Welcome to Rendering, a Deadline column reporting at the intersection of AI and showbiz. Rendering examines how artificial intelligence is disrupting the entertainment industry, taking you inside key battlegrounds and spotlighting change makers wielding the technology for good and ill. Got a story about AI? Rendering wants to hear from you: [email protected].
This edition: Inside Liza Minnelli‘s partnership with AI company ElevenLabs to create new music.
“Minnelli, Minnelli, Minnelli. Liza, Liza, Liza. Ha! That’s me,” trills the unmistakable Liza Minnelli. “Kids, wait until you hear this.” That’s the sound of the Cabaret star’s first new music release in years (listen here). And the reason she’s beckoning kids into disbelief? She laid down the track using AI.
The 79-year-old EGOT icon has teamed with ElevenLabs, a fast-growing generative AI company backed by Matthew McConaughey, on its first record. The Eleven Album features contributions from artists boasting a billion streams, including Art Garfunkel, Bay Area rapper Iamsu!, and Emily Falvey, a Nashville songwriter.
Minnelli’s presence is perhaps the most eye-catching. It’s a collab that seems baffling in theory, but in reality, was an understandable step for the New York, New York songstress, who built trust with ElevenLabs after the startup recreated the voice of her mother.
“We happened to license the voice of Judy Garland, one of the most famous singers and actresses of all time,” explains Dustin Blank, head of partnerships for ElevenLabs. “We developed a relationship from there.”
ElevenLabs can create authentic voice avatars from basic audio samples, but its music model has flipped this strategy on its head. On Minnelli’s track, “Kids Wait Until You Hear This,” her vocals are the real deal, while the music arrangement around her is artificially generated.
The sound is created using text prompts, which can direct the AI model to create genres, beats, and lyrics, as well as adding individual instruments to tracks. ElevenLabs trained its music AI through deals with Merlin Network and Kobalt Music Group, publishing platforms for independent artists.
Typing music prompts may seem anathema to many recording artists, but in a statement, Minnelli says it allowed her to use her “voice and new tools in service of expression, not instead of it.”
Blank tells Deadline’s Rendering column that there has been a sense of “curiosity” among the artists who collaborated on The Eleven Album. “Liza and Art Garfunkel have been around for years and have seen iterations of technology and music. For them, it’s a continuation of what they have worked with throughout their career,” he adds.
There is truth in this. Minnelli’s Emmy-winning NBC show Liza With a Z helped redefine music television specials in 1972, when it was shot as a live performance by eight cameras. She has also proved herself unafraid of a synth bob, collabing with the Pet Shop Boys at the height of their powers on 1989’s Results.
ElevenLabs, founded by Mati Staniszewski and Piotr Dąbkowski, believes AI music is a growth opportunity, as it reportedly seeks investment at a valuation of $11B. Blank points to a recent Morgan Stanley survey of U.S. audio habits, which found that more than half of young people listen to hours of AI music every week.
He says the Minnelli partnership is part of ElevenLabs’ efforts to work with stars in the “zeitgeist of collective memory.” Minnelli has also given over her voice to ElevenLabs’ Iconic Voice Marketplace, a platform where users can request access to celebrity voices to create editorial and commercial content. Michael Caine joined the service in November.
Blank, a former Disney and NBCUniversal executive, senses a thawing in Hollywood’s reticence towards AI, but says trust is preserved for tech companies “who have demonstrated that they’re being responsible.” For many clients, “responsible” is shorthand for being paid properly and having control over outputs, Blank adds.
His dream voice booking would be Nicole Kidman, but for now, as Minnelli cackles in the final beats of her new AI track: “All eyes on me.”
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source deadline.com ’
