“Artificial Intelligence is a branch of computer science that aims to create intelligent machines”. It has become an essential part of the technology industry. Recently, AI has encroached the entire branches of life, such as: speech-recognition, problem solving, and learning, etc. One of the most revolutionary usages of AI is the field of music industry, which is changing the nature of music production all over the world, as it started to produce full tracks and songs. However, the reason behind one’s choice of this topic is their own interest in music and their previous experience in music production.
Although many people are aware of the importance of AI in music industry, many people deny its importance . People globally admit that nowadays AI plays a major role in the music industry, as it recently doubled the economic benefits of music industry as it waslatterly declared by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) that music revenues in 2016 has been enlarged by 11.4% to $7.7 billion as the highest growth in rate since 1998.
Moreover, going on with the importance of AI in the music field; many technical benefits were found, such as artificial intelligence startup applications which mainly depend on voice recognition which helps music producers in the studios, like Amper app which is co-founded by Drew Silverstein who is ‘CEO of Amper Music, an artificial intelligence composer, performer, and producer that creates unique music, tailored to any content, instantly’ .If there is an application that ask producers what samples and vocals to use with a specific tempo and beat with the genre they like the most, it would bring out enormous creativity and it will supersede the traditional procedures of music production. Moreover, the appearance of artificial intelligence in the musical field not only has had offered a huge variety of options, sounds and instruments, but it also started to writethe lyrics and compose music with the perfect choice of words and rhyme as there was a full song composed by AI, under the name of ‘Daddy’s Car’ by Sony’s CSL (Computer Science Laboratory). Furthermore, the main aim of AI in music is not to replace musician, but to assist them to enhance their music and make it better.
On the other hand, in Egypt, various people think that AI is not important in the music industry; as artificial intelligence is beating musician’s jobs as they offer all tasks made by humans starting from collecting data moving to streaming and releasing, as they started to learn algorithms and programs that make music as they launch both objective and subjective processes that cannot be done by musicians. In addition to, people think that the musician adds his own creative touches, but an artificial intelligent robot has a lack in this area. Moreover, any artist and his fan base have a special type of connection as they are always in touch with each other, but how will be there a connection between fans and a robot? Along with, music producers stays hours and days and sometimes weeks to make creative melodies with new ideas so it can rock the crowd when it reaches their ears, and after all of that an AI robot take all of this effort to use it in his music which is called plagiarism, so AI robots must learn how to avoid plagiarism. In comparison between both perspectives, the supporting one and the objecting one, supporters can come to a realization that using AI in music has benefits and cons which are depending on reliable statistics and facts such as financial numbers as in the first perspective the percentage of the increasing revenues in the music industry in the united states was mentioned by a reliable association; which is RIAA. Unlike the opposing perspective that depends on personal opinions of people regarding this matter, and also human ethics and values which are counted as a positive point.Evidences of the first perspective made it stronger and more reliable than the second one.Reaching the end of my thesis, after searching in many resources, I have finally reunited the whole picture and got out with a conclusion. Moreover, I will try explain my view on the research question.
Unfortunately, I am a little bit conflicted, as everything it has its pros and cons and I can only describe it as a double edged weapon. I am acknowledge of the raft of fans putting the idea of AI into rejection before its yet started, people wholeheartedly crave and appreciate the personal connection they feel between the music and its creator, but on the other hand, I think that AI sometimes cancels the role of music producers in some tasks. However it is all controlled and supervised by the producer himself. In my opinion I think that AI could be implemented in the aspects of a song that do not require human input to feel special whilst keeping the main factors of a song or a melody in the control of the musician like the vocals, chords and lyrics.
Moreover, as I started working on this project a colossal amount of information have been added to my brain, and this was one of my goals in doing this research as I am into music and everything related to it, so I am very careful to know everything about music. Besides, at the beginning of my research I wasn’t aware that artificial intelligence is present in music industry, but I started reading about artificial intelligence in music industry. Actually I did not think that it is important in music and I thought that AI would replace musicians, so I totally rejected the idea, then after I finished my research and started comparing between the supporting perspective and the denying one, I have totally agreed with the importance of artificial intelligence in the music industry due its numerous pros as I have mentioned before. In addition to, the numbers, statistics, and facts that was mentioned in the first perspective has heightened and raised my attachment to the relevance of artificial intelligence in this field. Anyways, this research has expanded my searching techniques and enlarged my writing capability.Last but not least, when I first started thinking about my research, I started thinking about the methods and approaches that I will use while I am carrying out my research.
The first thing that touched my head is to make an interview with an artificial intelligence expert, but unfortunately I realized that there is no AI experts in my country or they are very rare which means that they are very busy. Then I contacted a very popular music producer in Egypt so I can have an interview with him but it was very late because there was a time delay until he answered me. However, if I redone this research I will be more careful about the period of time and I will try to contact any artificial intelligence expert online from all over the globe as it is not a must to be face to face. However I am really excited to have this experience again but with more professional way to add more data to my information bank.
