With the World Cup kicking off next month, fans are increasingly turning to artificial intelligence to mass-produce viral songs supporting their teams. These fan-made anthems are racking up millions of plays on YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram, but experts warn they raise thorny questions about song ownership, artist compensation, and the value of human creativity.
Many users seem unfazed, with some even preferring the AI-generated tunes to the official anthem commissioned by FIFA from musicians Jelly Roll and Carin Leon. A highly anticipated World Cup track from Shakira was also released last week, yet the AI fan song trend continues to generate excitement on social media for the tournament across the US, Canada, and Mexico.
The trend appears to have started with a song dedicated to the French team, “Imbattables,” released in February by artist Crystalo, listed on Spotify as France’s “premier AI musical creator.” The song begins with a call-and-response listing the names of Kylian Mbappe and other French stars.
A Brazilian anthem followed with a similar name-chanting format and a trending phonk melody. Producer Guilherme Maia (M4IA) said he created it by layering elements assembled with AI help. Tracks for Portugal, Argentina, Germany, and others soon sprang up, garnering praise. However, later songs copied Maia’s format exactly: the same phonk beat, player names, and a call to respect the team’s “king” (e.g., Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi).
Maia acknowledged that while AI opens up production possibilities, it raises authorship and copyright issues. “In music, there are clear rules. You can’t just copy someone else’s work or use samples without permission, even if AI is involved,” he said. He stressed he built the track himself, using AI as an assistant rather than generating a song with a single prompt.
Jason Palamara, assistant professor of music technology at Indiana University, noted a lack of clarity on how artists are credited if their copyrighted work trains AI models. He also pointed out inconsistencies: a Portuguese fan song was sung with a Brazilian accent, and a Colombian version mispronounced James Rodriguez’s name. AI-generated music can also lack complexity, he said.
Morgan Hayduk, co-CEO of Beatdapp, observed that listeners may not seek complexity. “There seems to be a cohort of people who actually don’t care. They like the music and the back story that it came from a large language model,” he said. He argued that quick-fix songs for chanting or ads are a clear use case for AI music at this stage.
Hayduk concluded: “Knowing what goes into a generative output, like a World Cup fan song, is the thorny Rubicon that the music industry has to cross now.”
Source: www.aljazeera.com