Music & Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence is very quickly going to change the world as we know it and the music industry is no exception. The British Phonographic Industry (BPI), the UK record labels’ association, has released a new report looking into how AI is currently being used and how it will impact the music industry. The full report can be found on the BPI’s website and makes for an interesting read.

Creative roles are thought to be the jobs least vulnerable to being replaced by AI, but this report shows the music industry is still in the firing line. Large streaming services already use AI to create personalised playlists and make great (and sometimes not so great) music recommendations, but how else will it be used in the music industry?

The BPI report details how AI is already being used to compose background music in games and apps, and even to mix DJ sets.

The standard AI issues apply:

• Will this technological advancement help or hinder musicians, producers and A&R?
• Who is responsible when something goes wrong?
• If AI composition tools create music that is a copyright infringement of someone else’s composition, who is liable?
• As a general rule, copyright belongs to the creator – will that mean that a song created with AI composition tools is owned by the creator of the AI, the person that instructs the AI or maybe even the AI itself?

All interesting issues that Briffa will be keeping an eye on.