Keith Reeves: AI in music - A controversial harmony or industry threat?

I have been watching with great interest the debates on artificial intelligence, with a particular interest in the potential impact on music. My first knee-jerk reaction was “Oh no, this is going to be worse than streaming”. You may recall an article I wrote that detailed the plight of independent musicians, and the incredibly small amount that is paid to them by streaming companies.

However, having looked into the subject a bit further, I have to say that for me, the jury is out, although the make or break of it will be the implementation. Let’s start with the positive example of the recent Beatles hit “Now and Then”. I am of a certain age which allows me to say that I lived through the rise and fall of possibly the best four-man combo ever. I wept when the Beatles announced their break up and later in life John Lennon and George Harrison were taken from us far too early. However, with the help of AI, we were recently able to listen to a new recording from the Fab Four.

The song was written and sung by John Lennon in the late 1970s at his home in the Dakota building in New York City and in 1994, Yoko Ono gave the demo to Paul McCartney on a cassette labelled “For Paul”. More than a quarter of a century later, AI-enabled John’s voice to be isolated and then married to guitar parts from George which were recorded in 1995. Paul and Ringo produced new parts and sections from other Beatles tracks were woven into the mix. Bingo, the Beatles are back together, and the accompanying video which was very moving, was the icing on the cake. The fact that the surviving two members of the band controlled it, was just dandy for me.

There is also the positive aspect that AI will enable a lot more people to create music. People who may have physical issues, which limit their ability to create music, can now be empowered to produce music. I do still harbour my reservations about the software falling into unscrupulous hands in the future. Given the track record of managing social media and the proliferation of unacceptable images on the internet, I think there are huge potential risks with this technology. I do not want to be presented with a software-derived song from Billie Holiday, to which she had no input! If songs are created from basically sampling existing records, where would the next Billie Holiday come from?

Would this also be a threat to live music shows? There is a great buzz from seeing your musical heroes up on a stage belting their hits out, but how would an AI-produced record do a stage show? AI in music has been about for a while and the roots go back as far as Alan Turing in 1951 and the Bach-inspired “Illiac Suite” in 1958. Brian Eno of Roxy Music fame has been experimenting for years so it hasn’t just arrived.

I am still following this discussion, but I have the feeling that AI is a low-level threat to the industry because nothing will ever replace bouncing about in the mosh pit watching our heroes on the stage. Or am I just an old romantic?
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