AI music is creeping into every TV program and streaming service and I hate it

Turn on your favorite streaming service or browse social media and you’re likely to come across something generated by artificial intelligence. There are AI generated podcasts, professional headshot generators, meme creators and of course music and image generators of all kinds.

In fact, I’d bet you didn’t even realize how mainstream it’s become, including your favorite shows and services.

The ubiquity of AI music

I’m not exaggerating when I say that AI music is everywhere you look. Streaming services like Spotify don’t just use AI playlist tools to help create “personalized” soundtracks, they also enable and even feature AI-created tracks. This is only allowed if they don’t break copyright law by copying other artists or stealing lyrics, which means you’ve probably come across such songs before. On social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram, AI-generated music is often used in video content to provide unique, catchy, royalty-free soundtracks to engage users.

Even the advertising industry is adopting AI to create audio tracks, customize jingles and create simple backing tracks at low cost. It is also used to compose, generate ideas and improve sound design for film and television scores. Overall, the idea is to make things easier for creators and people are embracing the ability (and cost-effectiveness) of crowds, but is it a good idea in the long run?

Good and ugly AI music

On the one hand, AI music can offer some significant benefits. For budding musicians or independent creators on a tight budget, AI tools can lower barriers to entry by offering cost-effective solutions to composition and production challenges. These tools can create musical compositions that would otherwise require a set of expensive instruments, hiring a band, or studio time.

AI can also help artists explore new musical avenues, allowing them to create new and unexpected sound combinations. They don’t have to be limited by traditional genres or instruments; instead, they can experiment with different algorithms and explore entirely new creative horizons, all with the push of a few buttons.

However, despite these advantages, there are also some major disadvantages. The loss of the “human touch” and originality cannot be ignored. Nor is the idea that music created by AI is actually creative; it’s just an algorithm that spits out information.

In that sense, it’s very similar to the analog vs. digital debate, which is more “true” to the original intent of the artists. AI music strives to capture the nuances and imperfections that make human music connect with listeners on a deeper level and evoke real emotions in us.

There’s also the problem of sounding too much like, or even outright copying, “real” artists. We saw this just last year when a TikToker named Ghostwriter977 generated an entire album featuring popular artists TheWeeknd and Drake. The album gained huge popularity but was quickly pulled due to copyright infringement. It’s just going to happen more often, and traditional artists will have to stand up for their creative rights because of it.

Music without emotion

Another downside is that while AI music can sound good, the complexity of sound and emotion is something that AI just can’t quite understand. This is true regardless of whether the AI ​​is used to create new music or as a stand-in for other artists.

Consider, for example, how artificial intelligence has been used to mimic the signature vocals of artists such as Linkin Park’s Chester Bennington. I have to admit, as a fan devastated by his departure, it would be nice to hear him again. Unfortunately, while it may be fun and nostalgic to hear more tracks in his signature style, the results seem jarring and inauthentic. Our ears are finely attuned to the expressive power of music, hearing excitement, pain or anger behind every note, which is not something artificial intelligence can imitate.

At least not yet (and hopefully never).

Artificial intelligence doesn’t sound so good and you can tell the difference

While I can see the benefits of AI, I hate hearing it played loud. It sounds inauthentic to me, and once I notice it, it’s all I can pay attention to. It’s like noticing the wrong details in AI “art”. There’s always something wrong, like too many fingers or lines going nowhere, and the AI ​​music is the same. The lyrics may sound “okay” at first glance, but something is missing. Or the notes of the music and the vocals technically work, but the emotion behind them just isn’t there. Additionally, while the idea of ​​being able to just “make” music by plugging ideas into an AI algorithm may appeal to some, I believe it should never overpower the actual creativity of human-made music.

This means that finding a balance between the advantages of artificial intelligence, i.e. ease of use and availability, and its disadvantages will be a big question mark in the future. And to make sure the AI ​​is used properly without harming the artist, we’ll need listeners to opt out everywhere.