But as thrilling as this might sound to some, many musicians and producers are outraged by the idea of AI being used in music creation and terrified that these developments might render them as obsolete as a VHS tape at a VR convention.
Still, AI didn’t just strut onto the music scene in 2023 ready to steal your dreams of rock stardom. Its roots go as far back as the work of scientist Alan Turing in 1951 and the Bach-inspired “Illiac Suite” in 1958, which became the first score composed by an electronic computer. Celebrated U2 producer and godfather of ambient music Brian Eno, has been tinkering with generative music (meaning created by a system) for decades. But recently, conversations around AI in music have pumped up the volume – is AI a threat to music creators or is there a way to use it to our advantage?
As a musician and songwriter myself, my initial reaction to AI music oscillated between scoffing at its probable ineptitude and fearing it might actually get so good that the entire landscape of music will change irrevocably.
When I casually mentioned the idea of using AI for music in a recent Facebook post, one musician friend said, “I would rather set myself on fire”. I, too, found myself gazing into space conjuring up all kinds of Black Mirror-esque hellscapes, but teetering on the tightrope of my own ego, I set about learning about what AI in music actually means for us as artists.
Many musicians seem to be of the opinion that using AI to create music is cheating, but once you start discussing who should be allowed to make art and how, other kinds of ethical questions around ableism and classism arise. Advancements in technology are leading to instruments being developed that can be played by people with disabilities. An eye harp controlled with eye movement alone has allowed people to create music whose bodies normally wouldn’t allow them to do so – is that cheating, too?
Many people are deprived of the privilege of creating art,…