Latest news with #StageZero
Yahoo
02-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Timbaland's New Artist Is Young, Photogenic — and Not Human
Legendary producer Timbaland has taken his fervent embrace of AI music production to a new level, launching a new AI entertainment company, Stage Zero — and an AI-generated 'artist,' TaTa, who will be dropping a debut single soon. Timbaland, who co-founded the company with his current creative partner, Zayd Portillo, and film producer Rocky Mudaliar, tells Rolling Stone he's had the idea for the venture since he began making music with the generative AI platform Suno last year. 'I saw the path,' he says, 'but I had to wait till everything caught up.' TaTa is intended to be the first of many personas launched by the company, and the co-founders have dreams of the characters becoming virtual influencers and even starring in movies and TV shows. 'Ultimately what Tim's here to do is to pioneer a new genre of music — A-pop, artificial pop,' says Mudaliar, who originally met with Timbaland to discuss a documentary on his career. TaTa will maintain a social media presence, with music videos generated by various AI video tools. More from Rolling Stone Timbaland's AI Reinvention: 'God Presented This Tool to Me' AI Music Is More Realistic Than Ever: Meet Suno's New Model Timbaland Embraces AI Music Production, Announces Partnership with Start-Up Suno TaTa and other potential artists from the company will have their music created via a collaborative process between human creators and the AI music platform Suno. (Timbaland is a creative adviser to that company, but Stage Zero is entirely independent of Suno.) Timbaland and Portillo have developed a workflow where they upload Timbaland demos created by conventional means to the platform, have Suno extrapolate upon them, and then insert human-written lyrics. TaTa's voice first appeared a Suno generation that caught Timbaland's ear: 'It came to a point where I'm like, 'Yo, this voice, it's amazing,'' the producer says. He's able to capture and reuse that specific voice via the platform's Personas feature, introduced last October. 'We have these stacks of music that needed to be finished,' Portillo says. 'And then it just so happened that the TaTa ones were just getting finished faster. There was just something about those songs that were just like. 'Man, this just flows.'' Stage Zero arrives as the music industry and artists continue to wage legal and cultural war against AI music tools. Major labels have filed massive lawsuits against Suno and competitor Udio over their use of copyrighted material in training data, although recent reports suggest settlement talks are underway. Artists including Billie Eilish and Stevie Wonder have signed open letters denouncing AI as a threat to human creativity. Timbaland and Portillo have suggested the backlash will die down, and Mudaliar agrees. 'It's gonna be a bit of a battle,' he says, 'but it's not going anywhere…. We were thinking about the example of the influencer itself and how ridiculous that might've sounded 10 years ago, where we're like, 'Nah, there's no way YouTubers can be bigger than actors.' And now they're the biggest stars in the world.' Best of Rolling Stone The 50 Greatest Eminem Songs All 274 of Taylor Swift's Songs, Ranked The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
Black America Web
10-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Black America Web
Timbaland Announces Work With AI Artist, Sparking Criticism
Source: Prince Williams / Getty Veteran producer and artist Timbaland is now working with artificial intelligence, announcing that he'll also be working with a new AI artist as part of a venture with an AI company. But the news has caused some backlash. Timbaland has launched Stage Zero, an AI-focused entertainment company, which he claims has signed the first-ever AI artist named TaTa. 'I'm not just producing tracks anymore. I'm producing systems, stories, and stars from scratch,' Timbaland said in an interview with Billboard. '[TaTa] is not an avatar. She is not a character. TaTa is a living, learning, autonomous music artist built with AI. TaTa is the start of something bigger. She's the first artist of a new generation. A-Pop is the next cultural evolution, and TaTa is its first icon.' He and Stage Zero released an image of 'TaTa,' depicted as a young, pink-haired woman. The venture is what the artist hopes will be a new genre of music called 'A-pop,' reflecting his work with Suno, a company that has reportedly used millions of copyrighted songs to train its AI engine. In an interview with Rolling Stone , he's reportedly created 50,000 songs from working with Suno, saying: 'The technology of today is perfect for what this is. What used to take me three months only takes me two days. In the beginning, it was like a toy. It was like going to a toy store. You gotta go through gluttony, because you can't believe that it's here.' The Grammy-winning producer's stance has earned him some backlash from fans and others in the music industry, notably from producer Young Guru who blasted him on his Instagram page. 'I'm going to say it again,' Young Guru wrote. 'I swear I love you bro but this ain't it. Do you not realize what is going on in the world. Your voice is powerful and way too important to do anything like this. I have students who worship you. They are going to say 'if Tim can do it, then it is ok for me to do it.' These are the times, right here, that history is defined .. Human expression can never be reduced to this!!! This is way bigger than music!!! I say this all in love.' SEE ALSO Timbaland Announces Work With AI Artist, Sparking Criticism was originally published on Black America Web Featured Video CLOSE
Express Tribune
06-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Express Tribune
Timbaland launches AI-generated artist TaTa under new company Stage Zero
Grammy-winning producer Timbaland has announced the launch of a new AI-driven entertainment company, Stage Zero, and introduced its first AI-generated artist, TaTa. The artist, depicted as a pink-haired virtual performer, will represent what Timbaland describes as a new genre: 'A-pop, artificial pop.' Photo: Rolling Stone Stage Zero co-founder Rocky Mudaliar told Rolling Stone that TaTa marks an early step in redefining pop music through AI. Timbaland, who now serves as creative director at Suno—an AI music tool—said he became interested in the technology after uploading his unfinished demos and being captivated by the AI-generated voice responses. 'It came to a point where I'm like, 'Yo, this voice, it's amazing.'' While humans will remain part of the creative process behind TaTa's music, reactions have been divided. The music industry is still grappling with how AI fits into copyright law, with Suno already facing legal action from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for allegedly using copyrighted material to train its AI models. There is no confirmed release date for TaTa's first single, but Stage Zero plans to make her as lifelike as possible with an active online presence. Mudaliar believes public scepticism will wane over time, saying '[AI is] not going anywhere,' and comparing its rise to the acceptance of social media influencers.
