As we plunge deeper into the murky depths of AI’s integration into music creation and production, the warning cries grow louder, echoing through the halls of artistic expression. While AI dangles the seductive promise of revolutionising music, its insidious influence threatens to strangle the very essence of human creativity.
The deceptive promise of AI in music
AI’s siren song beckons with platforms like Amper Music and Jukedeck, offering a seemingly endless stream of compositions at the touch of a button. Yet, beneath this facade of convenience lies a sinister truth: AI’s algorithms lack the soulful nuance and emotional depth that define true artistic expression.
Unravelling the mechanics of AI in music
At its core, AI in music relies on complex algorithms trained on vast datasets of musical compositions. These algorithms analyse patterns, harmonies, and structures, seeking to mimic the creative process of human musicians. However, while AI can mimic elements of musicality, it struggles to capture the intangible essence of human emotion and experience.
Eroding creativity and collaboration
AI’s encroachment into the realm of creativity threatens to erode the collaborative spirit that fuels artistic innovation. By reducing music creation to a series of mathematical calculations, AI stifles the spontaneous creativity and improvisation that arise from human interaction. The result is a sterile, homogenised landscape devoid of the raw authenticity that defines true artistry.
The death knell for human skill and ingenuity
As AI’s reach extends further, the death knell tolls for artists, engineers, and producers alike. Imagine a world where the next Pearl Jam album is not birthed from the depths of human emotion and experience but churned out by soulless algorithms. Recording studios echo with the hollow cries of displaced professionals as AI renders their skills obsolete, leaving them cast adrift in a sea of irrelevance.
A soulless machine’s appetite for destruction
The music industry, a soulless machine in its own right, eagerly laps up the promises of AI, blinded to the impending doom it heralds. Unchecked AI development threatens to crush all semblance of human creative enterprise, leaving behind a barren wasteland devoid of passion, authenticity, and soul.
Wake up call for creatives
The time for complacency is over. Creatives, artists, engineers, and producers must rise from their slumber and confront the looming spectre of AI with unyielding resolve. Let us not allow our voices to be silenced by the cacophony of algorithms, but instead, let us raise a defiant cry in defence of human creativity.
Rallying against the onslaught
In the face of AI’s relentless onslaught, we must stand united as guardians of creativity, fighting tooth and nail to preserve the sanctity of human expression. By sounding the alarm and rallying against the encroaching tide of AI, we can forge a future where creativity thrives, innovation flourishes, and the soul of music remains untainted by the cold grasp of technology.
Did you enjoy this article? Everything above this line was written by AI!
Hopefully this helps to prove my point around how AI can take over if left unchecked. Let’s say you’re a band like Pearl Jam, and your record company asks for a new album. The band has just come off tour and is taking a break.
The record company decides to use AI to create the next Pearl Jam album. The record company already has a contract with the artists to use their likeness in perpetuity, so they are likely allowed to do this without the band’s permission.
My concern is simple: When the next Pearl Jam album is due, we are increasingly going to see AI-generated albums. When this technology advances further, the artist will no longer be required and neither will the recording studio.
The sound engineers and producers will no longer be required and kids will be singing along to the latest AI-generated albums. The unfettered approach to AI development will eventually stifle all human creative enterprise in the music industry.
There are some genres where there could be a case where utilising AI is far less impactful. DJs and rappers have been operating in a grey area for a very long time, where they sample another artist’s music and often get away with using that music without needing to pay any kind of royalty or licensing fee back to the original artist.
If AI has a genuine place in music production and in live performance, I believe it lies within the field of electronic dance music. The reason for this being that (as I’ve said before), DJs commonly sample other artists’ tracks and chop them up to create new and interesting beats and music loops.
Another place that AI could be used within music production is within the various digital audio workstations (DAWs) to accomplish time-saving jobs, i.e. something that a studio engineer could automate like sampling a piece of music and replicating the same effects across the rest of the track.
AI music should however not be allowed to replace the blood, sweat and tears of real singers, songwriters, instrumentalists and recording engineers who have dedicated their entire lives and careers to developing mastery of their instruments. For that reason alone, AI should not be welcomed into the pop, rock, jazz, blues, country and metal genres of music. We need to ringfence these music genres to ensure the preservation of human creativity and the artists that reside within.
If you’re currently working in any of the above fields and feel that AI is impacting on your livelihood, I’d love to hear from you and learn about your experience.
If you’re new to AI and the impact it’s making on the world right now, I’d highly recommend reading “The Age of AI: And Our Human Future” by Kissinger, Schmidt and Huttenlocher which discusses how AI will change our relationships with knowledge, politics, and the societies in which we live.
Disclaimer: If you make a purchase from any of the Amazon Associate links on this site, a tiny commission goes to supporting the site. In keeping with my “No BS” policy, I only ever recommend products that I personally use or know are beneficial to my readers.