We can all agree that generative AI has taken the world by storm over the last four years, permeating various workflows from banking and finance to information technology. However, I believe the creative industry may not necessarily be affected just yet… or could it?
AIVA (Artificial Intelligence Virtual Artist), known for composing emotional soundtracks and instrumental pieces, showcases how AI can assist in creating music. However, after trying the app myself, I can confidently say that our music-producing jobs are safe — at least for now.
Using AIVA, I attempted to compose my own music without any prior knowledge of musical terminology or concepts. This proved to be quite challenging, as I had no understanding of chords or what I was actually creating.
To simplify the process, I watched a tutorial, but even then, I found it difficult to make the composition sound good.
After two hours, I gave up — partly due to the frustration of producing sounds that didn’t meet my expectations and the struggle to grasp each musical element. Safe to say, being a music lover doesn’t mean I’m ready to become a music producer just yet.
Here is a snapshot my workflow:
Here is a link for my one of two tunes I have created:
BLOG 2 Sound Trap: https://creators.aiva.ai/publicPlayer?c=67067de876d96da15f627502
Although this experience wasn’t as fruitful as I had hoped, it reinforced my belief that generative AI is not yet equipped to make anyone a music producer. No matter how many inputs you provide, the human touch is still essential.
As the name suggests, AIVA is a tool, not a replacement. While technical knowledge of layering or chord progression can be taught to a machine, the creativity, intuition, and emotion that a human brings to music production remain irreplaceable.
Loved the post! This topic seems very interesting because there is constant talk about how AI will take over our jobs and so on. I had a discussion with my friend once about the future of the music industry and AI as I was wondering whether it is possible that in the future artists will sell the right to their voices to music companies enhanced by AI leading to AI producing new releases using the artist’s voice. We had this talk after someone released a song using Drake’s and The Weekend’s voices and it indeed sounded well enough for many people to think it’s a leak of an unreleased song. It is also very interesting to see how much value we place on the intangible human impact and soul put into creating a piece such as a painting or a song, just as you mention, and whether the consumers would be happy to consume any art good produced by AI without that essential human touch.
The post was very informative. Escpecially when you explained how you made the music. It is a good thing that AI as of right now will change the music industry, the human touch is still very much important. But it may be inevitable, therefore preparing for it may be the best course of action. But I also believe that AI will never replace unique artist such as: the Beatles, Michael Jackson or Queen. Because music from them could never be replaced by AI.