FEATURE:
Not OK Computer
IMAGE CREDIT: Freepik
Is the Rise of AI Damaging to Music?
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NOT that it is a new phenomenon in music…
IMAGE CREDIT: Electronic Beats
but there has been more discussion around AI (artificial intelligence). From production to vocals, through to stage performances, artists can be replaced. It is possible to create AI vocals and music. Whilst it has been a help and breakthrough in many ways, others are concerned that it may replaced skilled professionals and take something away from music. I am going to come on to that. I want to go back to 2020, when Time, where they highlighted a shocking realisation: that there might a day when human art is replaced:
“In November, the musician Grimes made a bold prediction. “I feel like we’re in the end of art, human art,” she said on Sean Carroll’s Mindscape podcast. “Once there’s actually AGI (Artificial General Intelligence), they’re gonna be so much better at making art than us.”
Her comments sparked a meltdown on social media. The musician Zola Jesus called Grimes the “voice of silicon fascist privilege.” Majical Cloudz frontman Devon Welsh accused her of taking “the bird’s-eye view of billionaires.” Artificial intelligence has already upended many blue collar jobs across various industries; the possibility that music, a deeply personal and subjective form, could also be optimized was enough to cause widespread alarm.
But there are many musicians who feel that the onset of AI won’t end human art, but spur a new golden era of creativity. Over the past several years, several prominent artists, like Arca, Holly Herndon and Toro y Moi have worked with AI in order to push their music in new and unexpected directions. Meanwhile, a host of musicians and researchers across the world are developing tools to make AI more accessible to artists everywhere. While obstacles like copyright complications and other hurdles have yet to be worked out, musicians working with AI hope that the technology will become a democratizing force and an essential part of everyday musical creation.
“It’s provided me a sense of relief and excitement that not everything has been done — that there’s a wide-open horizon of possibility,” Arca, a producer who’s worked with Kanye West and Björk on groundbreaking albums, told TIME in a phone interview.
Artificial intelligence and music have long been intertwined. Alan Turing, the godfather of computer science, built a machine in 1951 that generated three simple melodies. In the 90s, David Bowie started playing around with a digital lyric randomizer for inspiration. At the same time, a music theory professor trained a computer program to write new compositions in the style of Bach; when an audience listened to its work next to a genuine Bach piece, they couldn’t tell them apart”.
It is that debate and perspective between AI hindering or replacing human creativity and enhancing and aiding it. It is a balancing act but, the more I hear it about it reported, it seems musicians are genuinely worried. It is certainly taking something away form a natural performance, production or voice. Whilst it can be useful accompanying vocals and creating new layers and nuance to music, replacing the artist altogether is a slippery slope. In 2021, Forbes wrote how AI is helping musicians unlock creativity. A couple of years later, do fans and those across the industry feel the same?
“Many artists feel we’re about to enter a “golden age” of creativity, powered by artificial intelligence, that can push music in new directions.
Let’s look at some of the newest ways artificial intelligence is transforming the music industry from top to bottom.
Creating New Songs with the Help of AI
For 30 years, musician and composer David Cope has been working on Experiments in Musical Intelligence (EMI). EMI originally began in 1982 as an effort to help Cope overcome "composer's block," and now his algorithms have produced a large number of original compositions in a variety of genres and styles.
AIVA uses AI and deep learning algorithms to help mainstream users compose their own soundtrack music and scores. It’s the perfect tool for content creators on Youtube, Twitch, Tik Tok, and Instagram who need a steady supply of music but don’t have an endless budget for royalties.
Grammy-nominated producer Alex da Kid used IBM Watson to analyze five years’ of hit songs, as well as cultural data from films, social media, and online articles to figure out a theme for an AI-generated song that fans would enjoy. The final song, “Not Easy,” reached number four on the iTunes Hot Tracks chart within 48 hours after its release.
Composers Drew Silverstein, Sam Estes, and Michael Hobe were working on music for big-budget movies like The Dark Knight when they started getting requests for simple background music for television and video games. They worked together to create Amper, a consumer-friendly online tool that helps non-musicians and online content creators make royalty-free music – using their own parameters – in a few seconds.
Creating Virtual Pop Stars
One thing is clear: Since the start of the pandemic, fans miss going to concerts.
To fill the void, Authentic Artists has introduced a large collection of AI-powered virtual artists who can deliver new music experiences.
Authentic Artists’ animated virtual musicians generate all-original compositions to play on screen, and also respond to audience feedback by increasing or decreasing the tempo or intensity, or even fast-forwarding to the next song in the set.
Finding the Next Big Artists
Audio-on-demand streaming like Spotify totaled $534 billion in the United States alone, according to Buzz Angle Music’s 2018 report.
So how do promising new artists get discovered, with all that competition?
Artificial intelligence helps the music industry with A&R (artist and repertoire) discovery by combing through music and trying to identify the next breakout star.
Warner Music Group acquired a tech start-up last year that uses an algorithm to review social, streaming, and touring data to find promising talent. In 2018, Apple also acquired Asaii, a start-up that specializes in music analytics, to help them boost their A&R.
AI Complementing Creativity
AI technology is transforming the music industry in a myriad of ways, but creatives shouldn’t be worried about losing their jobs and being replaced by computers. We’re still a long way from artificial intelligence being able to create hit songs on their own.
But as tools develop and the music industry learns how to use AI as a supplement to human creativity, our world will continue to sound sweeter and sweeter every year”.
IN THIS PHOTO: Peter Gabriel
I am going to come to a recent article from NME. Peter Gabriel is one of the most forward-thinking and innovative artists ever. You can understand why he is worried. As he is still recording music, he is worried that AI could replace humans. In the same way David Bowie precited the impacted of the Internet back in 1999 and was mocked by Jeremy Paxman, Peter Gabriel has predicted AI having an impact to rival the Industrial Revolution. Could something that was once seen as an aid or way or helping music and enabling greater creativity take over and have a negative impact? It is fascinating to hear both sides of the story:
“In a discussion with Yahoo! Music about his tech company Reverberation, Gabriel discussed the need to anticipate what AI technology could be capable of. “I’m probably just as scared [of AI] as everybody else, but I like to jump in the river rather than talk about it. … I do think about it quite a lot, and I think not enough people are thinking about it,” he said.
“And it would be great to get ahead [of it]. You know, this is something that’s going have way more impact than the Industrial Revolution and the nuclear bomb. So, if we don’t start anticipating what it might do, it’s going to be too late, because it’s very fast.”
Gabriel then turned to the topic of whether music generated by AI could ever have the emotional effect of songs written by human artists. “Most people argue no; I would say they just need better algorithms,” Gabriel said, adding that there will probably be algorithms for human spirit one day.
“So, we might as well just grab the algorithms and dance with them, rather than fight them. Unfortunately, I don’t think my job or anyone’s job is safe from AI,” he added.
“The way to look at it, though, is this amazing toolkit is just coming into our possession and we could do all sorts of extraordinary things, including perhaps – and I do say ‘perhaps’ – protecting our future.”
In February, Gabriel released a new song titled ‘The Court (Dark-Side Mix)’. The single was the second to be taken from his upcoming album ‘i/o’, and features contributions from Brian Eno as well as backing vocals from his daughter, Melanie Gabriel”.
There are a couple of other features I want to include before finishing up. For Music Week, George Garner wrote a feature this month that highlighted AI is not the only technology challenge when it comes to artist expression. The fact that one cannot easily differentiate between artists’ vocals and simulated and replicated versions via AI is concerning. What Garner argues is how there is concern around machines and computers sounding like humans. Programmed to mimic and replace. He raised the issue that, also, we need to be more concerned with singers and humans programmed and directed to sound like machines. It seems like there will be this moment in music where so much humanity and personality has been diluted and lost:
“From press outlets dissecting articles written entirely by ChatGPT to David Guetta deploying a deepfake Eminem verse in a new song, it’s been impossible to ignore the headlines surrounding artificial intelligence of late.
Now, as someone whose childhood years were partly defined by watching Terminator 2 a very healthy three or four times a day, I should be predisposed to fear any innovation that could one day lead to our annihilation at the hands of our robot overlords.
While I still vividly remember the curdling feeling in my stomach the first time I heard Drowned In The Sun – an AI programme’s attempt at writing a Nirvana song in 2021 – oddly, I’m not especially fearful of the changes we’re seeing right now. And no, ChatGPT did not write that last bit for me.
What’s been occupying my thoughts lately is not so much what human artistic expression may be surrendering to AI, but rather what has already been lost without even taking it into account. Over many years we’ve all heard artists, songwriters, managers, executives, producers, cultural critics and more – and at all ages and levels of experience – airing their grievances about some of the perceived strictures on creativity these days.
If you buy into these regular criticisms, you soon start to question what the real difference is between a machine learning how to sound like a human, and a human learning to sound like an algorithm.
At least from my own personal experience of interviewing people from all sides of the music industry, many establish a common ground in bemoaning how many chart hits sound so similar, so beholden to the sonic dictates of the ruling algorithms or social media consumption habits. Others cite how cloyingly pristine every mix is now, with all rough edges and vocal quirks Auto-Tuned into an inoffensive sheen. Where, they ask, are the imperfections? Where is the humanity in the actual sounds being produced?
You may agree with some of those recurring critiques. You may well vehemently disagree with all of them. Either way, it’s a discussion that’s been put into sharp focus in an age of AI artists getting signed to record labels and deepfake tracks from dead superstars.
Yes, a lot of people will spend time worrying if AI technology is stripping the humanity out of music in the coming months. But for now at least, I think we need to be less focused on computer programmes imitating our artists, and altogether more concerned about artists being conditioned to behave like machines”.
I will offer some personal thoughts, but it is intriguing reading various points of views and examinations. At the moment there is not this huge wave of AI that is noticeably replacing what we have now. This feature opinions there are benefits for sure inherent in AI. Many fears about it conquering and dominating music seem to be largely unfounded. We will see more AI come into music and performance but, actually, there are reasons why we should be more open-minded and less fearful:
“Artificial Intelligence: Impact on the music industry for years
In fact, the impact of AI music is a visionary, but no longer an absolutely new topic. Rather, artificial intelligence has already been showing its impact within the music industry for years. AI-generated mindfulness ambient music, rights-free music generation for content creators, and automated mixing and mastering have matured into significant industries for about half a decade.
Similarly, streaming services’ recommendation systems are based on AI algorithms. For example, artificial intelligence is used to analyze music and its specific characteristics, identifying patterns and rolling out personalized music recommendations based on them. AI and machine learning have long since changed the face of the music industry. Never before has it been so easy to create and listen to pleasing music.
Concerns are understandable, but fears tend to be unfounded
For sure, there are potential risks. Among the main fears is that AI-powered music could render human musicians and songwriters obsolete, replacing them and thus sending them into unemployment. These fears should be taken with a grain of salt, however. After all, there’s one thing AI can’t do: Being creative like a musician. The concern that AI music could lead to oversaturation among listeners due to repetitive sounds or styles also seems rather unfounded. After all, everyone still decides for themselves about their own musical taste. If a genre is potentially flooded with monotony, consumers automatically turn away, but do not reject music altogether. Against this backdrop, AI music could, at best, lead to an oversaturation of itself.
As with every new topic since the invention of sliced bread, it remains imperative to use artificial intelligence ethically and morally, as well as legally. A copyright infringement by AI remains a copyright infringement; a song forged by artificial intelligence remains a forged song. Such scenarios are not created by AI in the first place. The given legal space is unaffected.
AI: Trying to decode Mozart’s genome
In the meantime, there are various reference examples of how interesting projects have been implemented through the use of artificial intelligence. In 2021, for example, the music of the composer was visualized in several projects for the 100th Mozart Festival, which set out to track down the musical genome of the genius. A research team from the University of Würzburg had developed an AI with the appropriate name “Mozart Jukebox” as well as an app for augmented reality (AR). It was shown that there is not just one AI, but that it develops based on the actions of the users. Humans are therefore by no means left out in the cold.
Artificial intelligence resurrects musicians
Also from 2021 is the reincarnated release of “The Lost Tapes of the 27 Club.” The only thing that was “real” about the recordings was the vocals. The vocals, however, did not come from the original artists, but from musicians from cover bands who had specialized in imitating their idols. Songs by Kurt Cobain with Nirvana, Jim Morrison with the Doors, Amy Winehouse and Jimi Hendrix were (re)composed with the Google AI Magenta. Then the music was created with digital instruments controlled by computers. The “Lost Tapes” was by no means the first musical AI project. There had already been music in the style of the Beatles, Bach or Beethoven”.
I did like the fact that AI can work alongside humans and create more than its share of its benefits. From royalty-free music and samples through to analysing trends and tastes to create playlists and recommendations. This is of benefit. It is worrying that artists like Peter Gabriel have voiced their concerns regarding how AI will dominate and maybe replace artists one day. If there is a balance as there is now then that is okay. The more AI is used, the more it will be normalised. That is a day that…
WE do not want to see.