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With the success of AI content generation for text (GPT-3 etc.) and images (DALL-E etc.), it seems inevitable that music will soon be targeted as well, if not a

With the success of AI content generation for text (GPT-3 etc.) and images (DALL-E etc.), it seems inevitable that music will soon be targeted as well, if not already. What's particularly interesting in the music sphere is that there are already well-established trends towards building a sort of ambient, atmospheric, generated soundscape. (For example, the famous "Lo-Fi girl" stream.) AI-generated content is a very natural progression here. Regarding the broader pop music industry, a "GPT-3 for music" would likely further inequalize the relative power of labels and musicians. If people who control music distribution can easily make hit songs without needing to hire songwriters, arrangers, or performers, they surely will do so. I can imagine a lot of music-related occupations potentially having to pivot to rely much more heavily on live performances to make any money.

zone411 4y ago
Yes, it's inevitable. Some parts of this process are harder than than others, though. I think I've handled the hardest part, which is making catchy melodies (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLoCzMRqh5SkFwkumE578YO4qa1NTkmMi4 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLoCzMRqh5SkFwkumE578Y...). Live music is already over 50% of music industry revenue, so the transition could be a bit easier for musicians than for visual artists.
- djmips 4y ago
  Didn't find the melodies catchy. Sorry to tell you that.
  - _bohm 4y ago
    In fairness, I'd bet that most of your favorite tunes would become very un-catchy if they were stripped of harmony and percussion, and played by a quantized, expressionless square wave
- projektfu 4y ago
  The melody style reminds me of a songbook I have of Tin Pan Alley songs.
vibrolax 4y ago
In Orwell's "1984", a machine called the Versificator generated the music and literature for consumption by the proles.
_carbyau_ 4y ago
Generated music but with dance troupes? Ala K-Pop?
usefulcat 4y ago
Generated music has been around for at least several years, for example https://generative.fm/ https://generative.fm/ (no affiliation).
- femto113 4y ago
  AI that imitates well-known composers goes back much further, I remember attending a concert of "virtual mozart" works at UC Santa Cruz back in the late 80s/early 90s https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2010/jul/11/david-cope-computer-composer https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2010/jul/11/david-cop...
ehnto 4y ago
Music can be algorithmically generated since it's formulaic, what I think machine learning models will struggle with at first is maintaining those formulas throughout a song. I imagine AI produced songs will/do sound winding and unhinged at first. All the right ingredients but stewed up in a pot.
- Applejinx 4y ago
  Like Dall-E. What you'll get is music which apes music tropes really well, but strangely intentionless and disassociated. For genres like ambient where the intention is to be intentionless and disassociated (or can be), the result is like 'oh hey, AI is here!'. It's weird. You could extrude endless amounts of The Caretaker, "Everywhere At The End Of Time" if you specified the recipe, with a 'deterioration dial' and some coding to determine how you vary the output. But you'd be free-riding on a pre-existing artistic intention that was originally implemented in dramatic, bold manner. To extrude endless amounts of this stuff is both fairly trivial and missing the point completely…
duped 4y ago
They always have relied on live performance (and to a greater extent, education). Talk to some professionals in the industry some time, they're not going to talk about records as a source of income. I could write a ten page rant on why AI and automation aren't a threat to musicians but it basically boils down to the fact that music is a human spectacle and we will continue to grow the industry through performing live music much like a robot that can mimic Tom Brady isn't a threat to teams selling tickets to see Tom Brady play live and people to watch it on TV (which exists, by the way). At the end of the day, technology that lowers the barrier to entry for records and distribution is a massive boon to the industry at all levels. The rising tide lifts all boats. The companies doing interesting things with AI in music aren't just generating old shit, they're making tools to give to the next generation of creators to create new shit that no training can replicate, because it has never been done.
- Kiro 4y ago
  Your comment ignores 99% of genres.
  - ehnto 4y ago
    I don't think it does, if you are alluding to electronic music that's also just as much about the human aspect of it. Lets be real, at the commercial end of the spectrum electronic music is trivial to make, but no one wants to hear "Song seed 2aslk3j25lh" they want to hear what their "Music Hero" has made. Another aspect is DJing, DJs don't even pretend to have made the music yet people will come out just to hear a specific DJ play other peoples songs. It's almost entirely about the human figurehead, the popularity contest, the status and the fashion of it all. Some labels might try to present artists that have AI music, and no doubt it would still be consumed. But it's a huge risk when it to the human aspect of it as people want authenticity. Music is consumed in a huge array of contexts though, where I think AI music will end up is as music in movies, backing tracks in adverts and youtube videos, as filler music for all kinds of other media.
    - 411111111111111 4y ago
feydaykyn 4y ago
That's the plot of Norman Spinrad's book Little heroes. It starts with the idea that Music record companies can only make bad automated music, and in order to make a hit, they hire real musicians. It's a great read! https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/719900.Little_Heroes?ref=nav_sb_ss_3_13 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/719900.Little_Heroes?ref...
mrtksn 4y ago
Considering that significant portion of the pop music produced in the last 30 years is made by a few people like Max Martin, one can assume that there's a formula for writing music that people love. Seems promising for AI to be honest.
IMSAI8080 4y ago
OpenAI (the people behind GPT-3) already make one. It's called JukeBox. It can even make new unique songs in the style of existing artists with a simulation of their vocal style. https://openai.com/blog/jukebox/ https://openai.com/blog/jukebox/
eteos 4y ago
I think music, especially pop music, is in a completely different ball park than text or images. An AI can't just make a catchy song only with a training model and some rules. Successful musicians have a feel for what we will like and what will be trendy. An AI can't do that, at least not for a while to come. Well, thats just my thoughts, I'm not an expert on this.

zone411 4y ago

Yes, it's inevitable. Some parts of this process are harder than than others, though. I think I've handled the hardest part, which is making catchy melodies (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLoCzMRqh5SkFwkumE578YO4qa1NTkmMi4 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLoCzMRqh5SkFwkumE578Y...). Live music is already over 50% of music industry revenue, so the transition could be a bit easier for musicians than for visual artists.

djmips 4y ago
Didn't find the melodies catchy. Sorry to tell you that.
- _bohm 4y ago
  In fairness, I'd bet that most of your favorite tunes would become very un-catchy if they were stripped of harmony and percussion, and played by a quantized, expressionless square wave
projektfu 4y ago
The melody style reminds me of a songbook I have of Tin Pan Alley songs.

vibrolax 4y ago

In Orwell's "1984", a machine called the Versificator generated the music and literature for consumption by the proles.

_carbyau_ 4y ago

Generated music but with dance troupes? Ala K-Pop?

usefulcat 4y ago

Generated music has been around for at least several years, for example https://generative.fm/ https://generative.fm/ (no affiliation).

femto113 4y ago
AI that imitates well-known composers goes back much further, I remember attending a concert of "virtual mozart" works at UC Santa Cruz back in the late 80s/early 90s https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2010/jul/11/david-cope-computer-composer https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2010/jul/11/david-cop...

ehnto 4y ago

Music can be algorithmically generated since it's formulaic, what I think machine learning models will struggle with at first is maintaining those formulas throughout a song. I imagine AI produced songs will/do sound winding and unhinged at first. All the right ingredients but stewed up in a pot.

Applejinx 4y ago
Like Dall-E. What you'll get is music which apes music tropes really well, but strangely intentionless and disassociated. For genres like ambient where the intention is to be intentionless and disassociated (or can be), the result is like 'oh hey, AI is here!'. It's weird. You could extrude endless amounts of The Caretaker, "Everywhere At The End Of Time" if you specified the recipe, with a 'deterioration dial' and some coding to determine how you vary the output. But you'd be free-riding on a pre-existing artistic intention that was originally implemented in dramatic, bold manner. To extrude endless amounts of this stuff is both fairly trivial and missing the point completely…

duped 4y ago

They always have relied on live performance (and to a greater extent, education). Talk to some professionals in the industry some time, they're not going to talk about records as a source of income. I could write a ten page rant on why AI and automation aren't a threat to musicians but it basically boils down to the fact that music is a human spectacle and we will continue to grow the industry through performing live music much like a robot that can mimic Tom Brady isn't a threat to teams selling tickets to see Tom Brady play live and people to watch it on TV (which exists, by the way). At the end of the day, technology that lowers the barrier to entry for records and distribution is a massive boon to the industry at all levels. The rising tide lifts all boats. The companies doing interesting things with AI in music aren't just generating old shit, they're making tools to give to the next generation of creators to create new shit that no training can replicate, because it has never been done.

Kiro 4y ago
Your comment ignores 99% of genres.
- ehnto 4y ago
  I don't think it does, if you are alluding to electronic music that's also just as much about the human aspect of it. Lets be real, at the commercial end of the spectrum electronic music is trivial to make, but no one wants to hear "Song seed 2aslk3j25lh" they want to hear what their "Music Hero" has made. Another aspect is DJing, DJs don't even pretend to have made the music yet people will come out just to hear a specific DJ play other peoples songs. It's almost entirely about the human figurehead, the popularity contest, the status and the fashion of it all. Some labels might try to present artists that have AI music, and no doubt it would still be consumed. But it's a huge risk when it to the human aspect of it as people want authenticity. Music is consumed in a huge array of contexts though, where I think AI music will end up is as music in movies, backing tracks in adverts and youtube videos, as filler music for all kinds of other media.
  - 411111111111111 4y ago

feydaykyn 4y ago

That's the plot of Norman Spinrad's book Little heroes. It starts with the idea that Music record companies can only make bad automated music, and in order to make a hit, they hire real musicians. It's a great read! https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/719900.Little_Heroes?ref=nav_sb_ss_3_13 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/719900.Little_Heroes?ref...

mrtksn 4y ago

Considering that significant portion of the pop music produced in the last 30 years is made by a few people like Max Martin, one can assume that there's a formula for writing music that people love. Seems promising for AI to be honest.

IMSAI8080 4y ago

OpenAI (the people behind GPT-3) already make one. It's called JukeBox. It can even make new unique songs in the style of existing artists with a simulation of their vocal style. https://openai.com/blog/jukebox/ https://openai.com/blog/jukebox/

eteos 4y ago

I think music, especially pop music, is in a completely different ball park than text or images. An AI can't just make a catchy song only with a training model and some rules. Successful musicians have a feel for what we will like and what will be trendy. An AI can't do that, at least not for a while to come. Well, thats just my thoughts, I'm not an expert on this.