This short Instagram reel from Kristin who writes for Billboard has a good overview of how this can impact music - streaming is one of the biggest concerns as it dilutes the money genuine artists get
Worth noting that there have been arrests for use of AI (this was more for fake listeners)
Thereâs a lot about topics related to this in Liz Pellyâs brilliant book about Spotify called Mood Machine. An excerpt from it here
With over 371,700 creates on TikTok, 819,745 streams on Spotify, 161,000 views on YouTube, âA Million Colorsâ sounds so realistic that it has fooled a number of unsuspecting users. One of the most popular celebrities on the platform, Kylie Jenner , recently posted a makeup tutorial with the AI-generated song in the background, earning her 1.5 million likes.
Deezer revealed in April that AI-generated music now represents 18% of all uploads to its platform, or 20,000 tracks per day. The company said it was removing all fully AI-generated content from its algorithmic recommendations. Deezer has more than 10 million subscribers worldwide, while market leader Spotify has 268 million.
In the 80s, folks were scared that synthesisers would destroy music. They didnât and instead unleashed a wave of wonder.
Yet today feels different. I listened to the entire The Velvet Sundown - Dust and Silence album. My brain was tricked. I genuinely felt sick. This is a turning point.
I canât be the only person who feels like lobbying for album artwork to now include the equivalent of a parental advisory sticker.
ADVISORY 100% AI-GENERATED.
Yes, of course, musicians are using tech to create/enhance/support their craft. I get that.
Yet this feels different. There needs to a line drawn between human created albums and full AI-generated albums.
We canât let the next generation be unaware of the difference.
Donât let them be fooled.
What sucks about this is that Iâm gonna assume itâll only be us music geeks who will value acknowledging the difference.
Iâm gonna assume that most non-musos wonât give a shit how the music was produced, theyâll just appreciate if they like it or not.
"Oh, this sounds nice. I like the lyricsâ
The AI-generated albums ship has sailed yet I think advisory labelling will help a little. It feels futile yet perhaps itâs something.
Doesnât seem exclusive to Spotify, especially given the Deezer & TikTok mentions herein. Sure Spotify is the most popular streamer so will be the most problematic, but seems like a general issue across streaming apps & social media.
Iâm pretty sure AI generated âmusicâ will already be slowly infiltrating all the in-house playlists that Spotify curate. Particularly all the electronic/ambient ones, where itâs easier for AI artists to imitate the real thing (with only diligent listeners being able to spot the difference).
Like @simon.tomes saidâŚthe main exacerbating factor is the apathy of your average listener. If asked directly, I reckon most people on the street would agree that AI music is a âbad thingââŚbut are they then going to actively change their listening habits (which are already very automated and casual) to combat this? Itâs very unlikely.
Spotifyâs playlist game is wild. Given how so much of it is purely Muzak, they work with agencies whoâll get musicians to record a bunch of different inoffensive jams that theyâll then cram on to their many playlists. @sean mentioned it upthread but Mood Machine by Liz Pelly is really worth a read.
The Velvet Sundown vocals are very convincing. You can hear artefacts in the guitar and bass but I do wonder what model theyâve used for this and whether they rerecorded the vocals.
To dig a little deeper, we contacted Ircam Amplify. Thatâs the French technology company that unveiled its âAI-Generated Detectorâ tool last year, claiming a 98.5% accurate-identification rate for spotting GenAI music. It has run The Velvet Sundownâs âDust and Silenceâ album through the tool, and shared the results with Music Ally.
The findings suggest that 10 of the albumâs 13 tracks are AI-generated with a âconfidenceâ score of 100 out of 100. Two more tracks are labelled AI-generated with a confidence score of 98. Only one track â âHow Did This Go Wrongâ â comes back with a âfalseâ result (i.e that itâs not AI) with a confidence score of 73.
Oh, and by the way, for every single one of the 12 tracks that Ircam Amplifyâs tool thinks are AI-generated, the suspected model used is Suno. Specifically, so the company tells us, Suno 4.5, which launched in May.
