What are the implications of AI for the music industry?

Artificial intelligence, something that we created, is gradually becoming our future. People argue that AI is beneficial and disadvantageous and that debate is everlasting. But we will specifically look into the implications of AI for the music industry.

We get recommended songs, playlists, artists etc based on the music we listen to and are sent to us using artificially intelligent algorithms. Data is collected from our usage on the app, it is administered and fed into artificial intelligence systems that learn what we listen to. Later it sends us the recommendations based on what we’ve previously listened to. Isn’t that pretty amazing? Millions of people just use music platforms and don’t even recognise this!

Typically, a record label earns 30% of the overall song revenue, and the rest of the money is distributed between the people who made the song, producers, songwriters, and singers. AI machines can easily cut some of those costs by creating a song themselves, which would acquire a lot more revenue.

AIVA is a tool that uses AI to generate music for both personal and business usage. It uses both deep learning and reinforcement learning, similar to Google’s Magenta above. AIVA is able to create classical music, this is a talent we thought to be exclusively a human quality. AIVA released its first album, Genesis, in November of 2016. It is also important to note that AIVA is a recognised composer as of 2017.

Not only this, but in the future AI has the potential to not only produce our music, but the performers themselves. The latest technology by Yamaha - Vocaloid has brought back the divine Japanese singer Hibari Misora back to life along with creating many new personalities, like the computer-generated influences turned pop star - Lil Miquela.

AI is everywhere, and it is not very far away in the future that AI will be able to do and control everything. AI is already helping enhance and improve work for both music makers and listeners. AI should be seen as a potential assistant, not a potential competitor.

This is just the beginning, there is a lot more to be seen.

-Rithwik