How artificial intelligence can impact the music industry
There are several digital programs capable of creating relatively original musical compositions almost entirely on their own using Generative Adversarial Neural Networks (GAN). For many, these are a help for artists when it comes to composing. For others, an advance that threatens to replace human creativity.
Artificial Intelligence is not necessarily what people imagine. The term has several meanings, but it could be defined as decision-making based on arguments of a computer system. There are several ways to accomplish this, but the general idea is to program algorithms that learn to identify patterns after reading a long database and then make decisions based on them. The more information they receive, the more they adjust to what is expected of them. Something moderately similar to a baby learning to speak.
But you can compose musical melodies. In 2016, IBM created Watson Beat, a software that has analyzed millions of songs and is capable of producing an artificial melody. The idea is for musicians to use it as a guide when they feel stuck or want to try different things. They can ask the program for any rhythm on which they can build their own theme song. Watson can even suggest popular phrases and words to craft the song’s lyrics.
Watson is, perhaps, the most recognized, but there are others. Jukedeck, for example, creates songs according to the genre, instruments, duration and speed preferred by the user. They then sell the use license for $ 0.99 for individuals or $ 21.99 for large companies. Copyrights can also be purchased for $ 199 USD. Today, the company has created more than 500,000 songs and is used by various companies such as Coca-Cola or Google, that search for background music for their commercials.
A competing program, Amper, is composing, together with YouTuber Taryn Southern, the first album made by artificial intelligence. The only human work that Amper requires is for someone to input the beats per minute, rhythm, tone, and preferred music style.
This technological revolution does not only affect music production. The Landr program, for example, uses artificial intelligence to automatically master songs. According to the testimonies of some users on the internet, this does not reach the quality of a mastering directed by a human, but the results are quite acceptable.
