With the beginning of 2023, artificial intelligence has started to develop faster than ever before. This rampant increase in technology has seriously impacted the way people live, showcased through projects such as ChatGPT. This program has allowed students, for example, to have answers to virtually any problem they are struggling with. Alongside ChatGPT, improvement in artificial intelligence has recently affected a different avenue of creativity.

AI music is a new concept that utilizes AI to create and modify music. This new use of AI is able to create new types of sounds, adjust music, or build off of existing music. Programs, such as Boomy, allow users to create different versions of music already created by other artists. Like other types of AI, AI music gathers a vast amount of data to improve its results. As it trains and learns patterns from the data, the AI is able to improve and create better music. This is important when it comes to making music based on existing artists. The AI will learn the specifics of an artist’s music and be able to replicate it. AI music is able to learn the rhythm and beat of music, but it can also learn and replicate the voice of an artist. This is where the debate of whether AI music should or should not be allowed for use.

A popular instance of this use exemplifies the problem. A song created by a random user titled “Heart on My Sleeve” used AI music to generate a song using the voices of two famous artists: Drake and The Weeknd. The song was published on streaming platforms like Spotify and garnered a lot of attention on social media. This caused the creator to earn money from the song even though it was created by artificial intelligence and used other artists’ voices. This stirs up the issue of legality in relation to the use of AI music. If people are using an AI version of someone else’s voice, is it disrupting copyright? Many music labels and corporations think yes, and they have committed time and resources to remove the AI music that includes the voice of one of their artists. Their influence has caused Spotify to remove “Heart on My Sleeve,” but music labels are going to have to continue their pursuit of eliminating AI music since so much is uploaded to the internet on a weekly basis.

Another instance of the use of AI music is related to a different popular artist, Frank Ocean. For context, Frank Ocean is a beloved and well-known music artist who has not released music in years. Many of his fans have become desperate to hear new music from him which has been taken advantage of. Using AI music, scammers have created songs with Frank Ocean’s voice and sold them while portraying the songs as real, unreleased music created by the artist. The creation of AI music has led to its abuse, allowing people to utilize it for financial gain.

Stemming away from the copyright and legal issues of AI music, the topic brings up a different debate regarding bots. The use of bots in music has been relevant for many years before the development of AI music. People use them in order to receive more streams of their songs, known as artificial streaming. The bots would play their song on repeat and generate more listeners. This has recently been adopted in AI music where people are using bots to play songs created with artificial intelligence. This means that music can now be artificially created and listened to artificially at the same time. The combination could be exploited to make money without actually doing much work. Spotify, and other streaming services, have been struggling to keep up with the copious amounts of bots being used on their platforms. It could create many problems down the line with listening to music online.

Even with all the negatives that come with AI music, there are some positives that can be utilized by artists. If used correctly, AI music can be a great tool to help artists express their creativity. It can aid the process of creating a song by eliminating tedious segments of song production while reducing the amount of labor and finance required to make a full song. An artist can also express their creativity in ways that would not be possible before AI music. It allows the artist to sing in different languages or make their voice sound completely different. This expands the artist’s creative potential by giving them more options and opportunities to change their music.

At the end of the day, AI music is a resource and a tool that can be used by all who have access to the Internet. However, AI music is also a responsibility. Whether it is used in a productive way or a malicious way is dictated only by the user. AI music can be used to plagiarize and scam other people, or it can be exploited with bots in order to create artificial streams. While creating many potential problems, AI music also expands the opportunity for creativity in the music industry. Like it or not, AI music is revolutionary and will be relevant to the art of music in the upcoming years. Only time will tell if AI music will ruin the authenticity of music or not.