The success of AI music creators will spark debate about the future of the music industry

When pop groups or rock bands practice or play, they rely on guitars, keyboards and drumsticks to make music. British AI music creator Oliver McCann passes through the stage name imoliver and launches a chatbot.

McCann’s songs range from indie pop to electro soul to country rap. There is only one important difference between McCann and traditional musicians.

“I have no musical talent at all,” he said. “I can’t sing, I can’t play instruments, I have no background to the music at all.”

With a background as a visual designer, McCann (37) began experimenting with AI to see if it could boost his creativity and “to bring some of my lyrics to life.” Last month, he signed with independent record label Hallwood Media after one of his tracks won three million streams.

McCann is an example of how ChatGpt-style AI song generation tools such as Suno and Udio have created waves of synthetic music. The move most notably emphasized by the fictional group Velvet Sundown went viral despite all the songs, lyrics and album art being created by AI.

It encouraged discussions about the role of AI in music and caused fear about “AI Slop.” It also highlights AI song generators who are democratizing Song Makeing but threatening to disrupt the music industry.

Experts say that the generator AI is set to change the world of music. However, so far, there is little detail on how it is affecting the $29.6 billion world record music market, including around $20 billion from streaming.

The most trustworthy person comes from music streaming service Deezer. This suggests that 18% of songs uploaded to the platform every day are purely AI, but not only do they make up a small total stream, but few people actually listen to it. Other big streaming platforms like Spotify have not released numbers for AI Music.

Udio declined to comment on how many users and the number of songs it generated. Suno did not respond to requests for comment. Both have free basic levels and Pro and premium layers that allow access to more advanced AI models.

“It’s a complete boom. It’s a tsunami,” said Josh Antonuccio, director of Ohio University’s School of Media Arts Studies. The amount of AI-generated music “just increases exponentially” as young people grow with AI and become more comfortable, he said.

However, generative AI, with the ability to spit out seemingly unique content, divides the world of music, and musicians and industry groups complain that recorded works are being abused to train AI models that power song generation tools.

Record Labels are trying to avoid the threat AI Music Startups poses to their revenue streams despite AI music startups wanting to leverage it for new revenue, but recording artists worry that it will underestimate creativity.

Three major record companies, Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group and Warner Records, filed lawsuits against Suno and Udio last year for copyright infringement. In June, both sides also reportedly negotiated beyond setting rules for artist payment methods when AI was used to remix the songs.

Gemma, the German Royal Collection Association, sues Sno and accuses him of producing music similar to songs such as Rubega’s “Mambo No. 5” and Alpha Bill’s “Eternal Young.”

More than 1,000 musicians, including Kate Bush, Annie Lennox and Damon Albern, have released silent albums to protest proposals to change UK laws on AI that they fear will erode creative control. Meanwhile, other artists like Will.i.am, Timbaland and Imogen Heap have embraced the technology.

Some users say the argument is a rehash of old debates about one new technology that eventually became widely used, such as autotunes, drum machines, synthesizers.

People complain that you’re using your computer to do all your work. I don’t see it that way. I don’t see it as any other tool we have,” said Scott Smith, an AI band Pulse Empire, inspired by a British synthesizer-driven group in the 1980s.

Smith, 56, and a semi-retired former US Navy spokesman in Portland, Oregon, said “music producers have a lot of tools in their armory” to bolster recordings that listeners don’t know about.

Like McCann, Smith never mastered the instrument. Both say they spent a lot of time and effort creating the music.

When Smith gets inspiration, it takes just 10 minutes to write the lyrics. But then he spends 8-9 hours generating different versions until the song “matches my vision.”

McCann said he often creates up to 100 different versions of songs by urging and re-employing them before they are satisfied.

AI song generators can understand lyrics as well as music, but many experienced users prefer to write their own words.

“AI lyrics tend to be very clichéd and very boring,” McCann said.

Lucas Rams, a Philadelphia-area resident, makes songs about the AI ​​band Sleep with Wolves, who said that AI lyrics tend to be “extra horny” rather than as creative as humans, but helps to get started with the writing process.

“It would do a very basic rhyme scheme and keep repeating the same structure,” said Rams, who wrote his own words. “And you’ll get a word that speaks very much, anything with a “shadow” like “neon” there. ”

The Rams used to play drums in high school bands and worked with their siblings on their own songs, but their work and family life began to spend more time.

He then discovered the AI. AI had created three albums for Sleeping With Wolves. He takes it seriously and makes CD jewel cases with album art. He plans to post songs that combine MetalCore and EDM more widely online.

“I want to start putting this on YouTube, social, distribution, etc. “I might as well. Otherwise I’m literally the only person who hears something like this.”

Experts say that AI could potentially come up with a hit song for anyone.

“Think of what cost to make a hit or make something that breaks,” Antonuccio said. “And it just keeps flinching from the main studios to the laptops to the bedrooms, and now it’s like a text prompt.

However, he added that AI music is still in the “wildwest” stage as it does not legally clarify copyright. He compared it to the legal battle over Napstar-like file sharing sites that announced the transition from CDS to digital media over two decades ago, and ultimately paved the way for today’s music streaming services.

Creators hope that AI will ultimately become part of the mainstream music world.

“I think we’re in a world where anyone can make their next big hit anywhere,” McCann said. “As AI becomes more widely accepted among people as a musical art form, I think it opens up the possibility that AI music will be featured on the charts.”

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