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Globe and Mail
08-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Globe and Mail
'The Grammys' for AI Music? Entries Open for Groundbreaking Song Contest from the Fanvue World AI Creator Awards - as Millions of Creators Make Music with AI
LONDON, July 08, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The world's 'most inclusive' music awards has just launched - where creators using AI to make music will compete for $10k in prizes and the inaugural award. The Future Sound Awards is the latest installment from the Fanvue World AI Creator Awards - in partnership with leading music platforms SoundCloud, and TwoShot. It's the first venture into AI Music for the Fanvue World AI Creator Awards - the team behind last year's Miss AI awards phenomenon. Fanvue itself is one of the fastest-growing creator platforms in the world, with over 7m users, and 180,000 creators including musicians, sports stars, and AI Influencers. Over 60m people used AI to create music in 2024, according to an IMS report* - and the Future Sound Awards has been launched to recognise the achievements of creators, who will compete for $10k in prizes and the inaugural award. The organisers have assembled a stellar line-up of judges including Music Producer Jeff Nang (Disney, Universal, Sony), Butterbro - the German sensation who hit the headlines for producing the first AI generated song to enter the German music charts, TwoShot Founder and Music Producer making AI for creatives, Tobi Akinyemi, and Head of AI at Fanvue & AI Music Aficionado, Narcis Marincat. The judges will bring their wealth of expertise to assess entries into the Future Sound Awards on inspiration, process, vocals, lyrics, beat, and authenticity - combined with listens on a dedicated chart, powered by SoundCloud. Narcis Marincat, Head of AI at Fanvue & AI Music Aficionado, commented: "Miss AI was a global success but we had big ambitions to bring the WAICAs to the music sector. AI is having a massive impact on music and the wider creative industries, and our mission at Fanvue is to power the Creator-AI Economy by enabling creators to scale and grow their income using AI tools on our platform. In partnership with SoundCloud and TwoShot, we wanted to demonstrate how creators can responsibly leverage AI to enhance the creative process in music creation. Like all fast-growing industries that are powered by AI, an awards programme is a chance to celebrate talent and also raise standards. It doesn't matter if you're a producer, an artist, or never picked up an instrument before - anyone can enter the Future Sound Awards. It's a true celebration of the democratisation of music and we have big ambitions to grow the awards into the Grammys of the AI Music space.' AI is having a transformative impact on the music sector - over 60% of artists used some form of the tech to create music in the past 12 months, while the wider AI Music industry will soar to over $3B by 2028. Artists including David Guetta, Grimes, Timbaland and Holly Herndon have all used AI to create music - part of a movement demonstrating responsible use of AI in the music industry. TwoShot is already trusted by thousands of artists, and is committed to protecting musicians through its pioneering licensing technology in partnership with Audible Magic. The Future Sound Awards shares this vision - to highlight the positive impact of AI in music. Creators can produce their track for free using the platform and submit to the Future Sound Awards chart, which is powered by global audio streaming platform, SoundCloud. Tobi Akinyemi, TwoShot Founder and Music Producer making AI for creatives, commented: 'A new wave of musicians has been born with the rise of AI-powered creation tools. Digital tools like Fruity Loops unlocked tens of millions of musicians; AI will unlock hundreds of millions - if not billions. We're incredibly proud and excited to spotlight artists pushing the boundaries of music creation.' AI is having a profound impact on the music sector, and Music Producer, Jeff Nang, who has worked with Sony, Universal and Disney, knows the positive impact AI can have in the music creation process having experimented with different tools to enhance his creative work. Nang commented: 'AI has smashed through the old creative barriers - now every music creator can express themselves without limits. I've been using Controlla Voice to build full choirs from just my voice—something that used to take a whole team, time, and budget. Now it's all at my fingertips. I'm hyped to hear what artists come up with using these new tools. This is the future of music… let's have fun with it!' Music creator, Butterbro, whose AI-generated track broke records as the first AI track to land in the German charts is also on the judging panel for the Future Sound Awards. Butterbro commented: 'AI lets artists shape and release ideas that might otherwise never leave their notebooks. When an AI-generated track I worked on entered the official German charts, it became clear just how powerful these tools can be. I see AI both as a tool and as a collaborator, depending on how it's used - with the human touch remaining at the core. The Future Sound Awards are a powerful sign of just how far this movement has come - and where it's heading.' Creators can enter the Future Sound Awards using TwoShot, before submitting to the dedicated chart, powered by SoundCloud. To create and submit, visit: Notes to Editors For more information please contact pressoffice@ References * * About the Fanvue World AI Creator Awards (WAICAs) The Fanvue World AI Creator Awards were launched in 2024 to recognise the achievements of creators using AI - from fashion, to AI influencers and music - around the world. Last year saw the launch of the inaugural AI Woman of the Year (formerly Miss A) contest which reached millions of people around the world and is set to return bigger, better and more culturally relevant in 2025. About Fanvue Fanvue is powering the Creator-AI Economy - providing thousands of creators with AI tools to scale their brand and income. About TwoShot TwoShot is a music sampling platform unlocking the next billion musicians with traceable AI. TwoShot gives music producers the tools to create and remix music by singing or describing a melody. About SoundCloud SoundCloud empowers artists and fans to connect and share through music. Founded in 2007, SoundCloud is an artist-first platform empowering artists to build and grow their careers by providing them with the most progressive tools, services, and resources. With over 400+ million tracks from 40+ million artists, the future of music is SoundCloud. Future Sound Awards entry guidelines Entries to the Future Sound Awards open on Tuesday 1st July and close on Tuesday 22nd July 2025 Anyone over the age of 18 can enter the awards by creating a track on the TwoShot and following the steps to submit to the Future Sound Awards, Tracks created using other platforms will not be accepted Any genre of music and any language is permitted into the awards Copyrighted material is not accepted. All entries will be checked and verified through TwoShot and Audible Magic, if any entries are found to be using copyrighted music they will be removed and disqualified from the competition Judging criteria Entries will be judged across a set of criteria including inspiration, process, vocals, lyrics, beat, and authenticity - combined with listens on a dedicated chart, powered by SoundCloud. Each section will be awarded a maximum of 10 points, giving all entrants a total score. Prizes $10,000 worth of prizes are up for grabs in the first Future Sound Awards which will be awarded as follows: First place - $7,000 Second place (runner up) - $1,500 Third place (runner up) - $1,500 A photo accompanying this announcement is available at


Forbes
01-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
New Awards Want To Be ‘Grammys Of The AI Music Space'
Organizers of the Future Music Awards want to highlight the creative potential of AI across the ... More music ecosystem. Been making music with AI? You could win money for it. A global contest called the Future Music Awards launched on Tuesday to recognize creators of music made with the help of artificial intelligence. Entries will be judged on elements including inspiration, process, vocals, lyrics and beat, along with listens on a dedicated chart. Amid intensifying ethical and legal debates around AI, contest rules stipulate that music found to contain copyrighted material will be disqualified. The top three winners will split $10,000 in prizes. 'I'll be looking for lyrical content, something that is not just from ChatGPT, something that has been edited and has a bit more human flavor to it,' contest judge Jeff Nang, a London-based music producer whose own bespoke compositions have been featured by brands including Disney and JP Morgan, said over Zoom. 'Even though it's an AI project, I still believe that it benefits from the human touch.' The awards are sponsored by the World Creator AI Awards, a broader competition for AI creativity run by Fanvue, a subscription-based platform that hosts virtual models. The creator awards launched last year with the first beauty pageant for AI-generated women and have now ventured into the music world. The Future Music Awards are a 'true celebration of the democratization of music, and we have big ambitions to grow the awards into the Grammys of the AI music space,' Narcis Marincat, head of AI at Fanvue, said in a statement. Contest judges include (from left) Chris Johnson, head of A&R and talent ID at SoundCloud; music ... More producer Jeff Nang; and musician Josua Waghubinger. The contest arrives as AI becomes an increasingly popular tool for musicians from amateurs to professionals — more than 60 million people used AI software to create music in 2024, according to the International Music Summit's 2025 Business Report. But while some musicians embrace AI as a collaborating partner, others fear it will impact their careers, and the very nature of creativity. Earlier this year, more than a thousand musicians including Kate Bush, Annie Lennox, Imogen Heap, Billy Ocean and Riz Ahmed protested a proposed overhaul of U.K. copyright law that they fear will make it easier for AI companies to train datasets on their work without permission unless they proactively opt out (the bill passed last week). And last year, a metal band faced enough backlash for using an AI-generated album cover — one fan called it 'a big slap in the face to any real, living artists' — that it ultimately replaced it with a new one. Spotlighting AI's Creative Promise Organizers of the Future Music Awards say they want to highlight the creative potential of AI in music, and how it can be used responsibly across the music ecosystem. All contest entries must be created and verified through contest partner TwoShot, a music platform with a database trained on royalty-free sounds and music sourced directly from rights holders. Because TwoShot users can also upload their own audio, the tool runs tracks through an automated licensing system to detect copyrighted content. Cleared contest entries will appear on a chart powered by online audio distribution platform SoundCloud, and anyone over 18 can enter with tracks in any genre or language. There is no entry fee. Contest judge Nang says he'll be assessing submissions for the same qualities he values in music not created with AI. 'You're always looking for structure, style and taste,' he said. Nang co-founded Controlla Voice, which lets users create AI singers, and he's built full choirs from his own voice with the product. 'I love to see what the new generation of music creators have been creating with these tools,' he said. Another awards judge, Josua Waghubinger, is a trailblazing member of that new generation. The Austrian musician, known by the stage name Butterbro, became the first artist to enter the official German single charts with a fully AI-generated song, 'Verknallt in einen Talahon,' composed with AI music service Udio. The tune combines a traditional style of European music known as schlager with bouncy pop to tell the story of a German girl with a crush on an immigrant. Speaking over Zoom, Waghubinger said he hopes the Future Music Awards will spark conversation on how platforms can respect musicians and still encourage innovation, while reminding artists that experimenting with AI doesn't mean abandoning their own creative voice. 'It's important to always remember to keep the fun when we try to experiment with new technology, and never forget that we as humans can decide if we want to stay at the center of it,' he said. 'I see AI both as a tool and as a collaborator, depending on how it's used,' Waghubinger added, 'with the human touch remaining at the core.'