Illustration: VIP+; Adobe Stock
The music industry will once again be at the forefront of technological change, becoming a canary in the digital coalmine, this time with artificial intelligence. AI capabilities are evolving at lightning speed, and as an industry we have time to figure out how to harness that power.
It’s no secret that in the early turmoil of 23 years ago, the music industry tried to put toothpaste back into the tube of technology, leaving a graveyard of innovation behind. Fast forward to 2023, there’s a label actively engaging with AI companies, there’s a library that has a deal to enable his AI training on their catalog for future revenue sharing, and there’s co-working with fans. Some artists are using his AI tools to create. We also saw a protective line drawn around the sound and identity of high-profile artists.
Every time technology crashes into the music business, we all have to assess and sort through what works and what doesn’t (or at least not quite yet) in our industry. I have.
The commercial music sector revolves around the monetization and protection of intellectual property, which is why major labels, publishers and trade associations have taken strong early positions on the value of human artistry. is no wonder. Independent artists ranging from enthusiasts to superstars are burgeoning from their own creative perspectives, and may have different perspectives and stakes on the emergence of AI. This complex industry of artists, labels and publishers is messy and sometimes contradictory, and the response to AI can be as exciting as it is confusing. But as with most complex topics, breaking things down a bit makes it easier to understand.
I have divided AI for music into three segments. The green zone is defined as AI tools and uses that are likely to become possible. Red Zones, areas where litigation is likely, or at least controversial. And the yellow zone is discreetly full of possibilities. The first two are relatively clear, but the last one will evolve as conversations and product offerings between AI companies and industry players progress.
green zone
AI enables new suites of creator tools that act as extensions of the human creative process. Songwriting, rhyming, melody, and lyrics AI tools all help composers break writer’s block, organize collaboration/co-production, and improve efficiency. Songwriters can enable and train his AI in their own style, extending traditional, long-standing manual tools. AI-based plugins to DAWS, a library of copyright-cleared sounds and loops, and tools that can be trained based on an artist’s style improve audio production efficiency. These AI production and creator tools further democratize music production.
In the Green Zone, AI is an area of legal, technical and creative tools that are acceptable to artists. Artists have a history of embracing new technologies and creator tools, while many in the middle class and bystanders condemn them for their horrors. Remember drum machines? Many worried that this would be the end of the drummer, but apparently it wasn’t. Games and casual creators can have a good time using low-risk AI-generated music for fun and creative expression. AI acts as an extension of the individual creator, enabling a wide range of fully sanctioned tools that help further highlight and accelerate human creativity.
red zone
Without competition for intellectual property protection, there would be no appeal in the music sector. We are already seeing the early battle lines being drawn. AI applications that veer into artist impersonation and artist deepfakes are shut down, and unlicensed training of AI based on commercial recordings is on thin ice. The cheap knockoff text-to-print output is monitored by all sync departments. Legalmind is currently researching copyright law around the world to determine the rules, boundaries and frameworks that draw the very thin line between innovation and protection. It will also be interesting to see whether the visual image lawsuit over AI will result in a ruling that applies to other creative mediums as well. There is also pressure to limit or separate pure AI sound recordings from human-made sound recordings, but given the development of a vibrant AI creator tool market and the undetectable differences, the lines are likely to blur. increase.
yellow zone
It’s going to be very interesting in the yellow zone, full of potential applications where AI can enable new revenue, new opportunities, and problem-solving. Could the industry find a new model to license all music to AI companies in bulk for training purposes? It also enables the usage and output. Can artists allow legal and licensable training of AI based on their own sounds and styles? Faced with vocal challenges, they may benefit from AI-trained voice companions , consider an older established artist. Or an artist like Grimes who simply wants to explore the limits of what AI can produce as a collaborator?
Can AI help us efficiently create new versions, remixes and derivative works of existing songs and compositions without going to the studio? It also raises the question of who owns the versions or who can participate in these versions. Where do compositions live?
A royalty-free background and a featureless music market ripe for AI, unencumbered by piecemeal rights across labels, publishers and PROs, making it easy, claim-free and royalty-free Become. Soothing, functional music for sleep, concentration, meditation, etc. will become more personalized by AI and used in place of medicine.
And the potential for AI to help solve problems around music copyright metadata, recording-publishing matching, and the flow of funds to their rightful owners cannot be overemphasized. These problems are occurring in his system of over 100 million sounds on the planet, his recordings and his over 1 billion publication shares. To solve these problems, which are more human than technological, AI can connect data points with a huge number of unique machine-readable identifiers across hundreds of millions of stocks and stocks. It can be a powerful tool in the management field. Trillions of transactions.
When I think about the Yellow Zone, I am encouraged by the fact that we are seeing a different response to AI than in the early days of the industry suing end users and installing malware on CDs. We still occasionally sit across the table from innovators who claim to be in a “post-copyright world,” but lessons have been learned, stakeholder regimes are changing and more Many artists are tapping into a wide range of disciplines to unlock the ability to further their creative destinies. A combination of tools of their choice. The market for music in AI is in the green zone and yellow zone and not everyone has to agree on all use cases, but AI is certainly unstoppable and anyone who finds a way to use it has a clear advantage. will be
Vicky Naumann is the founder and CEO of CrossBorderWorks, a boutique music technology consulting and advisory firm based in Los Angeles, and since 2014 has worked with game companies, Web3 projects, streaming platforms, apps, hardware, startups and industry consortia. I have been working with Portfolio.
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