5 Ways AI Has Already Changed the Music Industry

Hype around artificial intelligence has been higher this year than any time since The Terminator, with implications ranging anywhere from dating app messages to doomsday predictions. In music, excitement and hysteria has been similarly mixed, thanks to a flurry of AI-generated soundalikes that have shown the potential to change artistry — and fandom — as we know it, while many companies are assessing how to best protect their artists, copyrights and revenue streams from the growing threat. 

But not all AI in music is “Fake Drake.” In fact, many uses are a lot less freaky. 

For example, when Paul McCartney told BBC Radio 4 that he would use artificial intelligence to create the final Beatles song, including vocals from the late John Lennon, it prompted widespread confusion. Many fans assumed that this meant McCartney was using AI to bring his bandmate’s voice back from the dead, generating some kind of new recording of Lennon’s out of thin air. Quickly, McCartney clarified on Twitter that “nothing has been artificially or synthetically created.” Instead, the singer is using AI to clean up an old recording made by the bandmates while they were still living using a process known as “stem separation.”

Not every use-case of the emerging technology involves generating computer-made songs or voices instantaneously. While some applications of AI certainly present urgent legal and ethical concerns, there are also many applications that give musicians and rights holders new creative opportunities from the way it’s created to how it’s released and beyond.

Here are five of the ways AI is already affecting the music business: