Warner Music just signed an algorithm to a record deal — what happens next?

rze99 · September 2023

Trying to get my head around this.

https://www.theverge.com/2019/3/27/18283084/warner-music-algorithm-signed-ambient-music-endel

Offset · September 2023

I suspect - from what I've seen - it's aimed at a very specific demographic (ie, virtually no-one on here).

I doubt it's going to herald the end of music as we know it. Well, not yet anyway :-)

rze99 · September 2023

If I understand it correctly - and I'm struggling - it's chunks of "background" music, i.e. the bilge that you get assaulted with hanging on the line to speak to anyone, in lifts, behind adverts, in shopping malls...

It can't play the guitar. I expect.

Sporky · September 2023

It's quite possible that it'll be better at it than people are.

theatreanchor · September 2023

That article is four years old. Surely we know what’s happened next.

jasonbone75 · September 2023

Better than Santana and Clapton for sure

LionAquaLooper · September 2023

A lot of pop music is so cliche and generic that they might as well have been written by a cookie cutter algorithm anyway. They brought this on themselves for following a template to death.

roberty · September 2023

theatreanchor said:

That article is four years old. Surely we know what’s happened next.

Pandemic

rze99 · September 2023

Well, on the BBC news (Today, radio 4 news) the headline was "A digital pop star, drawn by artists, voice created by AI, signed by Warner music with a new single out today"

here it is

rze99 · September 2023

According to Today programme (BBC Sounds, 45 minutes in) this is the first AI artist signed to a major.

Noonoouri is a virtual character. A G erman DJ created her in his mind. It's an avatar with a deal... The 2 d graphics are generated by motion capture. The original voice is man. Then they hired a singer to help with the realism, but the voice is AI.

theatreanchor · September 2023

rze99 said:

According to Today programme (BBC Sounds, 45 minutes in) this is the first AI artist signed to a major.

Noonoouri is a virtual character. A G erman DJ created her in his mind. It's an avatar with a deal... The 2 d graphics are generated by motion capture. The original voice is man. Then they hired a singer to help with the realism, but the voice is AI.

Got a catchy chorus. Good luck to 'em.

rze99 · September 2023

It’s as fake and generic sounding as the pop stuff that is programmed and auto tuned.

GoFish · September 2023

Miku is not happy about this. Not happy at all.

rze99 · September 2023

GoFish said:

Miku is not happy about this. Not happy at all.

Of course being an old git I had to look that up and yes strikingly similar.

Grangousier · September 2023

What happens next is the algorithm finds it's up to its neck in debt to the record company and it has to get a job working in a diner because its contract forbids it from releasing music.

darthed1981 · September 2023

Sporky said:

It's quite possible that it'll be better at it than people are.

It's very possible. AI for example can learn what works and what doesn't harmonically, and try new things. The new things that work inform it's learning, and so on.

Not as fundamentally artistic or creative, but like the article says, far cheaper and speedier at generating revenue from playlists like "calm piano", "midweek focus" and "Friday focus too, because we are all corporate shills".

This kind of stuff was handy money-making busy work for some musicians, like singing on cruise ships or weddings. Unlike the latter two, this stuff is easily replaced by AI.

The industry has changed, spectacularly, in the last few years. Ultimately the "new industry" favours the small, hardworking artist who can gain a loyal following. An AI can't go and nail it on stage with a fantastic, energetic gig, but a lot of people don't give a shit about that and just want background music.

A bit like the bits in Star Trek TNG when the crew ask for music, they never ask for an artist or album but a "mood" - that's what a lot of people do with streaming.

It's worth remembering as well that a lot of what is considered "worthy" and "real" about rock music, has been in itself amplified and twisted to sell it to you. The industry spent the late 60s and 70s killing it's "talent" off younger than the mines ever did, I won't miss that.

roberty · September 2023

darthed1981 said:

Sporky said:

It's quite possible that it'll be better at it than people are.

It's very possible. AI for example can learn what works and what doesn't harmonically, and try new things. The new things that work inform it's learning, and so on.

It can't know what the music it creates sounds like to a human though, so it cannot judge what works and what doesn't

Current gen generative AI has no cognitive modelling. When it draws a hand it has no idea what a hand is, or how the bones in it move, it is just copying other pictures of hands, with predictably patchy results. It has no critical faculty to judge its output

axisus · September 2023

GoFish said:

Miku is not happy about this. Not happy at all.

Miku is far more interesting, I'm quite fascinated by that concept. DId they do something similar for that ABBA show?

rze99 · September 2023

darthed1981 said:

Sporky said:

It's quite possible that it'll be better at it than people are.

It's very possible. AI for example can learn what works and what doesn't harmonically, and try new things. The new things that work inform it's learning, and so on.

Not as fundamentally artistic or creative, but like the article says, far cheaper and speedier at generating revenue from playlists like "calm piano", "midweek focus" and "Friday focus too, because we are all corporate shills".

This kind of stuff was handy money-making busy work for some musicians, like singing on cruise ships or weddings. Unlike the latter two, this stuff is easily replaced by AI.

The industry has changed, spectacularly, in the last few years. Ultimately the "new industry" favours the small, hardworking artist who can gain a loyal following. An AI can't go and nail it on stage with a fantastic, energetic gig, but a lot of people don't give a shit about that and just want background music.

A bit like the bits in Star Trek TNG when the crew ask for music, they never ask for an artist or album but a "mood" - that's what a lot of people do with streaming.

It's worth remembering as well that a lot of what is considered "worthy" and "real" about rock music, has been in itself amplified and twisted to sell it to you. The industry spent the late 60s and 70s killing it's "talent" off younger than the mines ever did, I won't miss that.

An AI can't go and nail it on stage with a fantastic, energetic gig, but a lot of people don't give a shit about that and just want background music.

That may be true for zone out / incidental / background music services. but as far as I can see the live and festival scene is hugely vibrant and people want to go and see live performers.

sg1300t · September 2023

roberty said:

darthed1981 said:

Sporky said:

It's quite possible that it'll be better at it than people are.

It's very possible. AI for example can learn what works and what doesn't harmonically, and try new things. The new things that work inform it's learning, and so on.

It can't know what the music it creates sounds like to a human though, so it cannot judge what works and what doesn't

Current gen generative AI has no cognitive modelling. When it draws a hand it has no idea what a hand is, or how the bones in it move, it is just copying other pictures of hands, with predictably patchy results. It has no critical faculty to judge its output

This is true, however metrics such as number of listens, and the distribution of how much of the piece was listened to (e.g. how many got to 50%, how many to 75% etc etc) will be used to train it. Rather like how companies such as Blizzard measure the effectiveness of their games...

Jez6345789 · September 2023

I think this is what pop AR has always wanted and have spent forever trying to hone pop artists to their will. They spent year analysing hits and getting safe producers to churn stuff out that hit key bpm time to chorus bridge etc.

signing so call AI acts is also them testing the legal line with real artist. How would you feel in 5 years time if you were signed to a label where much of their success was through so called AI artists.

I doubt it will end with just pop as the tech evolves.

How long before we have new albums from dead artists or real artist new material being a learning tune for Ai

sort of interesting times

prowla · September 2023

It could be one of many recent pop songs; I expect they'll take that as a compliment, but it isn't!

darthed1981 · September 2023

sg1300t said:

roberty said:

darthed1981 said:

Sporky said:

It's quite possible that it'll be better at it than people are.

It's very possible. AI for example can learn what works and what doesn't harmonically, and try new things. The new things that work inform it's learning, and so on.

It can't know what the music it creates sounds like to a human though, so it cannot judge what works and what doesn't

Current gen generative AI has no cognitive modelling. When it draws a hand it has no idea what a hand is, or how the bones in it move, it is just copying other pictures of hands, with predictably patchy results. It has no critical faculty to judge its output

This is true, however metrics such as number of listens, and the distribution of how much of the piece was listened to (e.g. how many got to 50%, how many to 75% etc etc) will be used to train it. Rather like how companies such as Blizzard measure the effectiveness of their games...

Exactly - we are talking billions of streams, a staggering amount of statistical data, and of course aggregating statistics is something computers are superb at.

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Warner Music just signed an algorithm to a record deal — what happens next?

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