'No need to feed water-gobbling, planet-heating data centers': Deezer's new Remix Lab tool uses absolutely no AI and debunks slop music myths

• Deezer unveils Remix Lab in-app tool in France; should launch elsewhere soon
• Lets you augment a song or combine two
• Doesn't use AI; artists are paid

AI slop peddlers may try to make you believe that artificial music is absolutely fine and dandy music, and that it's impossible (or at any rate, quite unimportant) for original artists to get paid, in order for it to work. Well, Deezer has just proven that as totally wrong.

The music streaming service has just launched Remix Lab, a tool which lets you combine or remix songs and then add them to your library. It's available in the app right now, but only in France; the platform says it could come to more regions later in the year, but for now, it's largely French musicians included.

I know what you're wondering, and I asked: Deezer confirmed to TechRadar that there's no AI used in the process. Happy days! The brand has been refreshingly anti-AI, but given how many companies have forgotten their anti-AI stances when a checkbook comes out, it never hurts to check.

Instead, the tool uses audio stems provided by the artist, and applies edits to these to create an effect. So it's less slop generation, more a lightweight version of Adobe Audition without the dials and sliders.

AI? Not on this platform

Music remixing is nothing new, but usually it needs one of two things: either some level of technical know-how, or the ability to quell your ethical qualms and use AI to do it. Since AI is often sold as as a field-leveler — now a lack of talent is no hindrance! — many assume it has to be used for those without training.

Not according to Deezer, though, proving that you don't need to feed water-gobbling, planet-heating data centers to riff on existing songs. Deezer also says it's the first ever streaming platform to offer a song remixing service with full rights compliance and in agreement with the artists, and I'd be inclined to believe 'em.

Another pervasive AI myth, perpetuated by world governments as much as unscrupulous rights holders, is that it's impossible to compensate artists for their works being used, and that permission is optional. These bots may have been trained in your back-catalog without your consent, but it'd be impossible for you to be compensated for this, apparently.

To Deezer, this doesn't fly. The platform has confirmed that artists have agreed for their songs to be used in Remix Lab, and get compensated for remixes and listens through the tool. Let the dollars Euros roll!

Every day, AI sounds more and more redundant; you can't help but hear about businesses firing staff to save money, then spending more on AI credits, or filmmakers tanking their careers by making slop history shows and aligning themselves with AI brands. And so Deezer is doing the good work, by continuing to show us that there is a better way — and that this 'panacea' should actually just be panned.