Timbaland debuts an AI-generated ‘Asian’ pop singer

A virtual singer depicted as a young Asian woman named TaTa was unveiled on June 5 as the first act from Stage Zero, an AI-focused entertainment company founded in Los Angeles by Grammy-winning producer Timbaland, AI strategist Zayd Portillo and film producer Rocky Mudaliar. The founders say TaTa will release a debut single this year and headline a new genre they call “A-pop,” short for artificial pop.

Stage Zero records a traditional demo in Timbaland’s studio, uploads the stems to the generative-audio platform Suno, lets the software expand the arrangement and melody, then inserts lyrics written by human songwriters. The producer added that current tools have reduced his production time “from three months to two days.”

Mudaliar told Billboard the company wants to build “fully autonomous” virtual performers who can appear in music videos, social-media feeds and even scripted films. “The artists of tomorrow won’t just be human, they’ll be IP, code and robotics,” he said. Timbaland echoed that ambition in a launch statement: “I’m producing systems, stories and stars from scratch … TaTa is the first artist of a new generation.”

Stage Zero’s workflow depends on Suno, which is fighting a 2024 copyright lawsuit from Sony Music, Universal Music Group and Warner Records that accuses the company of using protected recordings to train its model. At the creative level, producer Young Guru criticized the project on Instagram: “I swear I love you bro but this ain’t it … Human expression can never be reduced to this.” Some online commenters have also questioned why the label’s inaugural act is a digital Asian woman rather than a living Asian performer.