Synthetic bands, real consequences for human artists

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A rising tide of artificial intelligence bands is ushering in a new era where work will be scarcer for musicians.

Whether it’s Velvet Sundown’s 1970s-style rock or country music projects, “Aventhis” and “The Devil Inside,” bands whose members are pure AI creations, are seeing more than a million plays on the streaming giant Spotify.

No major streaming service clearly labels tracks that are entirely generated by AI, except for France’s Deezer.

Meanwhile, the producers of these songs tend to be unreachable.

“I feel like we’re at a place where nobody is really talking about it, but we are feeling it,” said music producer, composer and performer Leo Sidran.

“There is going to be a lot of music released that we can’t really tell who made it or how it was made.”

The Oscar-winning artist sees the rise of AI music as perhaps a sign of how “generic and formulaic” genres have become.

AI highlights the chasm between music people listen to “passively” while doing other things and “active” listening in which fans care about what artists convey, said producer and composer Yung Spielburg on the Imagine AI Live podcast.

Spielburg believes musicians will win out over AI with “active” listeners, but will be under pressure when it comes to tunes people play in the background while cooking dinner or performing mundane tasks.

If listeners can’t discern which tunes are AI-made, publishers and labels will likely opt for synthetic bands that don’t earn royalties, Spielburg predicted.

“AI is already in the music business and it’s not going away because it is cheap and convenient,” said Mathieu Gendreau, associate professor at Rowan University in New Jersey, who is also a music industry executive.

“That will make it even more difficult for musicians to make a living.”

Music streaming platforms already fill playlists with mood music attributed to artists about whom no information can be found, according to University of Rochester School of Music professor Dennis DeSantis.

Meanwhile, AI-generated soundtracks have become tempting, cost-saving options in movies, television shows, ads, shops, elevators and other venues, DeSantis added.

AI take all?

Composer Sidran says he and his music industry peers have seen a sharp slowdown in work coming their way since late last year.

“I suspect that AI is a big part of the reason,” said Sidran, host of “The Third Story” podcast.

“I get the feeling that a lot of the clients that would come to me for original music, or even music from a library of our work, are using AI to solve those problems.”

Technology has repeatedly helped shape the music industry, from electric guitars and synthesizers to multitrack recording and voice modulators.

Unlike such technologies that gave artists new tools and techniques, AI could lead to the “eradication of the chance of sustainability for the vast majority of artists,” warned George Howard, a professor at the prestigious Berklee College of Music.

“AI is a far different challenge than any other historical technological innovation,” Howard said. “And one that will likely be zero-sum.”

Howard hopes courts will side with artists in the numerous legal battles with generative AI giants whose models imitate their styles or works.

Gendreau sees AI music as being here to stay and teaches students to be both entrepreneurs and artists, enabling them to thrive in the business.

Sidran advises musicians to highlight what makes them unique, avoiding the expected in their works because “AI will have done it.”

And, at least for now, musicians should capitalize on live shows where AI bands have yet to take the stage.