The First song composed by AI - Break Free - Taryn Southern Official Music Video
The First Track of the First Album Composed and Produced by AI
On February 20, Taryn released her second AI single, Life Support, complete with a virtual reality video (she's received a grant from YouTube VR Creator Lab). Life Support is, like all Taryn's music, a song that'd be perfect for Eurovision: it's got the right futuristic theme ("What have we become…there's no escape route I can find"), the soaring chorus, the pounding drums.
But it raises a huge question: if AI can already make a tune potentially good enough for a Eurovision entry, can it do more? Could it create a No.1 hit? And, if it could, does that mean Ed Sheeran might soon be out of a job, replaced by an algorithm, with Bruno Mars and Adele following him not long after?
"Are we anywhere near an AI No.1? Absolutely!" Taryn says, via Skype from her home in LA. "But it does depend a little on what you mean by an AI No.1. Is this a song sung by AI? Is it one written by AI? Is it one produced by AI? Is it all of that?
"When you get into the nitty gritty of the composing process, it gets complicated."
To explain, Taryn sends over a link to a track on Soundcloud that she created using Amper's AI system.
Most AI music systems work in a similar way. They use artificial neural networks, modelled on a human brain, which learn by doing. The networks are normally taught how to compose by being fed a vast number of musical scores, which they then analyse, noticing patterns and how one note relates to another. The AI system can then produce short melodies in a similar style, along with the chords to go with it. Any music production added on top is normally done by conventional, non AI computer programs.
Amper's system is slightly different. It doesn't use neural networks, but other forms of AI. It also hasn't apparently been trained on any music scores. Instead it's been taught the rules of music theory (others have used this approach, too), and has also been taught to recognise what music triggers certain emotions. It uses that knowledge to create songs, and evaluate its own creations.
As you can hear from the Soundcloud track, what Taryn first got out of Amper's system doesn't sound like a pop song. It sounds, at best, like the kind of aural wallpaper you might hear at a business conference.
So how did Taryn make it into a pop tune? She dumped entire parts of the melody, and whole instruments; she restructured the track to create a build, changed the key, and added lots of electronics. And she sung over the top. Here's the finished version:
Given how much work Taryn did to it, does that mean it's actually an AI song anymore? "The bare bones are always there in what the AI gives you," she says, "but the dynamics in the song, the way that it's arranged, deciding what instruments to bring in or get rid of - those creative choices have to come from a human. Making AI music's a bit like being a film editor - it gives you all the raw material, then you have to piece it all together to tell a story."
But can she see it getting so good it replaces musicians? "I do joke sometimes - and you have to keep it in that this is a thing I only joke about - that bad musicians will likely have a tough time finding work. The reality is like that in any field: the better the tools you have, the more competitive an environment you have. That's going to happen with every market.
"I think AI music systems will just become one of the tools that are at our disposal along with many others. A piano is a tool. I'm sure back in the day people were just as horrified about the piano."
text by https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/articles/...
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