DEV Community

AI-created music is here, now what?

Michael Tharrington on May 01, 2023

About half a year ago I started up a discussion called How far off is AI created music? ...
Collapse
 
erinposting profile image
Erin Bensinger • Edited

shouts from rooftop HOLLY HERNDON!

Holly has been working with AI and algorithmic programming in her music since 2018. Her album PROTO, which came out in 2019, deals with themes of technology and sentience in both its lyrics and in its construction. It was one of my favorite releases of that year.

If you listen to any track from the record, listen to "Frontier," in which a chorus of human and programmed voices sing a hopeful yet cautionary Sacred Harp hymn about the climate crisis.

And, since "Frontier" doesn't have a music video, here's the video (also AI-assisted, of course) for "Eternal."

Holly participated as a guest in a really interesting conversation on Vox's Today, Explained podcast last week about "Fake Drake" and applications for AI in music creation. I highly recommend checking it out if this topic interests you!

Collapse
 
michaeltharrington profile image
Michael Tharrington

Wow! This is exactly what I'm looking for. Holly sounds seriously awesome and I'm super interested in the themes covered in her music. I really dug "Eternal" and will def be checking out more of her stuff! Gonna pop on "Frontier" in just a wee bit. Thanks for this! πŸ™Œ

Collapse
 
rachelfazio profile image
Rachel Fazio

So cool YES thank you for sharing

Collapse
 
michaeltharrington profile image
Michael Tharrington

I'm a big fan of the YouTube channel Digging The Greats and just the other day they released a new episode called What the AI Drake Song Means for Music... this video def got my wheels turning about what's possible with AI-generated music and some of the potential legal implications as well. It doesn't dig into the tech as much as it gets into copyright, the legal workarounds that cover/parody songs may provide AI, and a bunch of speculation about what's to come. Hope y'all enjoy!

Collapse
 
syeo66 profile image
Red Ochsenbein (he/him)

Yay. More pointless music at an even faster pace. I really hope this will spark a new interest in actual live shows with all their flaws and unpredictability which make them exciting.

Collapse
 
michaeltharrington profile image
Michael Tharrington

Haha! I very much hear ya.

The music industry was already pretty darn good at bad about using the same old formula to manufacture hits for folks again and again... this feels like it'll make it even easier for them to do that.

Just imagine a future where we listen to AI regurgitate pop stars' voices that sing lyrics based on whatever the algorithm thinks our preferences are on top of beats that have been designed based on our listening history... uhhh no thanks!

I agree with ya that hopefully all this will pique interest in live shows and human music. Everything happens in waves, so if AI-created music enters the mainstream, I'd expect something human to rise up against it β€” I sincerely hope so!

On that note, this convo reminds me a little bit of this post:

Collapse
 
cbid2 profile image
Christine Belzie

I can see this method used as a tool for songwriters when creating demos to send to other artists. Also, it's important to emphasize that the songwriter created the lyrics and the vocals themselves and AI just turned their voice into Drake's and The Weekend's. This hat creating music still needs skilled humans.

Collapse
 
michaeltharrington profile image
Michael Tharrington • Edited

Oh totally, Christine! I can see that happening too.

And actually, you mentioning that AI still needs skilled human musicians kinda reminds me of a previous instance where AI and human (James Murphy) collaborated on a musical composition that was created with lots and lots of tennis data. Sounds weird? It is, haha! Let me explain... 🎾

James Murphy (singer/producer/bandleader of LCD Soundsystem) and IBM developers partnered to create music from a bunch of data that was gathered from tennis matches at the 2014 US Open. My understanding is that the data produced a bunch of bleeps and bloops based on parameters that James Murphy set and then he curated & organized them afterward into song (this is the bit that I think connects with what you're talking about). Here's a video (and an article on Pitchfork) that explains what's happening better than I have.

So yeah, that may or may not have helped. πŸ˜…

Regardless of how it's made though, I actually quite like the resulting music, particularly this one:

Collapse
 
philipjohnbasile profile image
Philip John Basile

You can do it now! Download Sonic Pi [sonic-pi.net/] and then ask chatgpt to make songs for you that mimics top artists.

Collapse
 
michaeltharrington profile image
Michael Tharrington

Wow! That is wild. Thanks for sharing, Philip!

Collapse
 
philipjohnbasile profile image
Philip John Basile

you inspired me to write something even longer!

dev.to/philipjohnbasile/crafting-s...

Thread Thread
 
ben profile image
Ben Halpern

Cool!