- AI-generated music is becoming popular, and some artists are not excited about it.
- Singer, songwriter and producer Brenden Praise says music-making should be left to humans.
- Music expert Rob Cowling concedes that AI may bring problems, but believes that technology should be embraced and not feared.
- For more stories, visit the Tech and Trends homepage.
AI-generated music is fast becoming popular, and one local artist is not happy with its potential threat to the local industry. Still, a music expert says South African artists should embrace AI instead of worrying about it.
Music generated by artificial intelligence has gained a lot of popularity following the release of the AI- developed vocal clone of Drake and The Weeknd, in a song that went viral and was flagged for copyright issues by Universal Music Group.
Undoubtedly, this is behind the reluctance of artists worldwide to support the new tech solution, including South African artists.
Artists’ worst nightmare?
Singer, songwriter and producer Brenden Praise says AI-generated music may be a fun concept, but he is not particularly excited by it.
Praise fears that the tool will only worsen problems in the music industry. According to Praise, these included plagiarism and lack of compensation for one’s work, adding that the making of music should be left to humans.
“People do this stuff for years. It’s people’s intellectual property that AI is pulling from. It’s people’s ideas,” he said.
“I think people already know music suffered so much from just not being credited as much. If you look at how much musicians make from their creativity [compared] to usage, they make very little just off of streams.”
Although he disagrees with it, Praise does not think AI-generated music can compete with humans.
“The gift of being an artist is that you get to draw from experiences and real life happening to you. You’re constantly changing and growing. I just think it diminishes the work of those people that put time into create a style and a craft,” he told New24.
Harness the power of AI
Gallo Record Company general manager Rob Cowling concedes that AI-generated music presents a slew of problems, but says that the tool should be embraced and not cause fear.
Cowling said he understood the fear behind using AI-generated music because such tech disruptors are not regulated, and not copywrite protected, and therefore can’t be sued or held accountable in any way.
“They should try to sort out rights and distribution, and work out ways to actually harness the benefits of AI… from a music perspective and from licencing perspective. From the business side of it, [artists should] try and make sure that it is not to the detriment of original creators, but it’s something that may be looked at as a good thing and not necessarily a bad thing,” he said.
For AI to work to artists’ advantage, Cowling said certain boundaries needed to be created to protect the work of creatives.
“Unlock the value, and if there are certain boundaries that need to be created, then maybe try and create those boundaries from a legal perspective so that it’s not infringing on artistic integrity, and [doesn’t perpetuate] these sound-alikes that are close to home and copying somebody’s voice.”
Humans best to ever do it
Cowling agrees with Praise that machines can never compete with humans, no matter how advanced they may be.
He said:
Remember, AI will most likely not have new ideas, but scrape the internet for data and existing sounds.
“Artists are the human connection, the idea hub, and also the cultural hub,” he said.
“AI cannot recreate culture in my opinion because it’s built in centuries of morals, education and emotion of social behavior and beliefs and customs so AI cannot possess that humanity and will struggle to duplicate it if at all.”
