Ever since the first record came out at 78rpm (revolutions per minute), how music is made and distributed has continued to to evolve.
As we hurdle toward the age of “Star Trek” and all sorts of fancy gadgets for the creation of music has been progressively taken out of the hands of the musicians themselves.
Last year the Recording Academy announced that songs had to be dominantly created by live artists with just a small portion of the song created via AI – Artificial Intelligence – in order to be eligible for a Grammy nomination. While the ruling may prevent a song creator from earning a prestigious award, it will not stop the market from being flooded with “fake musicians”.
One example is British AI music creator Oliver McCann who admittedly “has no musical talent at all” but has created numerous works simply by launching his chatbot to create works for imoliver.
Trained as a visual designer who says, “I can’t sing, I can’t play instruments, and I have no musical background at all.” Yet recently he has signed with the independent record label Hallwood Media after one of his creations garnered over three million streams!
The deal marks the first time a record label has signed someone who uses AI to create “music”.
The recent synthetic music wave began after it was discovered that the group Velvet Sundown was not a real band at all but an AI creation.
Along with the synthetic music, a new debate has popped up – AI’s role in the music industry and the creation of “AI slop” – a term being used to describe low quality mass produced auto generated music.
Throughout the history of music, naysayers have prognosticated the doom of the music business beginning with Bill Haley in 1952 when he dared to mix the sound of “hillbilly” – bluegrass – and “race music” – what today is known as R&B – to form a new style of music – rockabilly – which later gave way to rock and roll. Artists have been mixing genres to form their own musical styles ever since, but they were “real” musicians creating real sound from real instruments.
Like the autotune that can make a “singer” out of anyone, AI has turned any old bloke into a music artist.
The experts claim that AI will transform the music industry as we know it; but it is still too early to tell how it will effect the $30 billion business just yet.
The streaming service Deezer reports that some 18% of the music uploaded to their service is AI generated; however, those uploads account for a very small portion of the total streaming numbers.
An even bigger issue for musicians and industry personnel is that works created by real musicians is being used to “train” AI in how to create its “music”.
While the AI programs seemingly create unique original content, there are but so many combinations of notes before there will be repeats and copying of other songs.
There are 12 notes in a chromatic scale and while there are millions of combinations that can be created, at some point the finite number will come to an end.
The courts have seen quite a number of cases in recent years regarding copyright infringement and the “stealing” of songs or at least passages from them.
Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group, and Warner Records have all files suits agains AI creators Suno and Udio for copyright infringement; however, they have also reportedly working to set rules for artists getting paid when their music is used for AI.
The German company GEMA has sued Suno for “song stealing” – creating AI songs that are similar to exiting songs including “Mambo No. 5” and “Forever Young”.
In protest, over 1,000 musicians gathered to “create” a and release a silent album; claiming that AI would “erode their creative control.”
However, there are other artists including will.i.am, Timbaland, and Imogen Heap who are making use of the new technology.
Does AI truly threaten the livelihood of human musicians or is it just another tool like autotune, drum machines, synthesizers, or even the newest “toys” of guitar pedals that can recreate nearly any sound???
Scott Smith who has an AI band Pulse Empire sees AI as just another tool. He notes that people complain saying, “that you’re using a computer to do all the work for you. I don’t see it that way. I see it as any other tool that we have.” A non-musician, Smith says that AI creators spend a lot of time and effort in creating their music.
He adds, “music producers have lots of tools in their arsenal to enhance recordings that listeners aren’t aware of.”
Smith notes that he can write the lyrics in 10 minutes but spend eight or nine hours getting the sound right.
McCann notes that he will create as many as 100 different versions of a song before he finds the sound he likes.
McCann and Lukas Rams who has the AI band Sleeping with Wolves note that often AI generated lyrics are cliché and corny.
Rams, who played drums in high school, writes his own lyrics. He has created three albums for Sleeping with Wolves; even adding jewel cases and album art. He plans to post the songs online.
It used to cost thousands of dollars to create an album and get the music out for people to hear. With the advent of online music software, people could create an album from their homes. As a friend once said, “any chick with a guitar can make a record.” Now with AI, all a person needs is a prompt.
Still in its infancy, there are a number of copyright issue when it comes to AI. But its creators are hoping that they too can someday be out in the mainstream just like the human musicians who spend thousands of hours working on their craft.
McCann noted, “I think we’re entering a world where anyone, anywhere could make the next big hit. As AI becomes more widely accepted among people as a musical art form, I think it opens up the possibility for AI music to be featured in charts.”