Most streamed AI-generated music track

“heart on my sleeve”, an AI-generated track featuring what are purported to be the voices of Canadian artists Drake (Aubrey Drake Graham) and The Weeknd (Abel Tesfaye) waxing lyrical about the likes of Selena Gomez, Justin Bieber and 21 Savage, was uploaded to audio and video streaming services from 4 April 2023 by the mysterious “ghostwriter” and immediately became a viral sensation, racking up 15 million views on TikTok, 6.9 million plays generated by an unofficial Twitter reupload and a further 275,000 views on YouTube. The track was streamed 600,000 times on Spotify, and it also surfaced on Apple Music, SoundCloud, Deezer, Amazon Music and TIDAL. The 2-min 15-sec “heart on my sleeve” was removed – albeit temporarily, in some cases – from streaming platforms on 17 April, reportedly after Universal Music Group (UMG) had filed takedown notices for “infringing content created with generative AI”, and to protect the integrity of their high-profile superstars.

“heart on my sleeve” was hailed by some as the “most successful and accurate AI-generated song to date”, a glowing illustration of an emerging trend set to “revolutionize the music industry”. “ghostwriter”, meanwhile, declared “The future is here” and warned that it was “just the beginning”. Others have described AI as a “serious threat”, amid calls for “re-evaluating the music industry’s approach to copyright, intellectual property and artistic recognition”.

As “heart on my sleeve” was blowing up all over the internet, Drake himself waded into the discussion with “This is the last straw AI” on Instagram, in response to hearing “his” voice – dubbed “fake Drake” – rapping to Ice Spice’s “Munch (Feelin’ U)”.

By 20 November 2023, “heart of my sleeve” was available on platforms such as YouTube and Spotify, where re-surfaced uploads were still attracting thousands of views/streams. On TikTok, where the track was used in more than 1,000 videos on the weekend of 15–16 April alone, the hashtag #heartonmysleeve had accumulated 52 million views, with many users speculating about the identity of “ghostwriter” and a potentially defining moment for AI in the music industry.