In May, we at Music Ally South Asia were taken aback when we saw a job listing on Instagram for an ‘AI music creator’. Among the requirements for the job—which was open only to singers, composers, lyricists and music producers—was at least six months’ “experience with AI music or songwriting tools” such as Suno, Udio, AIVA, Soundraw and Boomy.
“Not traditional musicians. Not just AI users. But creators who know how to turn emotion, prompts, vocals, and chaos into something people replay at 2AM”, read the caption accompanying the post by Eros Innovation, which describes itself as “a cultural artificial intelligence company headquartered in the Isle of Man, with operations in the United Kingdom and India”.
The ad, it turns out, was for Eros Innovation’s new “AI-powered music platform” Eros Music Worlds. “Unlike conventional music labels, Eros Music Worlds aims to create a diversified music ecosystem spanning character-led music franchises; non-film music; devotional and wellness content; folk and Sufi genres; legacy artist revival; and immersive live experiences”, says the announcement.
“The platform”, it elaborates, “is powered by Eros’ Large Cultural Models (LCMs), developed to interpret human compositions through cultural, emotional and performative traditions while using only licensed and rights-cleared material”. The label is launching with seven “AI-native” artists, starting with the June release of singles by two acts who belong to the aforementioned “character-led music franchises”.
They are Jordan—who appears to be modeled on Ranbir Kapoor’s lead character from Rockstar (2011)—and Tanu—who seems to be based on Kangana Ranaut’s titular role from the Tanu Weds Manu films (2011 and 2015). Those Bollywood movies were either co-produced or distributed by Eros, while the songs have been credited to the singers Aarav Malhotra and Kiara Bedi, and the composers Pran Sarmah and Jaybird respectively.
“The technology is the instrument. The artistry is human,” says Ridhima Lulla, the co-founder and co-president of Eros Innovation. Jordan and Tanu’s Hindi tracks, which have been put out on all major streaming platforms, will soon be available in 34 local Indian languages, though the press release doesn’t specify if these will be generated using AI.
As part of its “legacy artist revival”, Eros Music Worlds has also entered into a partnership with the family of legendary playback singer Mohammed Rafi. The partnership, under Eros’s ‘Legacy Voices’ banner, will span new recordings, a flagship live concert experience and the Mohammed Rafi Academy that will train aspiring singers. The debut release from the collaboration, which “seeks to preserve and extend the singer’s legacy through rights-cleared cultural AI”, is scheduled for 31 July, which is Rafi’s birth anniversary.
“We are building an entirely new music ecosystem where iconic film characters evolve into long-term entertainment franchises and legendary artists are reintroduced to new generations through immersive technology,” says Eros Music Worlds CEO Kumar Ahuja. “What we are launching is not simply new music, but a completely new framework for how music intellectual property can be created, experienced and monetised in the future.”
By turning characters into virtual artists, the company is—ahem, innovatively—extending the life of the characters beyond the films. And it claims to be doing this with all the rights in place. The “Eros LCM family” is trained on “the Eros cultural corpus, comprising 1.5 trillion rights-cleared, ethically-sourced cultural tokens drawn from 11,000 films and 100,000 characters”.
Eros Music Worlds, the announcement says, is built on a “foundation [of] signed partnerships with rights holders, human composition at every step, and models trained exclusively on owned or licensed material with documented chain of title.”
In a country like India where film actors are so closely associated with some of the most iconic roles they have portrayed—and with several stars approaching the courts to prevent the misuse of their personality rights—such an enterprise could involve potential complications. For instance, when Anil Kapoor approached the Delhi High Court, his case didn’t just cover his name, image and voice but also the names of the characters he’s played such as Lakhan in Ram Lakhan (1989) and his popular catchphrase ‘Jhakaas’, first heard in Yudh (1985).
