This was brought up in the music theory thread , but I thought it could be an interesting topic on its own.

I would imagine jingles, movie sound tracks and such will be composed and performed by AI soon enough, as well as pop music. But I suppose they’ll always be a demand to watch humans perform live on instruments and sing. I feel bad for all the musicians, singers and composers who will lose out to AI, but it’s been happening for years now. I remember reading an interview with jazz drummer Mel Lewis, back in the 1980’s saying that he wanted to bomb the Linn Drum Machine factory!

I think it started with the popularity of DJ's. Years ago I used to do a lot of Cocktail Hr. piano at a Wedding Venue. The baby grand was near the bar so people would pass me constantly.
This happened more than once. Someone would glance at the inside of the piano and see hammers moving and look at me and say "hey, your really playing "
Pit orchestras for shows have been fighting for years against using synths.
Your right, for situations where a live musician isn't needed AI will fill in. Like everything it all about $$$

That’s true Bill, it’s all about money. I guess the big difference now is that composers and song writers will be out of work too. I’m sure ( if not already) we’ll have pop singers performing music created by AI. I wonder who will get the song writing credits and royalties ?

I

Times have really changed. I remember the union fighting the replacement of drummers with drum machines, of problems getting to use synths, similar problems eliminating bass players. Once I had a job doing 4-track backing because the network would not allow the use of "foreign" tracks.

In 1980, everyone was talking about how Hall and Oates were negatively impacting music by using early arrangers. Others were saying that disco was going to kill live performance.

45 years later, the only thing killing my involvement in recording and live performance is OLD AGE!

Original sound scores that sync perfectly with on-screen action are 4 times more effective (and more expensive) than needle drop scores.

Let's be positive. Let's use AI to improve the process.

The primary thing is to KEEP THE FUN FACTOR!

Let's all look forward to to GREAT THINGS....TOGETHER!

Lots of love to all,


Russ

Thanks for your optimistic view, Russ. It’s true that NOW, we humans are still in the game, but the thing that worries me is the sheer pace of improvement for AI. As the massive investment in AI continues, what we see is almost monthly improvements in the little details that make AI content easily seen or heard.

Compare today’s results with only six months ago, and it’s night and day . Another six months, another huge leap forward. It’s truly scary to think of three years down the road. AI content basically didn’t even exist three years ago. Now it’s already up to casual commercial use and a huge chunk of commercial illustration is being farmed out to AI rather than human illustration.

I know at the very high end of the industry the edge that human creativity gives will always have value, but the industry as a whole survives on a far more prosaic level. For every John Williams, there are hundreds (thousands!) composing for local commercials, video game soundtracks, YouTube content and so much more. Destroy the base of the industry, where does the NEXT John Williams come from?

We’ve seen the results of studios getting replaced by home computer based creation, and despite some standouts (Jacob Collier springs to mind as a talented ‘bedroom studio’ success) the end result has been a decline (IMO) of the quality not only of songwriting but particularly the quality of pop arranging and recording. And sadly, the popular acceptance of this lowered standard.

The thing that worries me about AI is the popular acceptance of the lowered standard that AI will bring. I’ve always felt art is a pyramid. To reach high up, it needs a broad base. Destroy the broad base, where is the peak going to go? The shared knowledge that thousands of lesser creatives bring is a springboard for the best of us. How do we think we can lift up another DaVinci or Art Tatum if there is no community to raise them?

Right now AI is a fun tool, but it careens onward at breakneck speed, and a day is coming where we won’t be needed. Like the craftsmen of old who got replaced by mass produced goods (it’s almost impossible to find craftsmen nowadays that can hand duplicate the best of the 18th and 19th centuries), are we heading for a world where composers and musicians will be a rarity?

"Verify you are Human"!

A machine is only capable to do what it was programmed for, it might be able to learn and "think" , but it will never be equal to Humans. A machine doesn't feel pain, sorrow or love, feelings that are necessary to create music and other arts.

If AI is going to make the music of the future, it will lack those feelings that Humans have, and I would never call that music, but only machine noise...

I hope you are right, (But I somehow doubt it) otherwise we are totally knackered.

Bill

The machine doesn’t need to feel… simply copy (or more accurately produce music ‘close to’) music that humans have used feelings to create.

Da Vinci may have felt sad painting the Mona Lisa but an AI homage doesn’t need to feel sad!