#018 | Latest AI News in the Music Industry

Muse-Letter 018 - May 01, 2023

Yoooooo! What's up fam!

Welcome back to The Muse-Letter. We are keeping on the AI bandwagon with the latest AI news. AI Technology is growing in popularity but is also causing upset among artists and music companies. We are taking a look at a recent study into the percentage of artists willing to use AI and what UMG had to say about AI use in the music industry.

I appreciate you having a read and being part of the Muse-Letter community. Without further ado, let's get into it.

This Week in Producer News 📰

UMG Tells Music Industry Stakeholders To Consider “What Side Of History” They Wish To Be On With AI

We discussed last week the conflict going on in regard to AI in the music industry. Drake mentioned his disapproval when he responded to a track that used his voice saying “This is the final straw” on his social media post.

Universal Music Group (UMG) have been vocal in regard to AI-generated tracks and spoke out after Drake’s post about how streaming services should block AI companies from accessing songs that they can use to “train” AIs. This was said in an email from UMG after the big jump in popularity of AI-created music being released more and more.

A spokesperson for UMG has since given a statement to Music Business WorldWide saying: “UMG’s success has been, in part, due to embracing new technology and putting it to work for our artists – as we have been doing with our own innovation around AI for some time already.”

“With that said, however, the training of generative AI using our artists’ music (which represents both a breach of our agreements and a violation of copyright law) as well as the availability of infringing content created with generative AI on DSPs, begs the question as to which side of history all stakeholders in the music ecosystem want to be on: the side of artists, fans and human creative expression, or on the side of deep fakes, fraud and denying artists their due compensation.”

The statement says, “These instances demonstrate why platforms have a fundamental legal and ethical responsibility to prevent the use of their services in ways that harm artists.”

“We’re encouraged by the engagement of our platform partners on these issues – as they recognize they need to be part of the solution.”

We can see that AI is growing more and more popular in the music industry and aside from some artists and companies voicing their opposing opinion, the majority of musicians are all for the intelligent technology. A UK-based band just recently released an entire AI-generated Oasis album where Liam Gallagher's voice is emulated throughout the album. The album was named AISIS and imitated what a long-lost song of the famous band could sound like.

There continue to be many releases of AI-generated tracks and albums that the public is responding positively to. I can see the number of songs being released that are created through AI becoming higher in the coming months.

I understand Drake’s frustration with people using his voice in their AI-created songs. It’s definitely something that needs to be filtered to ensure artists' identity remains intact. It’s like making an exact carbon copy of an existing song and not gaining permission from the artist. However, seeing how many musicians are saying they want to use AI goes to show that the majority of artists in the music community are hopping on board with this new technology, and making the most of it.

Article of the Week 📜

Turns Out 62% of Artists Are Keen to Use AI for Music Production

According to a study from Ditto Music - a music distribution company, found that 66% of participants admitted they would use AI for mixing and mastering and 62% would use it for music production. The study also found 59.5% of artists are already incorporating AI technology into their music-making. A further 47% are considering using AI for songwriting moving forward.

This data is coming from a survey including 1200 Ditto Music consumers. The study also discovered that 77% of participants would use AI to create the artwork for their album covers while 28.5% stated they would never consider using it.

So not only is AI being used in the music-creating side of things, people are now thinking of using it for artistic aspects such as album covers illustrations.

Lee Parsons, the CEO of Ditto Music said in a statement: “It’s encouraging to see so many musicians embracing advancements in technology and utilising AI as a creative aid,”

“At Ditto, we pride ourselves on being ahead of the curve and remain dedicated to providing artists with the latest tools, resources, and support they need to succeed on their own terms.”

This study is following the massive increase in the popularity of AI’s involvement in the music industry. While many artists and companies aren’t currently on board with the new technology, it’s interesting to see there is a decent amount of musicians who are incorporating AI into their music-making and welcoming the changing times.

We are constantly seeing well-known figures in the industry make their comments and provide their diversifying viewpoints on the topic and I guarantee there will be many more to come.

I have discussed David Guetta’s approval of AI when he showcased his creation that featured Eminem's voice, and the disapproving opinion of Young Guru who spoke out about it in a social media post. If you want to see what these two had to say, check out my earlier Muse-Letter articles where I talked about them in detail.

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-Ocean