What musicians need to know about AI music
AI has much to offer to music and the music industry that excites some and makes others nervous. Here’s a rundown to help you decide whether you should embrace or resist its potential.
by Talia Smith-Muller from Berklee Online‘s Take Note blog
The capabilities of AI music have been rumbling under the surface of the music industry for years, but it wasn’t until the release of ChatGPT in 2022 when the wider conversation about artificial intelligence began to proliferate in the mainstream. Where we stand now is that some musicians and music industry professionals are enamored by the possibilities of AI music, while others are wary of the unknowns, especially when regulation is still in its infancy. A studyby the music distribution company Ditto found that nearly 60 percent of surveyed artists say that they use AI in their music projects, while 28 percent say they would not use AI for music purposes.
Christopher Wares, Assistant Chair of Music Business/Management at Berklee College of Music, is a proponent of AI music technology. He even wrote his master’s thesis on why Warner Music should invest in artificial intelligence, and this was back in 2016 (Spoiler alert: they did, along with all of the other major labels). Wares has introduced AI into his Berklee courses and has noticed a mix of responses among students.
“Some of my students love AI, and are already using it in a number of different ways, while others want nothing to do with it,” says Wares. “There’s a lot of heated debate in conversations, and I try to encourage my students to embrace this technology and find new ways to use it to enhance their creative processes.”
Another course author and instructor with a similar mindset is Ben Camp, Associate Professor of Songwriting at Berklee College of Music and author of Songs Unmasked: Techniques and Tips for Songwriting Success. They have been fascinated by AI music technology since 2016 after hearing “Daddy’s Car,” one of the first AI pop songs where the AI was trained on music by the Beatles.
Camp is also giving their students the option to explore AI in the classroom