The Beatles have received two nominations at this year's Grammy Awards, a surprising feat given the band disbanded 50 years ago.
Their song "Now and Then," meticulously processed through artificial intelligence technology, was released last year. It has been nominated for "Record of the Year" and "Best Rock Performance," competing alongside renowned artists such as Sabrina Carpenter, Chappell Roan, and Beyoncé, making the Grammy Awards ceremony particularly noteworthy.
Despite the inactivity of The Beatles' members, Paul McCartney decided to use AI technology to produce what he called "the last Beatles song." McCartney did not revive the deceased members John Lennon and George Harrison through deepfake technology but instead restored a recording of Lennon from 1978, improving its sound quality.
McCartney was inspired by Peter Jackson's documentary "The Beatles: Get Back," released in 2021, which was based on archival footage from the 1969 recording session of "Let It Be." Although the original recording quality was poor, audio editor Emile de la Rey used AI technology to identify and isolate the voices of the four members from the background noise. This same technology also helped producer Giles Martin create a new stereo remix for The Beatles' 1966 album "Revolver."
AI audio editing technology operates similarly to how video calling platforms like FaceTime, Google Meet, and Zoom remove background noise during calls. Machine learning models can be trained to recognize specific sounds, whether it's human voices in a video call or a particular type of guitar in a recording studio, extracting these specific sounds from other audio.
In the "Record of the Year" nomination, whether The Beatles can triumph over competitors like Billie Eilish and Kendrick Lamar has become a focal point of attention. Notably, "Now and Then" has only 78 million plays on Spotify among all nominated songs, which is relatively low.
Key Points:
🎵 The Beatles' new song "Now and Then" has been nominated for Record of the Year and Best Rock Performance at the Grammys.
🎤 The track involved AI-restored audio from John Lennon's 1978 recording, with Paul McCartney personally involved in the production.
📈 Despite relatively low play counts, The Beatles continue to garner significant attention in competition with contemporary music superstars.