... and now AI looms on the horizon like the Grim Reaper

[Moderator Edit: Split out to its own topic.]

And now AI looms on the horizon like the Grim Reaper :innocent:

Chatgpt integration in Plexamp is great, I can generate great playlists of artists and albums I’ve never heard of with the Tidal integration.
The recent Qobuz email to subscribers mentioned AI use was forbidden.

The issue with AI is the looming ability for it to create music and how that might, perhaps will, turn the entire music industry upside down.

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This sounds reminiscent of the synthesizer debate in the 70’s. As a huge Queen fan in the mid 70’s, I remember every album sleeve or insert notes bearing the words “no synthesizers” or something to that effect… up to the point when they started using synthesizers :slight_smile:
Now I think they are generally accepted in many genres of popular modern music.

I can see the issue if ChatGPT writes a song, who owns to rights? ChatGPT or the person paying for the service / search.

The problem with ChatGPT is in their business agreements. If you use ChatGPT, you pass the rights of the item you upload to them.

The problem is not what ChatGPT produces, but what you upload.

On of the reason why ChatGPT owns now some secret code from Samsung: Some engineers did upload it to debug it. Big mistake!

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This is a quote from a recent Washington Post article about the high risk nature of the music streaming business:

“ There’s something even bigger potentially on the way: Artificial intelligence. ChatGPT and tools like it are already being treated in the way Napster was treated by Metallica, with lawsuits and boycotts. It’s only a matter of time before AI-generated music starts to invade music platforms — you can already listen to music aided by AI on Spotify — and the rise of auto-tuned vocals and drum loops in pop music have made humans easier for machines to imitate.

Of all the changes on the horizon, AI could derail all sorts of long-term plans. Record labels already accuse Spotify and others of filling their platforms with flotsam and jetsam, diluting the market share of star artists (and by extension their negotiating power) by accepting all kinds of independently distributed music. AI-generated music, especially if it didn’t require payouts to artists or labels, would upend the industry.

This probably wasn’t what the architects of the post-Napster revolution had in mind. It means governments and regulators will have to keep a close eye on what happens to the music industry; given one in three music jobs was lost during the pandemic in the UK, another wave of disruption would hurt. As Spotify kicks its machine into high gear, and as techies turn their hand to literal Metal Machine Music, things will get noisy”

It matters little if German Schlager or commercial Country & Western in the future is created by AI instead of flesh bots like today.

For artists, it will be another tool that can be used.
And for listeners like me for whom music was a way to see other people’s souls it will only matter if the artists use it well. Like the mentioned synths, it won’t make a human with a guitar obsolete.

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Yes that’s bad, the use of AI where I work is banned, with good reason then.
Like it or not, AI is here.
I think it certainly needs work, I’ve had crazy answers that I knew were wrong in testing its use for things.

I wonder how the very long term and very common copyright lawsuit journey will play out.

If thousands of artists can prove, using very sophisticated methods, an AI track learned and used an artist to generate specific music, it just seems like legal precedents will be created almost endlessly.

I assume we have an entirely new sub-genre of legal practice here.

Right now, it sure seems like a messy road for AI gen music.

Regarding TIDAL, my service is still streaming but I anticipate it will end any moment.

The risk with AI is that it can make music that bypasses artists and rights holders on a mass scale. This can have a very disruptive effect on the music industry as a whole. An industry that is fairly fragile from the last torrent fueled disruption.

Obviously no one knows for sure how all of this is going to shake out. But the issues and risks are far larger than anything the music industry has faced before. It’s not about an artist using AI to tweak a song but rather Spotify conceivably creating music without any artist or label involved. And thus no royalties to pay.

If such music becomes very popular, it could further squeeze the market share of artists and labels, thus upending the entire industry.
It’s a chapter yet to be written. We shall see.

It’s going to be interesting for sure :slight_smile:

So far if you ask ChatGPT about usage help for my company’s software product, which is to do with numbers, it copies instructions for Excel and replaces the word “Excel” with our software’s name. It leads to irate users complaining our software sucks because it does not work like that :joy: We have to contact them on software user forums and tell them that with their license they pay for actual free support by people who know what they are talking about, if the user were to click “ask for support” in our software instead of asking ChatGPT.

Long ways to go. (And to be fair, I would love to augment our always overstressed support team with AI to take care of the repetitive, easy stuff. I am sure Roon support would as well :slight_smile: But not there yet)

Sure, it will change many things, but really I care little if soulless industry music is AI generated.

Yeah, but this sounds very much like “oh no, industrial sheet music!”, “Oh no, recorded music”, and so on. We will find out :slight_smile:

Maybe, if the AI music is better, this will happen. And it will surely replace music that is already being created on industrial conveyer belts. I doubt it, though, for the music I care about. Simply because I care for a human’s feelings, opinions, and stories, for which the music is way to express them. Maybe young people will fell differently, or maybe the same.

Indeed

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The concerns are not centered around older audiophiles, but rather the younger generation who’s overwhelmingly preferred music (rap, hip hop) is questionably music in the first place. It’s poorly written and sung inane lyrics accompanied by a childish techno soundtrack requiring very little musical talent.

Yes, kids love Taylor Swift (actual music), but they also love music that can potentially easily be bested by AI.

Even if the Taylor Swifts survive, the overall pool can be substantially diluted by rights free AI music which can profoundly impact the financial viability of actual music.

Those are the risks and concerns. It’s not comparable to sheet music. It’s more akin to the computer created artist. Not an artist that uses computers, but rather the computer as the artist.

That’s a very different kettle of fish from anything not only the music industry, but the human race has ever faced before.

The Amish are looking pretty smart right about now :joy:

Showing your age :slight_smile: I strongly disagree (and I am old). Hip hop in particular is precisely about people telling their stories and there are strong communities around artists. I doubt that an AI can replicate what Hip Hop is about, for those who care and know about Hip Hop.

That’s just wrong on so many levels.

I would have thought the Taylor Swifts and Adeles are the first to be replaced :smiley:

I am not scared. It may happen but then that’s just new art and some people will rant against it like against Hip Hop (or Swing, or Picasso, or everything back to ancient Greece).

I think the important part is that the consumers will still be human. Either this new art will speak to us (resonate with us), then it qualifies. Or it doesn’t, then it will fail. Or, most likely, something in between. We could of course set up closed AI feedback systems shouting at each other in silence.

Because they made sure they are utterly unprepared? :wink:

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I don’t actually have an issue with this, industries change all the time and adapt. If the scenario above actually did happen, “human” artists would create and sell music in other ways, they already do now.

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I’m fairly young for an audiophile.

In terms of what one likes, it’s a matter of personal taste. There’s no right or wrong to what one likes. If you like rap, no worries. It’s far from my cup of tea.

To me, rap is talking. Which is totally ok. But it’s not music by any normal definition of music. It has rhythm and meter, but is far from being actual music - IN MY OPINION.

Rap need not be music to be popular. It need not be music to have value or worth. Spoken word arts are not inherently any less artistic than musical arts. And beauty is inherently in the eye of the beholder.

But what rap is or is not has little to do with the potential disruption to the music industry by AI. The point being that young people overwhelmingly prefer that sort of “music”, along with techno, both of which are low hanging fruit for AI. And that’s why the industry - not me - the industry is so concerned.

AI has the potential of upending the entire economic system in music. And that will effect all genres of music.

Ok with me personally. It remains to be seen what AI means for the already diluted ability for artists to make money from their creations.

Bringing it back to streaming, Spotify is a leader in moving the AI based music movement forward. Obviously if it can cut out both artist and label, their chances of being profitable increase greatly.

That’s something very different to say than

It’s poorly written and sung inane lyrics accompanied by a childish techno soundtrack requiring very little musical talent.

As for the industry, there will probably be disruption. And there will be people interacting with an AI entity on Instagram that has an image and makes music. But I doubt that the size of the community mourning the disconnection of an AI avatar will be comparable to the murder of 2Pac. Because popular music develops around communities of humans interacting and people want to see humans on a stage, generally, or humans in a crowd around them. (ABBA notwithstanding, but there always was and always will be a market for Starlight Express as well). AI techno DJs may work, at least for a while, if they can read a crowd like a good DJ can.

Music has an economic system? I thought it was all the Eras tour.

The sky is falling, the sky is falling.

Yes, things (all things) will be different; just as all things are always becoming different.

From Wikipedia -

Speaking of Wikipedia, who buys the World Book or Encyclopedia Britannia any more?

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