The Beatles’ “Now and Then,” the first AI-assisted song to receive an award nomination, is up for two Grammys this year.
Even though the Beatles haven’t been together for fifty years, you might feel as though you’ve entered a time warp when you hear that they’re nominated for two Grammys this year. The Fab Four’s AI-refined song “Now and Then,” which was published last year, is competing against Beyoncé and Chappell Roan for Record of the Year and Best Rock Performance.
Paul McCartney produced “the last Beatles record” last year by using an AI-assisted tool to improve the poor sound quality of a few John Lennon tracks from 1978. To make the song a reality, the resulting track revived vintage recordings of George Harrison and John Lennon in addition to recent recordings by McCartney and Ringo Starr.
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Paul was influenced by Peter Jackson’s documentary “The Beatles: Get Back,” which was based on old video of Let It Be’s recording sessions and aired in 2021. McCartney and his colleagues created a new stereo mix of the Beatles song “Revolver” using the same AI-based audio editing tools that producer Giles Martin utilized.
The AI-powered program works similarly to how other video or audio chat services, such as Zoom, FaceTime, or Discord, may eliminate background noise during a conversation. In order to clean up old audio for use in a contemporary song, machine learning assisted in isolating the sound of Lennon’s late 1970s demo tapes.
The outcome is a song that is remarkably nominated for two Grammys, making it the first AI-assisted song to do so. However, that raises the question of whether the Beatles will prevail over modern heavyweights like Kendrick Lamar and Billie Eilish due to novelty. Or can these contemporary musicians compete with a band like the Beatles?
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With 78 million Spotify plays, “Now and Then” actually has the fewest Spotify plays of any 2025 Record of the Year nominee, suggesting the band may face competition for the award. However, the fact that a long-lost Beatles song can still earn two Grammy nominations fifty years after their split shows how widespread their influence is.
Paul was influenced by Peter Jackson’s documentary “The Beatles: Get Back,” which was based on old video of Let It Be’s recording sessions and aired in 2021. McCartney and his colleagues created a new stereo mix of the Beatles song “Revolver” using the same AI-based audio editing tools that producer Giles Martin utilized.
The AI-powered program works similarly to how other video or audio chat services, such as Zoom, FaceTime, or Discord, may eliminate background noise during a conversation. In order to clean up old audio for use in a contemporary song, machine learning assisted in isolating the sound of Lennon’s late 1970s demo tapes.
The outcome is a song that is remarkably nominated for two Grammys, making it the first AI-assisted song to do so. However, that raises the question of whether the Beatles will prevail over modern heavyweights like Kendrick Lamar and Billie Eilish due to novelty. Or can these contemporary musicians compete with a band like the Beatles?
With 78 million Spotify plays, “Now and Then” actually has the fewest Spotify plays of any 2025 Record of the Year nominee, suggesting the band may face competition for the award. However, the fact that a long-lost Beatles song can still earn two Grammy nominations fifty years after their split shows how widespread their influence is.
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