HOW AI made the Beatles’ release of Now and Then possible.
The release of the Beatles' "new" song, Now and Then, in 2023 was a remarkable fusion of modern technology and vintage recordings, made possible by the use of AI and advanced audio restoration techniques. This was particularly significant because the song originally stemmed from a rough demo that John Lennon had recorded on a cassette tape in the late 1970s. For years, this demo had been considered unusable due to the poor quality of the recording, but recent technological advancements allowed for the project to be revived.
At the heart of this achievement was AI technology, which played a crucial role in extracting John Lennon’s voice from the noisy, low-fidelity tape. The recording, made by Lennon at his New York apartment, featured his vocals heavily mixed with the sound of a piano and other background noise. In the 1990s, during the Beatles' Anthology project, the surviving band members—Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr—had attempted to work with the song but ultimately abandoned the effort. At that time, the technology was not advanced enough to cleanly separate Lennon’s voice from the accompanying noise, leading to frustration and the shelving of the track.
However, in 2023, Peter Jackson, the director of The Beatles: Get Back documentary, and his team developed cutting-edge AI tools capable of "demixing" audio tracks. This AI-driven process allowed them to isolate Lennon’s voice from the piano, effectively creating a clean, high-quality vocal track. The ability to separate different elements of a recording, such as voice and instruments, had only recently reached a level of sophistication that made this kind of project feasible. Thanks to this breakthrough, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr were able to revisit Now and Then decades after it was first recorded and finally bring it to completion.
The AI’s role in this process went beyond simply cleaning up audio. It allowed Lennon’s voice to shine in a way that made it feel as if he were singing live in the studio. This was a deeply emotional and nostalgic experience for McCartney and Starr, who were able to work with their late bandmate’s vocals in a way that felt authentic and true to the original spirit of the Beatles.
With Lennon’s vocals extracted and cleaned, McCartney and Starr added new instrumentation and harmonies, building upon the original recording while staying faithful to its essence. The result was a song that felt like a true Beatles track, even though it was completed using modern techniques decades after Lennon’s passing. The use of AI made it possible for a lost piece of music history to be revived and shared with the world.
This project showcased how AI can be used in creative fields, not as a replacement for human artistry, but as a tool to enhance and preserve it. In the case of Now and Then, it allowed McCartney and Starr to collaborate with their old friend once again, creating a bridge between the past and the present. The release of the song was not only a technical marvel but also a moving tribute to Lennon’s legacy, and a testament to the enduring bond between the members of the Beatles.
