AI is developed and utilized primarily by IT and internet-based companies. For instance, Google has integrated AI into its search engine. Facebook employs AI for personalized advertising and automatic photo tagging. Similarly, Microsoft and Apple incorporate AI into their virtual assistants. However, the use of AI extends beyond the traditional IT sector. A notable example is the growing number of initiatives and trials involving music industry. Not only music production is affected, but understanding of music creation is reshaped as an educational realm [2].
Nowadays music-related AI is successfully implemented in various streaming services, learning apps or content creation tools. For example, famous music streaming platform Spotify uses artificial intelligence in various ways. The goal of this implementation is to enchase music discovery, help users to personalize their library or, simply, to ease playlist creation. Premium users can create personalized playlists by using prompts such as “chill vibes for a rainy day” or “relaxing classical music”. The AI analyses users’ preferences, learns listening habits and even captures the time of the day to create playlists tailored to the user’s mood or activity [4][5]. For music and playlist recommendations Spotify uses advanced AI algorithms such as collaborative filtering, natural language processing (NLP) or deep learning. All of that is done to suggest new music or artists to the user.
Apart from being just a helping tool for finding new sounds and creating more personalized playlists, AI is used to create music itself. The emergence of music produced by artificial intelligence raises a range of ethical and artistic concerns for society, which become increasingly pressing as technology advances.
One of the most discussed questions – who is the author of the music that was created with AI? Is it the algorithm itself or its developer? Can it be those whose works were used to the model? Or maybe it’s simply the user? Existing copyright laws do not provide clarifications for such cases, which creates legal uncertainty. Unfortunately, AI is usually trained on big amounts of music data that was created by humans which leads to the fear of possible plagiarism and copyright violations.
For now, it is not possible to give the exact answers to these questions as the usage of AI brings more and more ethical debates to the industry. For example, some technologies can imitate voices of artists, their unique musical style. Using the data that is freely available all over the internet, it is not that hard to “create” a song that will sound like someone’s favorite singer. It is also not that expensive to make.
Suno AI, or simply Suno – a generative AI music creation program - can generate realistic songs that combine generated song text, vocals and instrumentation. The company claims that with their program user can “create stunning original music in seconds…, make your own masterpieces…” Free plan enables a user to generate 10 songs per day, to use only standard features such as text generation and etc. and to upload up to 1 minute of audio. With this plan music cannot be used for commercial and has no add-on credit option. However, within Pro Plan only for 8 US dollars per month a user has more freedom and ability to use generated music for commercial purposes. There is Premier Plan that costs 24 US dollars per month, but there is no real difference in features between this plan and Pro Plan (only the amount of daily generated songs).
To create a song, a user should give a brief description of what exactly they want to get. That includes style, language, song theme, mood, genre... It is also possible to give AI an assignment to use existing artist’s style – “make me a song in Dua Lipa’s style”. First the text will be generated, and in a couple of minutes it will be possible to hear the final product [6].
Even with the promised possibility to make “original” music using AI it could lead to job cuts in the music industry and lower artist incomes if streaming services prefer cheap AI-generated music instead of licensed tracks from live artists. Still the question about copyrighting this music is open. In the United States, the current legal framework tends to apply traditional copyright laws to AI, despite its differences from the human creative process[3]. However, musical works created exclusively with the help of AI are not copyrighted.
The situation in the European Union is similar to that in the United States, as its legal framework also emphasizes the role of human participation in copyrighted works[1]. According to the European Union Intellectual Property Office and the recent jurisprudence of the Court of Justice of the European Union, the criterion of originality requires that a work be the author's own intellectual creation reflecting the personality of the author, as evidenced by the creative choice made at the time of its creation requires a certain level of human involvement[1].
To regulate the use of AI in music, it is necessary to introduce ethical standards that ensure a balance between technological innovation and the protection of human rights. Definition of authorship and legal status can help with making distinction of roles in music industry clear. Music that was created only with AI should be marked as an “AI product” and not be eligible for the copyright protection. Developers of AI music tools should be required to publish information about whose music or whose data was used to train the models. Disclosure of training data can help to prevent copyright violations. Moreover, it is important to ban creating vocal imitations of real performers without their explicit consent. For example, Spotify deletes tracks that violate this rule. And the most important – prioritizing of human creativity. AI music tools should be used and positioned only as an assistive technology.
Apart from a huge number of ethical questions regarding the usage of AI in music, there are numerous artistic challenges. The question of whether an algorithm can produce a truly original and emotionally resonant work of art, or whether it will merely be a successful amalgamation of existing styles and techniques, remains unanswered.
The rise of AI is reshaping our understanding of the value of human intention and individual style, blurring the lines between human and machine-generated creativity. This leads to the absence of emotional depth in AI-generated music.
AI generated music lacks emotional depth and fails to establish a meaningful connection with the audience, unlike the works of living composers and performers. For example, music of the XX century is filled with vivid emotions and can easily trigger us to experience pain, sadness or happiness that was thought and created by the musician. When we listen to Claude Debussy’s Clair de Lune we feel all the emotions composer has put in his piece. But we cannot reach this level of emotional response when we hear AI generated music. It is soulless, cold and pure machinery. As Marina Kosmovskaia, doctor of art history ,professor at Kursk State University, mentioned in one of the discussions during a scientific and practical conference at Kursk State University, AI music is “fast, clear, even with ritenuto.... It's cold. without a soul”.
Suno AI can also create pure instrumental music. The same way as with songs, a user needs to specify what kind of music they want to get in the end. However, using Free plan, sometimes a user gets not exactly what they wanted. For example, Suno has no problems with creating baroque-style music. But with symphony music it is not always accurate.
It is crucial to strike a balance between utilizing AI and preserving the personal, creative contributions of musicians to ensure that the art remains authentic and captivating for listeners.
There is no doubt that use of the AI in music creation process opens up new possibilities, but at the same time raises complex ethical and artistic issues. It is necessary to take into account the interests of musicians, listeners and society, develop new legal and ethical standards, as well as preserve the value of human creativity and emotional connection with the audience.