My children are starting to outgrow kids’ meals, and the last time we got dinner from McDonald’s, they both asked for Big Macs. Of course, they didn’t actually know what was on McDonald’s signature sandwich, and asked me if I did. Without missing a beat, I sang it to them: Two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun. A huge win for the power of music in advertising—coupled with the fact that this jingle was everywhere when I was growing up.

Music never stopped having that power in marketing. Just about everyone has a collection of jingles they still remember decades later, the songs that trigger memories of notable scenes from movies and TV shows, the music that helps set a mood. And as AI is disrupting everything around us, it’s also breaking into both marketing and popular music. Most recently, AI-generated videos featuring an aging rocker named Michael Bennett finally getting his time in the spotlight on America’s Got Talent duped fans, writes Forbes senior contributor Leslie Katz. And late last year, the AI-generated band Breaking Rust actually reached the top of the Billboard charts.

And while AI can produce appealing lyrics and melodies, people largely do not want to hear them. A study late last year by Bain & Company found that 62% of people did not want to listen to AI music—only surpassed by the rejection of AI news (65%) and AI books (72%).

I talked to Josh Collum, vice president of music at licensing company Soundstripe, about the future of AI-generated music in marketing—which is getting a late start because of sprawling copyright litigation against two of the larger practitioners, Udio and Suno. Once the lawsuits filed by music labels and artists are resolved, the copyright rules of the road will be set—and marketers will have a host of questions to consider about audience sentiment and preference. An excerpt from our conversation is later in this newsletter.

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ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Hollywood’s least favorite “actor,” AI-generated Tilly Norwood, dropped a music video this week. Her song, “Take The Lead,” is less of a potential chart-topper and more an impassioned plea to entertainment creative professionals to embrace AI. Its lyrics detail how Norwood is the embodiment of human creativity expressed through a tech tool, adding that AI is the future for filmmakers and entertainers, with phrases including, “It’s the next evolution, can’t you see? AI’s not the enemy, it’s the key.”

The song was inspired by an essay published in Variety by Norwood’s creator Eline van der Velden, CEO and founder of AI company Particle6 and its AI studio Xicoia, according to a press release. And while just about everything surrounding Norwood has resulted in condemnation from many entertainment professionals—including the 160,000-member SAG-AFTRA union—Van der Velden has defended Norwood and the technology behind the AI actress. While the song and vocals were generated by Suno, the release states 18 “real humans” were involved in creating the........

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