AI is Blurring the Lines of 'Real' Music
AI is Blurring the Lines of 'Real' Music
Drake's bizzare feature, Daniel Ek backtracking, AI Music Addiction and more...
It’s been a strange week for music, and we’re continuing to see the multifaceted ways in which AI is shaping the industry, and the audience’s relationship with music.
Whether it’s Drake’s bizarre new track confusing everyone, Daniel Ek’s viewing AI music as just more content to feed the machine, or the unexpected side effects of playing with AI music tools - keep reading to find out more…
Drake or Fake
A few days ago Toronto social media personality / rapper Snowd4y posted the song ‘Wah Gwan Delilah’ ft. Drake to his Soundcloud - it’s a remix of ‘Hey There Delilah’ by the Plain White T’s from years back.
It quickly garnered plenty of attention, and I, like a lot of people out there assumed it had to be AI generated. Even the Plain White T’s looked confused:
With Drake undoubtedly still a little bruised from the last few weeks, I assumed he wouldn’t release a track that further reinforces a lot of the criticism that has been sent his way recently.
But from what I can see it looks like there’s a decent chance it might be real, Billboard tried to investigate but the results were inconclusive, and Drake has raised further questions by posting support on his Instagram - although he merely acknowledges the track as opposed to verifying it’s him singing.
So, whether this is Drake doubling down with a Toronto-inspired inside joke that hasn’t landed too well, an attempt to move on from the beef by releasing something polarising, or just him playing along with the parody of it all, I’m sure we’ll find out over the coming days.
The more interesting aspect of this whole thing is how it highlights the grey area that now exists between unofficial and official releases, and how AI’s abilities can sow seeds of doubt without official sources to clarify the details.
AI can act as sort of a shield, in this example hypothetically allowing Drake to put out a song that’s a gamble, judge the public’s perception, and then decide whether to release it officially or play it off as a joke.
This raises the question - going forward, how will we be able to tell what’s real and what’s not?
There’s no question that we’re going to see an industry where more people are remixing artists’ work, cloning their voices, tweaking songs, and then getting everything cleared if it gets any form of positive traction.
This isn’t a new thing - there’s always been user-generated content in the form of remixes - but with the tools available today, stem splitting, AI voice cloning, and the ease at which collaboration can happen on social media - we’re likely to see the emergence of artists where a large chunk of their catalog is collaborative with their user base.
We’ll also continue to see shouts of ‘AI generated!’ more frequently when artists release music that falls outside the scope of their usual style or even release process.
The lines are becoming blurred, and it’s interesting to watch.
Daniel Ek Backtracks
After posting last week about the ‘cost of creating content being close to zero’, the Spotify CEO was forced to clarify his remarks amidst a flurry of criticism, with many artists criticising his lack of awareness and the realities of being a musician today.
It’s easy to take shots in this situation, and this wasn’t the best choice of words, but Ek is raising an important question, despite it being drowned out by the backlash.
Whether we like it or not, there’s going to be a lot of ‘music’ in the world going forward.
How do we define what is worth keeping and proliferating, and what should fade away into obscurity? Does it even matter?
So much art and knowledge has been lost to the world - how different would things look had it not been? Are there songs, books, or paintings that faded out of existence that are objectively better than the ones we regard as timeless today?
For the majority of human existence, culture has defined which works of art are preserved and revered, propelled by the stories that accompany them. But today we have algorithms that are shaping the culture and determining what stays relevant.
So who do we trust more with the responsibility of passing on the most important music for generations to come - humans or algorithms? What’s the right balance, or is there a better way entirely?
This question is a thought experiment in itself, with no right answers, but most definitely worth consideration.
Gambling on Music
An interesting thread was posted on Reddit detailing a situation that I could never have envisioned (thanks to Ryan at GarbageDay for the find).
The poster in question has become so obsessed with perfecting their song on the AI music generator Suno that they’re spending thousands of credits to do so, and are at the point where they need to stop ‘before it gets out of hand’, likening the process to gambling.
Is addiction going to be a strange side effect of generative music for a subset of people? You put your prompt together, click a button, and 30 seconds later you’re handed a brand new track, each time not knowing what it’s going to sound like.
It’s just another example of the same small dopamine hits that are scattered throughout our lives, and for some people, this will be enough to get them hooked.
And is this ‘gambling’ going to be a part of the music-making process going forward? When people talk about the amount of work that’s gone into making a track, will they be talking about credits and clicks? Hopefully not, but you never know.
If you’re intrigued by the 2500 credit song in question, the OP was kind enough to post a link - you can listen here 😬
Elsewhere…
▶️ Music festivals are dying in the UK, which seems to be part of a broader downturn in consumer interest, but elsewhere Electronic Music festivals seem to be doing great, along with the dance music industry in general.
▶️ Bring Me The Horizon marketed their new album with hidden clues to an ARG style website, which ended up getting hacked.
▶️ Is Taylor Swift’s success going to have any noticeable impact on the industry for smaller artists? And an interesting look at what it’s like to leave the cult of Taylor - you can’t please everyone I guess!
▶️ The Metric That's Ruining Hip-Hop? Does the genre place too much weight on first week sales versus long-term cultural impact?
▶️ Twitch launches a new DJ program to make it safer to livestream DJ sets.
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