© Getty Images

First instruments -

The first instrument was created tens of thousands of years ago, when Neanderthals produced a flute out of bone.

© Getty Images

Producing music -

We’re a long way out from that time. In fact, producing music has never been easier. Within the last 50 years, music production has achieved fast-paced advances.

© Getty Images

Emerging tension -

In the age of generative AI, the process is even more streamlined. With this, a certain degree of tension has emerged within the music industry, especially among creative professionals.

© Getty Images

Musicians are concerned -

While AI is certainly helping people rise up to stardom, generating music out of what seems like thin air, musicians are worried.

© Getty Images

Glow-up or downfall? -

While it’s too soon to say if the music industry is experiencing a major glow-up or if we’re watching its downfall, there is no doubt that generative AI is changing music production forever.

© Getty Images

Automated replacement -

Musicians, producers, and the many professionals involved in the process of making many of your favorite albums are anxious about their automated replacements.

© Getty Images

Exploiting technology -

Record labels, which hold the key to success for many artists, are exploiting this technology to up their profits and cut out anyone they can.

© Getty Images

Streamlining vs. replacement -

Audio engineers are using the technology to amp the mixing and mastering processes. But there’s a big difference between using the technology to streamline and using it to replace human creatives.

© Getty Images

Tools -

Generative AI tools like Suno and Udio can generate a song from the input of a bit of text. This is very different from assisted mastering.

© Getty Images

Patterns via data sets -

Like AI used across other fields, the technology picks up on patterns via data sets (licensed songs or those publicly available, as well as metadata).

© Getty Images

Predictive patterns -

Taking a small audio sample or just based on text input, the AI model comes up with a musical output best aligned with the predictive patterns it identifies.

© Getty Images

Facilitate an output -

So the AI model depends on existing music, the tools that have been used to produce music, and the huge datasets that power knowledge to actually facilitate an output.

© Getty Images

Machine-learning capacity -

Like all AI models, its machine-learning capacity determines the quality of its output. The more data it is exposed to, the more likely it is to be accurate in its output.

© Getty Images

Standard -

Often, these generative AI platforms produce songs that are standard in the genre or style that the platform is being prompted to produce. Few would argue that innovative or particularly interesting outputs come out of AI.

© Getty Images

Lawsuits -

But stereotypical sounds sell. Musicians have noticed and have joined other creatives in filing lawsuits against different AI tools.

© Getty Images

Copyright vs. fair use -

In some cases, the issue of licensed material makes copyright arguments more clear. In others, fair use of publicly accessible material draws a big gray zone.

© Getty Images

Scrambling -

Either way, legal systems across the world are still scrambling to figure out how to make sense of these lawsuits and where compensation falls.

© Getty Images

Stability AI -

Ed Newton-Rex, who was VP of audio at Stability AI when the company launched its audio generative AI initiative, Stable Audio, points out that the issue is that people spend a limited time listening to music in their daily lives.

© Getty Images

Consumption -

Therefore, the amount of money that those in the industry can make is also limited, as consumption is a key aspect to the product that the industry produces.

© Getty Images

AI audio initiatives -

For Newton-Rex, this limited pool is now in danger of becoming even smaller with generative AI audio initiatives joining profit fishing, meaning less and less will actually go to humans making music.

© Getty Images

Artist Rights Alliance -

The Artist Rights Alliance statement against the use of AI to generate profitable music was issued in early 2024 by over 200 musicians. This was one of the first of many protests to come in the demand for regulation.

© Getty Images

Innovation and illicit regurgitation -

The issue of consent is central for artists as the lines continue to be blurred between illicit regurgitation and innovation in the creative industry.

© Getty Images

Silent album -

Newton-Rex also organized a ‘silent’ album with the collaboration of 1,000 musicians, backed by iconic stars such as Sir Elton John and Paul McCartney, across the UK.

© Getty Images

Foreshadowing -

The album, titled ‘Is This What We Want?’ comprises ambient empty studio and performance sites, foreshadowing what the industry faces if overcome by AI.

© Getty Images

Consent -

It’s not just about the output. For some artists, just the act of using their data without their consent to then produce a creative output is a key issue to the generative AI process.

© Getty Images

Facing the heat -

It’s not just the middle men or independent artists who are facing the heat of AI. Mega superstars like pop icon Celine Dion and Bad Bunny have also issued statements on AI-generated music.

© Getty Images

Software reproduction -

An AI-generated cover of a gospel song was circulated across various platforms with over one million views, crediting Dion. The tune was produced via software that reproduces voices without the singer’s permission or knowledge.

© Getty Images

Another side -

There is another side to the story. Randy Travis, a performer who suffered a stroke which rendered him unable to speak or sing, has grasped onto the technology to continue to produce music despite his condition.

© Getty Images

Stiff Person Syndrome -

Dion, who has also faced challenges to perform following her diagnosis with Stiff Person Syndrome, might, too, be tempted to use the technology in the future, depending on the evolution of her illness.

Sources: (Rolling Stone) (Forbes) (Vox)

See also: Our lives in the age of artificial intelligence

© Getty Images