Will AI take over the music industry?

In the modern world, AI is quickly integrating itself into our daily lives, changing the way we interact with computers and online platforms. It is common to have come across artificial intelligence, as it is integrated into apps such as Spotify, which analyse a user’s song preferences and provides them with personalised recommendations.

The music industry and music producers are people who are greatly impacted by AI, as it can produce drum beats, loops, chord progressions, and even lyrics. An example of that is WaveAI, a platform that is capable of generating lyrics, which could help make the songwriting process more efficient.

AI is defined by a computer’s ability to execute tasks that require a human’s intellectual capabilities. Nonetheless, a robot is not able to make decisions on its own, as it bases its actions on data and instructions provided by humans. With that in mind, AI is still dependent on the human race, therefore it will not be able to take over society as a whole; however, is the music industry exempt from that possibility?

Music as an art form

Music can be defined as an art form that combines vocal or instrumental sounds for the mere purpose of beauty or to express emotions, values, natural phenomena, and even social criticism.

Many people listen to songs that relate to their current mood as a way to either extend their positive feelings or help them overcome negative emotions. By listening to sad songs when feeling down, one feels as if someone is going through the same issues, allowing this feeling of empathy to lessen the sadness and make an individual feel validated.

Similar to literature or visual art, music reflects the current state of society and can both reflect and influence human emotions. Being something that is highly related to feelings, humans are a key aspect in the creation of music, as it will lose its main artistic purpose of provoking certain emotions if songs are automated and impersonal.

AI and plagiarism

Technology can assist musicians not only in the songwriting process but also in important aspects such as plagiarism. A “Plagiarism Risk Detector And Interface” has been patented by Spotify as a way to assist artists in avoiding the plagiarization of already-released songs.

The AI technology works by scanning the song and determining the level of similarity in relation to other pieces of music in Spotify’s database. This could then allow artists to modify the parts of their songs that are considered plagiarism and avoid lawsuits.

This Spotify algorithm, however, could potentially be inaccurate in some cases. YouTube also has a similar copyright detector technology that scans videos uploaded onto the platform, however this algorithm has proven to be sometimes faulty.

Where can AI be seen in the music industry?

AI has already deeply integrated itself into the songwriting part of music though several platforms that are not only able to help in specific tasks, such as LyricStudio which focuses on lyrics, but also in the songwriting process as a whole.

Amper is a consumer-friendly online tool that is able to compose, perform and produce tracks from a small amount of input. Its main audience is content creators, podcast creators, video editors and overall people who are making music solely for the purpose of using it rather to present artistry and emotions. Nevertheless, it has also been used by artists to write several songs. An example of that is the album I AM AI by Taryn Southern, an album co-produced and co-composed by AI.

Conclusion

Music is undoubtedly an important art form that can make social criticism impact one’s emotions. Since it is highly focused on feeling and being human, AI is never truly going to take over the music industry, nevertheless it can still be used within the music industry to aid humans in the process of writing original tracks.

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