AI-Generated Music
By: Faustina Canika Zhu
Edited by: Sonia Setiono
The artificial intelligence industry has recently experienced a remarkable boom in the 21st century. After the evolution of OpenAI’s famous AI tool, ChatGPT, a wave of other similar tools followed soon after, including Google’s Google Bard. As technology advanced and developed even further, the big-name tech companies pushed beyond merely AI-generated text, but also AI-generated images and - most interestingly - AI-generated music.
By using specialized algorithms and computer programs, AI technology is now able to make use of existing musical components and create entirely new pieces of music, generating distinctive sounds. From the generation of film and television soundtracks to the background music in digital advertisements, AI-generated music is no longer a distant dream, but a current reality.
The technology of AI-generated music can be beneficial for the music industry in many different ways. For instance, it is much more time and resource-efficient compared to human-generated music, as the algorithms and computer programs make it possible to generate music in a shorter amount of time. Additionally, it can allow more creativity and possibilities in terms of the innovation of new musical pieces.
Although all this innovation may seem like a bright future in the potential applications of AI, the music industry is not very supportive of this idea. According to the Financial Times, Universal Music Group - the music cooperation home to superstars like Taylor Swift, Nicki Minaj, and Bob Dylan - has urged Spotify and Apple to prevent AI tools from scraping lyrics and melodies from its artists' copyrighted songs. Yet, there remain instances where artists collaborate with AI, instead of working against it.
Ultimately, the advent of AI-generated music has helped the industry grow by offering a platform available for anyone to create music. While it enhances creativity and innovation, some may still see it as a threat to the music composers in the industry due to its efficiency in time and resources. Nevertheless, as long as there is a balance between human and artificial intelligence, AI-generated music can be a useful tool instead of a threat.