AI-Generated Music: Revolution or Threat to Music Composition?

[@SeanGould]

One thing that I don’t ever see discussed is the “why” in why artists create. AI generated art is merely about the end result, while the reason artists create is the “doing”. The process of creation is as important, if not more important, than the end result. I think that will ultimately be the perceived difference between human created art and AI. One result of AI that I worry about is the loss of skill and the desire to learn craft in younger generations. I think the temptation to just type something in to a computer and get an instantaneous result will outweigh the the will to work hard and mastering craft.

[@AlexPfeffer]

I don't see this problem because there are many guitar sample libs out there or orchestral but still young players around the globe.

[@Dystopian84]

If AI is able to generate a full piece of music with just a one line prompt ( basic text ) , it is no longer a tool ( we seem to have skipped that " new tools " phase entirely ) so I see 0 connection with other technological advancements in music . Unfortunately due to a few lobbies and politicians who like money , the copyright issue will soon be resolved but obviously not in our favor . The AI transition according to open ai's ceo is going to be brutal and not just for musicians , far from it .

[@federicoaschieri]

I don't think the copyright issue will be solved in favour of AI companies. There are powerful entities against them as well, e.g. media, like New York Times and Universal Music Group. More importantly, from a legal point of view, one can't really argue that stealing copyrighted data to make a product that competes in the same market of the stolen work is fair use. Companies are trying to spread false arguments and fallacies all the time, but they're worthless.

[@TorstenHaeufler]

Let's not fool ourselves, two things will happen: We are not stopping the further development of AI, neither when it comes to music nor when it comes to video and image creation. As a result, it will be difficult or even impossible for producers and composers of production music such as trailer music or production music for TV series, documentaries and so on to generate a significant income from music they produce themselves. Here, one can only hope that at least the larger television production companies and feature film producers will still attach importance to human values, but in the broad masses there will then hardly be any reason to resort to "humanly" produced music if the artificially produced music is a) much cheaper and b) just as good and effective.

[@AlexPfeffer]

So, in other words, visual painted art completely disappeared from this planet because of the camera being invented many moons ago? ... and additionally on top, despite the fact that Midjourney and other similar apps exist, I see thousands of happy artists, may they be painting on paper, canva, doing art on tablets or in Photoshop ... and even IF AI music takes over the production music word, it would be time to look for another solution to make money with music. I have tons of concepts, solutions, plans, and strategies for this! :)

[@TorstenHaeufler]

@@AlexPfeffer Interesting point, but I am not sure that your comparison between cameras and painting holds when comparing AI vs human skills as AI has the abilities to replace humans in the Creative areas, whereas the Camera was a new Tool that needed the human creativities to become relevant.

[@AlexPfeffer]

@@TorstenHaeufler then again who has to control AI? It is not writing music by itself, someone has to operate it. I share your fears but if you want to see the future days more rainy than sunshine, no argument and comparison would do :) Again, do you really believe a director will pick AI music and then also replace actors and everything with AI? How long would people want to watch 10 new movies released daily? It won't work out like this.

[@TorstenHaeufler]

@@AlexPfeffer No, i wont subscribe to that, but I am very sure, that production music libraries will make use of AI as this will be a lot cheaper

[@NovoHorizonteRio]

I can completely agree with what @TorstenHaeufler says. To the point of saying that production music is dead. The owner of a - I think not entirely unknown - music library based in London said to me: "Nobody buys music anymore." That's how it is. He also mentioned that he had already had to cut staff. I don't even want to talk about what I earn with production music these days ...

[@carlosdohrn]

I believe soon we will have real time AI generated music for interactive media like games and VR experiences. Not just predefined combinations of stems. But prompt music that emerges and responds in realtime to player behavior. Or can be invoked by game masters in RPGs according to genre and mood. Like a live game composer inside the engine. Won't replace all game composers, but will have its unique applications.

[@federicoaschieri]

I think things are a bit more complex. First, we should always remember that AI music generators are the result of systematic steal of copyrighted music. I believe we shouldn't accept AI generators trained on unlicensed data, and actually they will be declared illegal. But when it will come the time of legal AI, no composer should license music to AI. Second, much music in media is just background stuff, and AI will be able to do that very well, very soon. Many media creators will prefer to generate their own music, once the tool is ok. I don't think that AI music will lack emotivity, because AI just steals patterns known to work, "photoshops", and repurposes them. All AI needs is to start from music considered emotive in a certain way and for a particular goal, and modify it a bit. That's what it already does. And don't forget that AI music can now be generated interactively: you generate a small bit, then choose either a continuation or something that comes before, delete it if you're unhappy, find a new one extension which fits what you have in mind and so on. It's a very cheap way of composing, but it works because the average person won't be able to tell it's AI. All this will happen if we will be stupid enough to feed the machine and let it copy our work.

[@FireF1y644]

While it definitely will replace most background music, I still think/hope that, like with AI images, AI will not be able to create most complex, precise, cohesive and unique music, especially in genres where there is not enough data. I think cohesivness will be the deformed hands of AI music until AGI, and a lot of human input will be required there. Advanced MIDI editors with granular control will have to be implemented for any serious production, but even then, it will be pretty difficult to control, because you only need 1 second to judge whether the generated image is good or not, but you need almost the entire generated track length of time to decide if it's good - and this time will quickly stack and become a problem. Yes, just like image generators, where there is enough data, it will probably create great sounding music that tells a story once in 100s attempts, but is it worth the time?

[@FireF1y644]

The funny thing is that all human input and generated track's rating can also be collected as a big data, but that will require insanely large amount of data to make a difference.

[@federicoaschieri]

@@FireF1y644 I think what you are referring to should be rather called "intent". You can generate AI music which has a coherent flow from start to finish, but I agree that AI won't have intent and orginality. But how many people watching the first time a film or a series will notice if there is no sophisticated global structure in the soundtrack? Especially now that it is little more than background texture most of the times. If you want to score like Shore or Williams or Djawadi, of course no AI can do that. Concerning the 100s attempts. Well, there will be some people from a very cheap country willing to press buttons thousands of times. They just need some basic taste in music. So my position: don't underestimate the damage that AI can do, even if it is not fully at the level of best human composers. We should fight it, because it is against human culture, and is essentially robbery.

[@MaPa60]

It's a mixed bag, I think. As a songwriter, AI is a godsend, highly elevating demo possibilities and workflows. I also do think AI will take work from singers, just like software took work from drummers, keyboard and bass players. And I believe TV editors and game producers will increasingly attempt to use AI tracks to replace background instrumentals, also because the workflow is so much faster, even though it may come to the expense of "quality", which basically equals "usefulness" in media work. I don't think the live scene and artists will be affected much, nor regular film composers.

[@tomhe286]

That is a denial phase. The truth is that there is almost no need for song writers anymore. Atleast soon there will be not Everyone thought (and some still do) that AI would be just a tool for ideas and making human made music better, but we couldnt be more wrong. AI makes "perfect" songs already that just dont need tuning. And if it need, just let AI itself fix it. Ps. Iam songwriter too

[@MaPa60]

@@tomhe286 There has never been a "need" for songwriters. If songwriters didn't choose to write songs, an AI would not bother with it either. Songwriting is an art form, where your human experience can be shared with other people, regardless of AI. Songwriting is beyond needs/wants, it's a choice. No need to be put off by AI.

[@tomhe286]

​@@MaPa60 But there for sure have been need for songwriters as most people love music. And there will be need for new music. The problem is that AI music is already making so high quality music that you really cannot say if any human emotions was put into it or is song just simply made by AI. Mimicking human emotions seems to be much easier than we thought.

[@MaPa60]

@@tomhe286 Well ok, if you mean by need that there is a demand, then sure. AI is very good at mimicking the devices in music that can trigger emotions in a listener, I think you are right about that. However, what is known as AI at this point is still an input/output system, so I think songwriters are needed just as much as before. I don’t know anyone who will prefer to prompt their music out, rather than play their instrument and cowrite with others. So I don’t believe AI will replace anything even if it could.

[@tomhe286]

The demand dont come from songwriters, it comes from people and companies. Easy example is game music (atleast for smaller games). Why should any company pay or even bother to contact songwriters in first place if you can just make the needed music with AI. But I repeat that this is definetly the way I want it to be or become

[@jenstornell]

Yes, composers will get out of job because of this. But not all of them and it will not be over night. It takes time for society to adapt. The ones still in business will need AI as a tool to stay relevant. Not because it's better but because it's so much faster. Yes, I think music needs to be created faster in the future. We don't yet have the tools for it tho. We have some but we need it more built into our working process, an invisible guide through the process.

[@AlexPfeffer]

Yep, some composers will lose jobs over it, but they already lost jobs because of thousands of other composers working in this industry. The key is to learn self-promotion, marketing and selling yourself! If you know how to sell yourself you can use even argument AGAINST AI as your biggest strength!

[@jenstornell]

@@AlexPfeffer Agree! Good point. You are the product. It's kind of the same reason we may follow artists, because we trust them in their delivery. Real artists can also be Interesting, nice to look at, funny or have Interesting perspective on life. It's a whole package which brings invisible extra value to the music. Personally I already use AI in my music, as a tool. I can't sing and want song in my music. Synthesizer V is a good alternative. I have also used Scaler for chord suggestions. There is also AI EQ but I have not tried that one. Pure AI free music may soon not be a thing anymore. Not when it comes to digital production at least. But I think it's a very big difference by prompting music and making music with AI as a suggestion tool where we still got our hands on the wheel.

[@Murderface666]

I'd use it more as a idea mill and starting point to create a base framework to tweak and build off of. I do the same thing with A.I. art to spark an idea different from the A.I. generated art to create an original character.

[@sensumcommunem]

I honestly think that _"Not made by A.I.!"_ will soon become a branding tag across many mediums, art forms, and products. A.I. is simply being used as a buzzword to brand a technology/products which directly affects that company's share price value. A lot of things that are branded as A.I. are not really true A.I., they are what was formerly termed _"Expert Systems"._ The main difference being where the dataset for the old Expert Systems was their access to physical data storage, the new Expert Systems now have access to the internet as their database. Even though what "A.I." currently produces is pretty good, and it will get better, I still think there will be a sterile element to it. It won't be anything particular that you will be able to discern, or identify, it will just be a feeling that something is off. A little bit like in the 1986 remake of "The Fly" movie. When they teleport the steak through the telepods: it looks just like a steak, smells just like a steak, but - upon tasting - just doesn't taste right. I think A.I. produced material will be very much like this. Of course, in the corporate world, if the executives can get ad, TV, and promotional music/video for free, then they will use it, but it will be noticeable. Just as the likenesses of many famous actors are now being used in film and TV commercials. You recognize them, and they fit the intended part/role, but - as visually close to the real thing they are - they are still easy to identify as being artificially generated. I think professional composers and producers will take a hit initially, especially those not in the top tiers with a canon of work behind them, but once things start to become _"sameyfied",_ I think that brands will again want to stand out from the crowd by having _"Not made by A.I.!"_ materials promoting their products to set themselves apart from their competitors. And then we come full circle. P.S. I am not a music composer/producer, I'm just a home hobbyist. 👍

[@tomhe286]

Yes, but guess who or what in reality will be making most of those "not made by AI" songs? Yes, AI

[@sensumcommunem]

@@tomhe286 Yeah, I know what you mean, but if you can _"show the receipts"_ (i.e. show the manual production process, either inside or outside of the box), then that could be one way. I think with anything new or novel, they go through several phases: excitement, awe, mistrust, rejection, and compromise. I think that A.I. is currently at the mistrust/rejection phase. There will be a backlash, but that backlash will only carry weight if the big players get involved too (top directors, actors, producers, bands and singers, etc.), because let's face it, they too also face being made redundant. Sure, they can sell their "image rights", but most actors/singers do what they do because of the fame and adoration it attracts, and that will dissipate when their fans know it's just a render of that person, not the person themselves. I think there will then be a period of compromise where A.I. gets to do the boring/mundane elements, leaving the human to concentrate on the more creative elements of the production process. The very thing that makes it unique. I could be wrong, but I hope not.

[@tomhe286]

​@@sensumcommunem Good answer ❤

[@MaxFleye]

Everyone seems to put the emphasis on Intelligence, rather than ARTIFICIAL 🤔

[@music-drive]

I think it’ll mean an end to making a passive income from library music. Which unfortunately is exactly the part of the industry I’m involved with.

[@AlexPfeffer]

Even if it happens, there are tons of other opportunities.

[@Flowee141]

I personally can't wait for sound library developers to start creating plugins that use AI. I've already seen one with vocals and it sounds amazing.

[@snarf1504]

What incentive do they have to create a better car engine when other companies have created a teleportation device? Also, this would just put musicians and orchestrators out of work instead of composers.

[@Flowee141]

@@snarf1504 What incentive do they have? They probably love doing it as much as i love making music and i think we will never stop doing it my friend;)

[@AlexPfeffer]

@@snarf1504 why would it put orchestras out of work if A. sample libs exist since almost three decades and B. why would it be a problem if a sample lib could consist of a pool of samples that adapt to the MIDI rather needing tons of CC, modwheel and keyswitches? I personally don't care AI to be competition, because I will be someone using exactly THIS as my strongest selling point to write exclusive and original music. Tailored towards companies that still love to pay 10-50k for exactly THAT!

[@snarf1504]

Was this video written by ChatGPT? 😂

[@seventearsofhope]

Embrace and Embark :D

[@AlexPfeffer]

are you a bot? 😂

[@sr4triple7s]

I use Artificial Intelligence Singers to Sing what I write. I only produce now. Instead of paying a lot of money to hire singers. I have 8 AI Singers to put my words to my productions. I haven’t released them in a whole song yet, because I’m still working on each song. I’m now into Hybrid Orchestral Music. I’m still a Fetus in this genre. Once I drop the album I will be a Newborn, then Baby, then Toddler, etc… I love talking like that. I love the word Hybrid, because I love mixing different things together. Sticking to only one thing stinks to me. Those 8 AI’s bring different elements. 7 Females, 1 Male. I may get another male, if the male is as good as the one that I have already. The one that I have is close to sounding like Barry White. This is mainly about AI’s.

[@adowilke]

Hi, could you please write how you actually do it? For example, which platform/homepage? I would also like to include more vocals in my music.

[@adowilke]

Thank you!

[@sr4triple7s]

You’re very welcome. I was thinking about taking Artificial Intelligence Classes. That’s how much I love even using it. Our computers are AI. PCBs are in Motherboards and other electronics. AI is my thing!!!!!!!

[@tomhe286]

Sounds fun. But the problem here is that while you learn to make songs using those AI singers, some other "musician" has already made 10000 songs with AI. Songs that are so good that your songs might never be as good. Then who cares if you did put more effort into your song? Unfortunately nobody

[@sr4triple7s]

I care. That’s all that I care about. You do things your way I do them mines. I make music using voices other than mines, because I’ve never done that before. It’s my cup of tea. When others don’t like it, it’s fine with me. Making music is my journal. When I say different, I mean I’m doing different from the way that I used to do it. Here’s me also. In my music I’ve never been a Thug, Gangster, used the N-Word, Talk about shooting people, talk about selling drugs, etc… I have other ways of expressing myself. I don’t and never will make myself a Puppet to what people like. I will not Sell-Out just to Sell Records. I make money by Investing and Saving. Not by shilling to be liked.