Music news: How the rise of AI-generated music is changing the music industry
The music industry is in upheaval as the rising circulation of AI-generated music challenges record labels, streaming platforms and artists, writes Music News Blitz’s Annika Winzer.
With the use of AI changing everyday life in many aspects, the music industry is no exception.
Whilst some artists, such as Timbaland, have embraced the change and used AI to assist them in making music, for other artists it has been problematic.
AI impersonation of artists
AI has been used to mimic the voices of artists through AI programmes that create vocal profiles of popular artists.
These profiles have been used to generate AI covers, as was the case with an AI song uploaded to TikTok that appeared to be performed by Drake and The Weeknd.
The song was later removed from the site after the Universal Music Group filed a copyright lawsuit.
This AI impersonation is also used to finish snippets of unreleased songs, as was the case with Benedict Cork.
Cork posted a snippet of an unfinished song on TikTok. He began receiving messages about the song's release a few days later, despite it being unfinished.
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Dormant artists
A full version of the song, generated by AI, had been uploaded to streaming platforms under the name Eduardo Arguelles.
This sort of impersonation often targets smaller artists with cult followings, or dormant artists.
For smaller or independent artists, this has caused concerns for their livelihoods, as well as ownership and artistic integrity.
As a result, some artists are adding clauses to their contracts to prevent their voices from being used by AI programmes.
Record labels are also moving to target this, with Sony Music and the Universal Music Group suing Suno, an AI-generated music company, accusing it of allegedly ripping off over 60,000 copyrighted recordings.
The impact on streaming platforms
Streaming platforms have also been impacted by the uploading of AI-generated tracks to their services, often to generate fraudulent royalties.
The streaming service Deezer, for example, reports 90,000 AI-generated tracks uploaded a day.
AI makes it possible to generate a large number of tracks, upload them to streaming services, and use bots to stream them.
This reduces the share of royalties available to artists with real listeners.
Estimates suggest nearly 10% of streams are now fraudulent, with AI music making up a significant proportion of this.
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New guidelines on AI-generated music
New initiatives have been put forward to tackle this, with guidelines announced by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) to ensure distributors such as Sony Music take stronger action against fraudulent activity reaching streaming platforms.
This guidance includes assessing AI-related risks.
Streaming platforms are also taking action, with Spotify introducing AI-related music credits and ‘AI personas’ in order to make artists that are AI-generated identifiable to users.
These AI personas will be excluded from algorithmic and editorial recommendations for users, unless the user already follows them.
The Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) has also taken action following IFPI guidelines on how AI-generated music can appear in charts.
Whilst AI-generated music has appeared in several US Billboard charts, ARIA has banned wholly AI-generated music from its weekly charts and music awards.
Music that was created using assistance from AI will still be permitted, but it will be labelled as ‘AI-assisted.’
The future of AI music
As AI continues to cause upheaval across different industries, the music industry will have to adapt to the impact of AI on the making of music, considering copyright, artists’ rights, and authenticity.
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