The Business Case Underneath the Nostalgia
Artist Included isn't really a music company. It's a rights company with a recording studio attached.
The startup, co-founded by entrepreneur Paul 'PK' Kemsley and entertainment attorney and film producer Jeremy Rosen, launched this week with a straightforward premise: take well-known songs, re-record them with the original artists using AI-assisted production, and own the resulting masters outright. First out of the gate is Karma Chameleon, the 1983 Culture Club single, re-recorded with Boy George.
The creative angle writes itself. The business angle is more interesting.
Why Re-Recordings Make Sense Right Now
The re-recording strategy isn't new — Taylor Swift turned it into a cultural event, and plenty of artists have used it to reclaim leverage over their catalogs. What Artist Included is doing is industrializing that logic and applying it to artists who may not have Swift's resources or fanbase to execute it alone.
When an original master is controlled by a label, the artist sees a fraction of streaming revenue and has limited say over sync licensing — the placements in film, TV, and advertising that often generate the most durable income. A clean new master, owned by the artist and the startup in some split arrangement, changes that math entirely.
AI-assisted production lowers the cost of making those new recordings sound competitive with the originals. That's the operational logic. The nostalgia marketing is how you get people to care.
What 'AI-Assisted' Actually Means Here
The company hasn't published a detailed technical breakdown of its production process, so it's worth being precise about what's confirmed: Artist Included is using AI as part of the re-recording workflow, with the original artist participating. This is not a deepfake play or an unauthorized voice clone situation — Boy George is involved. That distinction matters legally and commercially.
The AI component likely accelerates production, helps match sonic characteristics of the original, or both. The result is a new master recording with clean provenance.
The Real Test Is Distribution and Sync
Launching with a recognizable song and a willing legacy artist is the easy part. The harder question is whether the market treats these re-recordings as substitutes for the originals.
Streaming platforms surface catalog based on listener behavior and algorithmic momentum built over decades. A new version of Karma Chameleon starts from zero on those metrics. Sync licensing is more promising — music supervisors care about clearance speed and cost, and a startup with clean masters and motivated sellers could move faster than a major label's licensing department.
Advertising and brand partnerships are probably the most direct near-term revenue path. A re-recorded classic with a living, participating artist is an easier sell to a brand than a vintage master with three parties arguing over approval rights.
The Founders' Bet
Kemsley brings a profile that straddles entertainment and business media — he's been a visible figure in reality television circles, which isn't irrelevant when you're trying to generate press for a catalog startup. Rosen's background in entertainment law and film production means the company has someone who understands how rights actually move through the industry.
The combination suggests a company that knows how to get attention and how to structure deals. Whether the underlying catalog strategy generates the kind of returns that justify a tech-startup valuation is a different question — one that won't be answered by a single re-recording of an '80s pop song, however well it performs.