Tech Giant Launches ‘World’s First AI Streaming Platform’

Martina
27 August 2024, Tuesday

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Based on the newest reports, Kunlun Tech, a prominent Chinese technology company, is the latest contender in the global AI music tech scene. The company has launched what it claims to be the “world’s first AI streaming platform.”

The world’s first AI streaming platform

Kunlun Tech is primarily known as a former investor in TikTok’s predecessor, Musical.ly, the former owner of the social network Grindr, and the parent company of the web browser Opera. Most recently, the company has decided to expand into the AI music industry.

Currently, the tech giant boasts a market cap value of an unbelievable 34.49 billion Chinese Yuan, which equals to $4.8 billion. It also claims to have an impressive average monthly user base of almost 400 million across various sectors, including “AGI, AIGC, content distribution, metaverse, social entertainment, and gaming sectors.”

Kunlun’s latest venture is a service called ‘Melodio,’ which offers “personalized, AI-generated music streams tailored to [users’] moods and scenarios.” According to the company, users can input prompts like “energetic music for a long drive” or “mellow tunes for morning coffee,” and the platform instantly creates a customized music stream that matches a specific mood or occasion.

“With endless streams of real-time, personalized music, Melodio caters to users’ every mood and scenario, enabling them to modify their prompts on the fly, switch between generated lyrics, and save or share their favorite moments for a truly transformative listening experience,” Kunlun stated in its announcement.

Not just one but two AI-powered platforms

In addition to Melodio, Kunlun has also debuted another AI music creation platform called ‘Mureka.’ This platform is designed to “empower music enthusiasts and professional artists to create and monetize their AI-generated music.”

According to the platform’s official ‘Create’ page, users “can input lyrics, reference tracks, and control music styles using the Style function” to create music with Mureka. It also allows users to “display, listen to, collect, share, and download AI-generated music while obtaining a certificate of AI music generation.”

The company further stated that both Melodio and Mureka are to represent the future of music “where AI and human creativity intertwine to unleash boundless possibilities.” By launching these platforms, Kunlun reportedly aims to push the boundaries of “what’s possible in music consumption and creation.”

SkyMusic 2.0: AI music model for endless music creation

On the technical side, both platforms are powered by Kunlun’s very own AI Music Generation Large Language Model (LLM), ‘SkyMusic 2.0.’ The company claims it to be “the industry’s first AI music model capable of consistently and stably generating endless music feed in specific styles.”

Moreover, the model is supposedly able to process lyrics that exceed 500 words and produce 6-minute, 4400 Hz dual-channel stereo AI songs in 31 languages, including Chinese, Korean, Japanese, French, and English.

Unanswered questions about the data training

While Kunlun (naturally) praises its new platforms, the company has not disclosed the data used to train its SkyMusic 2.0 language model. This could raise many concerns, particularly among music rights holders.

Back in June 2024, two AI music startups, Suno and Udio, were sued by the major recording companies – including UMG, WBG, and SMG — for allegedly training their models using the labels’ recordings without their permission.

In responses filed in US Federal Courts in early August, both companies pretty much admitted to using copyrighted recordings from the companies that sued them. For example, Suno stated that its “training data includes essentially all music files of reasonable quality that are accessible on the open Internet, abiding by paywalls, password protections, and the like, combined with similarly available text descriptions.”

However, both companies argued that their actions fall under the “fair use” exemption to US copyright law. It will be up to the courts to decide if this constitutes copyright infringement.

As Kunlun’s platforms make their debut, it will be interesting to monitor how the company addresses similar concerns about the training of its LLM and the potential legal consequences should the company, too, use copyrighted materials without authorization.