Bacardi is bringing its program for emerging musical artists to Canada for the first time.

The spirits brand and Canadian Grammy Award-winning producer Boi-1da (pictured, above) are teaming up for this year’s evolution of Bacardi’s longstanding “Music Liberates Music” program, via “The Concept A.I.bum.”

Releasing in November, the EP has been created using generative AI that was trained on unreleased Boi-1da track to learn his production style. Five artists – Canadian R&B artist Savannah Ré, U.K.-based singer Bellah, Ghanian-born rapper Blackway and American R&B singers Floyd Fuji and Kyle Dion – will feed their own tracks into the tool as way to find how each of their styles work best with Boi-1da and generate ideas, then work directly with the producer to refine the final track.

This is the fifth iteration of Bacardi’s ‘Music Liberates Music’ campaign, which has found unique ways to distribute music from emerging artists. Previous efforts, for example, have included a “wearable album” – a line of streetwear that can be scanned to allow people to download the EP. Like previous years, any revenue generated by the music will be given directly to the participating artists.

This year marks the first opportunity for Bacardi to bring the platform to Canada, according to Lisa Pfenning, VP for the brand in North America.

“Our Canadian efforts will focus to combat the barriers of access and resources for songwriters and vocal artists, showcasing the future of AI in music, what’s exciting in the space and its potential to benefit artists,” Pfenning says, with the spirits brand stressing that the tech provides opportunities that enhance, rather than replace, the human element of musical creativity. This year’s campaign also positions generative AI as way for new artists to get access to Grammy-winning talent that they might not otherwise have.

Launching in October and running to early February, the campaign includes a “fulsome” PR and media campaign led by BBDO New York to “release, engage, and amplify the efforts of our up-and-coming artists through public relations, paid publisher, OLV and social,” Pfenning says.

Pfenning tells strategy, that at its core, the campaign is all about uplifting and shining a spotlight on budding artists. Also, Pfenning says, each year it launches the campaign, it identifies a piece of emerging technology that can help this cause. “In years past, we explored NFTs, QR-code powered artist merch, and this year, it’s generative AI.”

Meanwhile, the Bacardi brand’s summer’s seasonal activations were also music related: tied to feelings of community and self-expression often associated with dance. Other creative efforts have honoured 50 years of hip hop.

In Canada, PR is being handled by Meat & Produce and media is led by OMD.