When Barry Manilow tried to tour in 1982, he faced the problem of taking an orchestra on tour at great expense. So he didn’t. Instead, a larger group of musicians playing traditional instruments was abandoned and replaced by a few guys playing synthesizers. Musicians’ trade unions argued that synthesizers were a job killer and that the technology should be outlawed. what happened to that?
Around the same time, musicians were exploring the art of samples, surgically removing parts of old songs as new ones were created. There were also many complaints about it. “Creativity is dead!” cried the opposition. “We are destined for the future of recycled sound!”
Instead, once the legal issues have been resolved (i.e. proper credit given to those whose work was sampled), a new generation of smart musicians will use new technology to expand the sonic range of popular music. And I was able to extend the texture.
And that leads to the introduction of modern drum machines. Drummers believed the technology would put them out of business. However, something interesting happened. It wasn’t. There were still plenty of drummer gigs. Meanwhile, musicians started using drum machines to get beats and sounds that humans couldn’t create with their arms and legs. This technology has brought a whole new set of sounds and a new job as a drum programmer.
Such Luddites have little success in speaking out against technological advances. When it comes to music versus technology, technology almost always wins.
The latest challenge to the status quo is the use of artificial intelligence in creating new music. Critics point to gaps in copyright law. Musicians see AI-assisted music as scary, cheating, theft, and even evil. Rapper Ice Cube, who painstakingly uses samples liberally, calls AI’s music “diabolical.”
Yes, we have to deal with all sorts of issues surrounding AI and music. And yes, there are legal and ethical issues that need to be resolved. But even now that the technology is here, it doesn’t go away. It’s time to start looking at the positive things that AI can bring to music.
hold up. please listen. Here are some scenarios where AI can be very useful.
Music generation: Human creativity is limited by experience and ability. No one can be inspired by all the styles and genres of music out there. AI can do it. With the text-to-speech capabilities of programs like Google’s MusicLM, you can say or type something like, “Play her music in Lithuanian, accordion-based industrial dance with Lady Gaga-esque vocals.” You get It’s not very good, but playing around with silly commands like this can lead to new types of inspiration.
Songwriting: Everyone hits writer’s block. Playing with AI can help break the rut by presenting ideas for new moods, tones, and approaches. And it incorporates not only the 12 notes of the Western musical scale, but also lyrical ideas. Sure, you can reach for a thesaurus or a rhyming dictionary, but AI is much faster and more powerful.
Production music: The need for free, copyright-free music for industrial use is endless. This includes everything from narrations, corporate videos, podcasts, TikTok and YouTube posts, and even accompanying TV and film scores. Anonymous musicians work in studios to come up with this important but harmless piece of music while avoiding accidentally infringing on the work of others. Previously, these libraries of his clips of 10s, 15s, 30s, and 60s of music were sold to radio stations, etc. was sold as a digital download). After a year or so, when all the material is exhausted, you will have to buy/license a new library.
AI will be used to provide a virtually unlimited supply of this kind of music. Ask anyone in the production/post-production industry how this helps. Especially if you want to create material that sounds close to familiar without actually falling into the realm of plagiarism.
Voice imitating: Say you’re a songwriter and you need to write a song for Adele. You can configure the whole thing and add an AI clone of Adele’s voice just in time to see what the final product sounds like. Songwriters and producers will love this.
Licensing voice: Audio becomes a digital asset that can be licensed and purchased. Here is an example.
I do a lot of voice work and narration work, but sometimes I have to turn down work because I’m too busy. What if I could get my own voice licensed with all the intonations and quirks to use in a time-pressed voice job job? I can even see a future where people imitate me regardless of the content. Just cash the check when it arrives in the mail. Sounds pretty sweet to me.
Resurrection of deceased artists: In 1997, a new television commercial for the Dirt Devil vacuum cleaner appeared, featuring Fred Astaire dancing with a vacuum cleaner. Considering Astaire died 10 years ago, this is a cute trick. His estate earned a good amount of money in licensing fees for Fred’s image. Technologies like Zelig and Forrest Gump are very popular in movies and television.
AI is now working with the legacy of Tupac Shakur, Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain, Prine, or other deceased artists for new collaborations without the need to find old static vocal tracks from the past. giving you the opportunity to license your voice. Instead, something called “vocal emulation” is used. For example, let’s say you want to duet a song with Pac about the night Eminem was shot dead. Anyone can rap anything into the program, changing the timbre and tonality to something that sounds like a puck.
who would do this? Think of the thousands of songs being hoarded by companies like Primary Wave, Hipgnosis, and Concord. This could be part of the way artists and songs live longer.
Musical fanfiction: What would happen if Kurt Cobain sang a Michael Jackson song? Thriller? Think of all the strange parallel worlds we can explore.
It’s an interesting time, the wild west of AI music production. But it will be codified, legalized and monetized, just like we’ve seen with synths, sampling and drum machines. The future will be interesting.
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Alan Cross is a broadcaster for Q107 and 102.1 the Edge and a commentator for Global News.
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