This week, the BBC hosted an interview with music streaming platform Spotify. Essentially, Spotify endorses aspects of AI that help make enhance music. Daniel Ek, Spotify boss identified three aspects of AI, namely (1) tools that AI offers that could improve, (2) tools that could imitate artists, their sounds and voices, and (3) a kind of middle ground, where the content that AI creates is influenced by music artists but is not a direct imitation of them (Kleinman, 2023).
There are pros and cons to having AI here. Firstly, it can personalize the music selection where it offers tailor made suggestions of which songs the listened can listen to. Secondly, artists can use the data from listeners in order to tailor their songs to specific audiences. Related to this, AI can also help determine, based on trends, whether a song will be a success (Recording Arts, 2023).
Why, then is this a topic of debate?
Firstly, AI based content can replace human artists, and consequently devalue the contributions of human musicians (The gatekeepers space, n.d). AI can also imitate musician’s voices, leading to ‘fake songs’ that is not actual content, but simply imitations (Scott, 2023). This could be controversial as ‘false’ songs are made and released to the public (Scott, 2023). Lastly, songs will no longer capture raw human emotions (Nair, 2020) and will be governed by data that AI uses to produce songs that are just there to gain commercial success.
Daniel Ek’s insights into AI and music highlight how he and Spotify are keen to stay committed to protecting musical artists and not replacing them with AI. It should be mentioned that technological innovations have brought music a long way from where it started, and one has to consider the possibility that AI is just a continuation.
References
Kleinman, Zoe . “Spotify Will Not Ban AI-Made Music, Says Boss.” BBC News, 25 Sept. 2023, www.bbc.com/news/technology-66882414. Accessed 27 Sept. 2023.
Nair, Ayan. “AI-Generated Music’s Lack of Ability to Capture Emotion.” Medium, 15 Sept. 2020, ayannair2021.medium.com/ai-generated-musics-lack-of-ability-to-capture-emotion-3f9ce7d32820. Accessed 27 Sept. 2023.
Network, The Learning. “What Students Are Saying about A.I.-Generated Music.” The New York Times, 11 May 2023, www.nytimes.com/2023/05/11/learning/what-students-are-saying-about-ai-generated-music.html.
Scott, Danni. “AI Song Covers Mimicking Artists’ Voices Could Do “Harm” to Music Industry.” Mirror, 17 Apr. 2023, www.mirror.co.uk/tech/ai-song-covers-mimicking-artists-29732083.
SeventhQueen. “Artificial Intelligence: The Future of the Music Industry?” Recording Arts Canada, 22 June 2023, recordingarts.com/artificial-intelligence-the-future-of-the-music-industry/#:~:text=AI%20in%20Music%20Advantages.
