The rise of AI-generated music has been met with both excitement and skepticism. A recent article from Wired titled "The New 'Ethical' AI Music Generator Can't Write a Halfway Decent Song" highlights the shortcomings of Jen, a new AI music generator designed with ethical considerations in mind. While the intention behind this technology is commendable, this tech isn't ready for prime time.
Traditional AI music systems often sample existing works, raising legal and ethical concerns. This new generator attempts to sidestep these issues by creating music from scratch without drawing from existing songs.
I disagree with the premise of the Wired article. AI doesn't need to be creative to dramatically change the music industry (or any other "creative" industry). It only needs to be able to do the worky-work that comprises at least half of a composer/producer's day. A prompt such as, "A jazz trio comping behind an uptempo contrafact of rhythm changes. 30 seconds long. Leave out the second 8 to ensure you have room for a button ending," would save a producer hours of time and thousands of dollars. Today, this is at least two hours of work for anyone schooled in the art. The economics of "ethical" AI production will be literally devastating to the production music business. As for pop song writing – I'm not worried. People create popular music. Computers will take care of everything else. The only question:"When?"
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ABOUT SHELLY PALMER
Shelly Palmer is the Professor of Advanced Media in Residence at Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and CEO of The Palmer Group, a consulting practice that helps Fortune 500 companies with technology, media and marketing. Named LinkedIn’s “Top Voice in Technology,” he covers tech and business for Good Day New York, is a regular commentator on CNN and writes a popular daily business blog. He's a bestselling author, and the creator of the popular, free online course, Generative AI for Execs. Follow @shellypalmer or visit shellypalmer.com.
