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AI-generating music app Riffusion turns viral success into $4M in funding
- debacle 3y agohttps://www.riffusion.com/ https://www.riffusion.com/
- qwertox 3y agoReality is getting crazier day by day.
- siva7 3y agohow i hate exotic apps that don't explain what they do but just present me some buttons to goof around
- Alifatisk 3y agoI would register if I didn't have to enter my phone number or login via Google.
- swingingFlyFish 3y agoI'm more impressed that there was zero errors in the console on loading. impressive.
- debacle 3y agoI've been interested in something like this - a sort of ephemeral perpetual MIDI LLM jam session. These clips seem short, I wonder if there's a longer form audio if you log in.
- Dudester230602 3y ago"There’s no clear monetization strategy — yet. For now, Forsgren and Martiros say that they’re focusing on growing Riffusion’s team and developing complementary new generative AI products." Do burn that silly VC money like there is no tomorrow!
- dt3ft 3y agoWhy couldn’t they license the content you generate using their service such that if your revenue for that specific song goes above $x, they reserve the right to a y% cut?
- dymk 3y agoCopyright doesn't apply to AI generated works, so licensing doesn't apply
- drcongo 3y agoThe world would be a much better place if everyone who took VC money just then gave it to something worthwhile.
- scarecrowbob 3y agoTo be fair, my own musical projects and every one of the 50 or so bands I've made money playing with has had the same business plan. I am sure that this effort will be similarly successful.
- illnewsthat 3y agoI am not following how playing in a band for money has the same business plan as this app
- scarecrowbob 3y agoI was being a bit tongue in cheek. However this was relatable, especially to the plans of the original musicians: "There’s no clear monetization strategy — yet. [...] they’re focusing on growing [the band] and developing complementary new [songs|social media].""
- xtrohnx 3y agoIt would be funny if the credits were branded as "drink tickets" when you generated something
- 3y ago
- hdjjhhvvhga 3y agoIt feels like the time when the West was flooded with cheap plastic from China - because it was cheap.
- jrm4 3y agoNo model? I wish them the worst. I can see exactly no scenario in which them making money from this ends up being good for anyone besides them.
- tripplyons 3y agoThey publicly released a model a while ago, but I'm not sure if they use a different one now.
- jrm4 3y agoI meant "business model" here.
- devin 3y agoI listened to like a dozen of the examples on riffusion and they all sound like junk. It's kind of like the hands being messed up on generated images, except the "messed up hands" stream through every part of each track.
- eagleinparadise 3y agoCome on... we are very early in this new world. It's always funny the lack of imagination people have with this stuff. Have you not been observing the rapid progress of LLMs? This app was not possible a few years ago. What will these products look like a few years from now? What commercials on the Super Bowl will be using AI generated music in the background? Will the NFL Network be using these AI sounds during their transitions? I mean, yeah most of these are lame. I found one or two that actually sounded good. But they are short clips. It's probably going to take awhile for AI to generate an entire 4-minute track cohesively.
- hdjjhhvvhga 3y agoI understand your sentiment but I have to agree with the parent. Sure, probably in a couple of years it will get better. But for now, it simply isn't good. Even generative music from the pre(current)-AI era sounded much better, even though it was quite boring. Really, I am interested, I'm looking forward to new developments, but at the same time I have the right to call a spade a spade, to be euphemistic.
- raincole 3y ago...so? The parent didn't say music generation AI will never be good. They were just commenting on one single thing, which is Riffusion.
- bostonsre 3y agoI have no experience in this area, but I feel like the ideas are the hard part in music. These are rough drafts and some of them have promise if they can be refined in an iterative fashion with the user at the helm.
- tmikaeld 3y agoThere sure won't be any AI metal songs, they even filter out the word "angry"..
- high_5 3y agoThe investor hype in AI reminds me of the bitcoin hype around 2017. There is some real, promising tech, some real show- and usecases, but still ... Something's already off before it even started.
- Drakim 3y agoThe fundamental issue isn't that some technologies are "off", lots of high-level research into things like mathematics and tech has absolutely no direct practical application. Lots of things are done with the mindset of "planting trees even though we ourselves will never be able to enjoy the shade". The actual problem is the financial madness that's overtaken tech. Bitcoins is a great concept, having a decentralized system not owned by visa for doing payments across the planet would be a huge boon to a lot of people. But it drowned in how much money could be made by treating it as a financial investment. The same thing is happening with AI, and it's not the fault of AI itself as a tech. And frankly, all the comments about how "AI isn't all that, it won't be able to quickly upend every industry on the planet and make us billions" is a disappointing mindset to see. The hacker mentality has been replaced by middle-managers and financial experts.
- fragmede 3y agoIf your complaint is simply the money that tech is swimming in, I have some bad news for you about the state of the Internet since 1998. First there was the web boom (and bust) (which was supposed to change the world). (Arguably it did, but eg record labels are still around.) Then there was the the Web 2.0 boom. Then there was crypto, now there's AI. Outside of tech, the world still looks largely the same. American "capitalism" is still filled with inequality, with lots of misery on all levels, and we don't have any more free time than we did before (unless your startup lottery ticket pays out). Sorry for letting my cynicism show, it's pre-coffee, but you'll forgive me for thinking this time it'll be different. It might be, but we've heard that promise before and should be a) just as skeptical but also b) just as enamoured. If you missed out on the crypto boom (and subsequent bust), you've got some catching up to do in this cycles boom (and bust).
- YetAnotherNick 3y ago
- dghlsakjg 3y agoThis kind of stuff is poised to absolutely takeover for video background music. Dealing with copyright, royalties, licenses, etc. is such a pain in the ass for a lot of small creators, and the ability to just create something totally new is a game changer.
- Auracle 3y agoYep. Just navigating trying to find music you can use for an Instagram reel advertisement (or the like) is incredibly frustrating or expensive.
- raincole 3y agoIt's interesting that you implied if you use AI you are free from "dealing with copyright, royalties, licenses".
- malka 3y agoThat's the only real use of AI. IP laundering.
- sowbug 3y agoThe US Copyright Office has repeatedly refused to register copyright for substantially AI-generated works. There is a separate question whether the creation of the model could infringe on rights in the source material, but so far, usage of a model to create a work appears to lead to a different conclusion. Of course, this is a new area and subject to change. https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2023/09/us-rejects-ai-copyright-for-famous-state-fair-winning-midjourney-art/ https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2023/09/us-re...
- zoogeny 3y agoInterestingly, a service that made that use-case into a turn-key and repeatable API call would probably be quite profitable. The target market would be web marketers and social media managers who have to pump out content. I'm imagining something like: upload a video without sound and the service would generate the exact amount of music necessary. Bonus points if you can get the music to loop seamlessly. Perhaps upload an image or series of images + text and the video would be ffmpeg'd together at a specified duration along with the generated music. Add some integration to manage the uploading to Instagram/TikTok/Facebook/etc. It reminds me of a business I saw launched here that was an API to remove backgrounds from images. I didn't think such a service would be profitable but apparently there are enough people generating product photos for online stores that will throw money at such a service.
- Spivak 3y agoI think this is a great usage of the technology that has the potential to produce very interesting and unique mixes. AI image generation has this ability to make images that at a glance create in your mind the prompt but then fall apart at the seems when you focus on any particular element. But for music "sounding like music" is the highest ideal it can achieve. You spend only a second on any particular part so your mind just fills in the gaps and ends up not being uncanny since "playing notes outside the frame" is already widely used in modern composition. The lyrics are weird and it is gonna fall down on musical styles where structure is both more apparent and important but whatever, just making the backing track itself is a huge accomplishment.
- davio 3y agoAgreed - I was thinking if the lyrics were in Spanish, it would sound like legit music to me. The lyrics are kind of silly - like someone making up a song in improv comedy.
- sphars 3y agoRelated: Show HN: Riffusion with Lyrics (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37914425 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37914425)
- twelfthnight 3y agoI think the biggest issue with AI generated art is that it allows corporate folks (marketers, etc) the ability to create exactly what they want without any involvement/pushback from artists. Often the agenda of artists is do create something nice for everyone, whereas corporate folks only want to extract as much wealth as possible. Without artists in the loop, we'll only get more and more of the corporate agenda. Things are complicated though. So remains to be seen how this evolves, :shrug:
- VanTheBrand 3y agoI think it will be a problem for the corporate types too. Getting exactly what you ask for can be dangerous. I’m a screenwriter and on a given project I’ll interface with a producer (a semi-corporate type) and a studio exec (a very corporate middle manager type). A big part of my job that AI can’t do any time soon is lying to them and ignoring them. I’ll get instructions (often contradictory instructions) from both of them, and then lie to them about how good their idea is. They feel listened to, but I’ll mostly ignore both of them so that the end product will be something actually good. At the end of the process they happily take credit for the good product and even believe it was their ideas that got it there.
- marban 3y agoListened to three samples. Glad that my Roland synth has nothing to be afraid of.
- ChrisArchitect 3y ago[dupe] More discussion on show HN post over here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37914425 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37914425
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]