-second remix snippets that can be used in YouTube Shorts.
In an official update announcement, YouTube stated that the Dream Track AI tool experimental feature allows a small group of creators to restyle a limited number of official songs made available by select music partners.
To ensure fair compensation for artists and rights holders, YouTube is collaborating with major labels like Universal Music Group.
Remixed tracks will be clearly labelled as AI-generated to ensure transparency. This innovative feature aims to empower creators and boost the music-making process.
“If you’re a creator in the experiment group, you can select an eligible song > describe how you want to restyle it > then generate a unique 30-second soundtrack to use in your Short,” stated YouTube.
“For example, if you want to give a song a different genre or mood, you simply enter your vision into the ‘Restyle a track’ prompt and you’ll soon have a customised soundtrack that reimagines the music while maintaining the essence of the original song’s vocals and lyrics.”
Leveraging AI enables creators to seamlessly play around with different music styles and create track remixes unique to them.
What is Dream Track?
Dream Track is a set of AI tools on YouTube to help creators easily generate music for their content. This toolkit was developed by YouTube in collaboration with Google DeepMind using the latter’s advanced music generation model called Lyria.
The AI tool for creators particularly helps them generate unique remixes for their YouTube Shorts video content. Creators can type in a text prompt describing their vision using natural language.
The tool leverages Google DeepMinds’ advanced AI models to create music in various styles and genres, often mimicking the vocal styles of popular artists.
According to Neal Mohan, YouTube CEO, all US creators can now use Dream Track to create instrumental audio clips for Shorts, as well as longer clips using the YouTube Create app. However, there are still some restrictions on the types of audio creators can generate (i.e. you can't generate vocals at this stage).
