The Future of Music: Balancing Creativity and Ethics

Embracing AI with Consent, Attribution, and Fair Compensation

AI music creation is advancing rapidly, sparking debates about its implications. An AI-created song recently went viral on TikTok, racking up millions of streams and sparking debates about AI's role in music creation. As this new technology advances, what could be the effects on artists and listeners?

TLDR: too long didn’t read

• Opportunities: AI can potentially democratize music creation so it's not limited to those with recording equipment or musical knowledge.

• Concerns: As shown by the controversial Drake-AI song, an AI model can convincingly mimic a singer's voice without their authorization. Some legal experts compare this to the early days of digital sampling when labels sued over unapproved samples.

• Potential Solutions: Instead of AI generating full songs alone, the sweet spot may be tools that enhance and inspire the human creative process.

• The Future: Human imagination and expression should remain essential to the process. It will require actively shaping its evolution to empower rather than exploit creators.

Overall, technological progress has historically benefited music culture.

On the one hand, AI presents opportunities for greater creativity and accessibility in music. For independent artists and producers, AI tools like melodic and vocal generation can assist with producing original songs more efficiently. Services are emerging that allow users to customize a virtual artist's voice and style. Musicians can collaborate with AI "co-writers" to experiment with new genres and sounds. Generative AI even opens doors for those lacking traditional musical skills to engage in creative expression through AI collaboration. Listeners gain access to a wider variety of music as more creators utilize AI as a tool. The sounds and styles achievable through human-AI collaboration are virtually limitless.

• Elf.Tech partnered with digital music distribution firm TuneCore, allowing creative works that use Grimes’ AI voice to be professionally distributed with vetted royalty splits.

Concerns: Deepfake vocals raise issues around consent and proper artist credit.

However, concerns around ethics, copyright, and fair compensation for artists using AI also abound. When an AI like Anthropic's Claude writes an original song, who owns the rights? If the AI is trained on copyrighted catalogs without artist permission, is it plagiarism? How will streaming royalties be allocated if roles are blurred between human creator and AI tool?

Questions around consent and proper artist credit with synthetic media also apply to deepfake vocals. As shown by the controversial Drake-AI song, an AI model can convincingly mimic a singer's voice without their authorization. Some legal experts compare this to the early days of digital sampling when labels sued over unapproved samples. Today, samples are commonplace but subject to negotiated rights and royalties. A similar framework around AI content attribution and revenue sharing will need to take shape.

• For example, Kanye West sourced audio from a viral video of a child preacher for Life Of Pablo’s opening track Ultralight Beam. Since then, he was reportedly sued by the toddler’s parents for illegal use of the recording, but the sentiment remains.

In a recent interview with BET, entertainment lawyer Al Smith commented on the issue of artists' voices being used without their permission. Smith stated that federal copyright law currently does not protect voice as copyrightable material, which poses a problem for artists in this situation. However, he pointed to personality rights and name, image, and likeness (NIL) rights as potential alternative forms of legal recourse.

"These rights (NIL) cover a person's name, likeness, signature, and any identifying characteristics, which includes their singing voice," Smith explained.

He noted that not all states recognize these rights and some that do will not acknowledge them after an artist has died. Overall, Smith highlighted the limitations around copyright law in protecting artists' voices but suggested personality and NIL rights could potentially offer other options, depending on the state.

Develop AI ethically as a collaborative tool, not replacement for humans.

AI has inspired polarized perspectives, but a balanced approach may be ideal. Developing technology with proper ethical guardrails could allow AI to augment human creativity rather than replace it. Instead of AI generating full songs alone, the sweet spot may be tools that enhance and inspire the human creative process.

AI voices like Grimes' could be positioned as supplemental contributions requiring artist approval, rather than impersonations. The music industry should also ensure artists retain equitable ownership and revenue from works involving AI. Shared collective management groups like Peloton’s approach of paying royalties for its AI DJ feature could be a model. Actively consulting and compensating artists whose work trains AI systems is key. AI will disrupt parts of the creative process, but human imagination and expression should remain at the core.

The Future: Human imagination and expression should remain essential to the process.

If embraced responsibly under fair policies, AI and machine learning offer exciting new playgrounds for musical innovation. Listeners stand to benefit from more music that transcends traditional limits. For artists, AI can reduce barriers and supercharge creativity. With ethical implementation, this new wave of technology could usher in an artistic renaissance benefitting both musicians and fans. But it will require actively shaping its evolution to empower rather than exploit creators.

The future lies in embracing AI as a collaborative tool while ensuring adequate consent, attribution and compensation.

Key Principles:

• Consent from original artists whose work trains AI systems.

• Proper attribution and approval for any AI-generated content.

• Shared revenue and ownership between human creators and AI tools.

This insights report from Happy Monday Ent. aims to provide a balanced perspective on some of the key discussions surrounding AI-generated music. However, this analysis is by no means exhaustive. As technology progresses rapidly, new questions and complexities will continue to emerge around AI's integration into the creative process.

We welcome additional perspectives, insights, and constructive feedback from all stakeholders, including artists, producers, industry experts, and listeners. Please reach out to us at [email protected] or leave a comment below with your thoughts. What potential pitfalls should be safeguarded against with AI music creation? What opportunities most excite you? How can policies and systems be shaped to empower human creativity through AI? Our goal is to facilitate solutions-oriented dialogue on how AI can augment the future of music while respecting artistic integrity.