Is it legal to make covers or remixes with AI vocals?

Two rights, one track

The composition. Covering someone's song has a well-worn legal path: mechanical licensing (compulsory in the US for audio-only covers of released songs, via services that handle it at distribution). AI changes nothing here — the songwriters get paid the same way. Remixes and derivative reworkings that change the composition need actual permission, not just a mechanical license; that was true before AI too.

The voice. This is where AI created a genuinely new problem. A cover in the voice of a recognizable artist — the "AI Drake sings your song" format — implicates state right-of-publicity law (Tennessee's ELVIS Act is the explicit AI-era statute) regardless of whether the composition is licensed. The most famous AI work of the era, the Drake/Weeknd soundalike "Heart on My Sleeve," was pulled from platforms on exactly this fault line, and our Works records track several disputed-likeness cases where the claims stay preserved because no court resolved them.

The clean path: licensed composition + synthetic voice that imitates no one = the same legal position as any cover band. Every added layer of "sounds like a specific famous person" adds exposure that no platform will defend you on.