Is AI making better music? Why artists say they are losing the streaming war
The advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has infiltrated multiple industries, and the music and arts sector is no different. Over the last few years, the surge in the use of AI in global music has become a cause for concern for many artists and music producers.
The reason is that AI-generated songs go viral, rack up millions of streams and even sometimes impersonate real musicians, without any form of accountability.
In Canada
In Canada, a mysterious new band named the Velvet Sundown emerged on streaming platforms earlier this year. Within a short period, the band gathered more than a million monthly listeners on Spotify. With vibrant rock tracks, retro album covers and seemingly authentic band photos, many listeners believed they had discovered a real up-and-coming group.
However, a few weeks later, it was reported that the entire project, including the music, vocals, visuals, and photos, was AI-generated. The group’s spokesperson was reported by CBC to have said that the project was an “artistic provocation” designed to test whether AI-created content could pass undetected in the streaming ecosystem.
On the back of this, musicians and unions say that such projects risk diverting already limited streaming royalties away from human artists.
The Director of Canadian Affairs for the American Federation of Musicians said, “It’s obviously a challenge in the industry. Technology gets created and used before there are guardrails in place to protect musicians.”
The union argues that musicians should have to consent before their work is used to train AI systems and should be compensated if they choose to allow it.
In the United States
Further on, the Artist Rights Alliance, a US-based non-profit advocacy group, issued an open letter demanding that AI companies, developers and music platforms stop using artificial intelligence to “infringe upon and devalue the rights of human artists.”
“This assault on human creativity must be stopped. We must protect against the predatory use of AI to steal professional artists' voices and likenesses, violate creators' rights, and destroy the music ecosystem,” the letter read in part.
The statement was signed by more than 200 artists, including Billie Eilish, Nicki Minaj and Arkells.
In Africa
Meanwhile, in Africa, some musicians are choosing to engage with AI instead of rejecting it outright. Nigerian Afropop singer FAVE decided to officially release an AI-generated version of Intentions, a song which, according to the singer, was originally made by Urban Chords, which had gone viral earlier this year after convincingly imitating her voice.
“People kept tagging me and saying the song felt like something I would sing,” she said.
“I saw how excited people were, and I didn’t want that excitement to die. If fans already believed in the song, why not make it real?”
Fave re-recorded the track herself, intentionally keeping the AI-created choir vocals. In an Instagram post, she wrote, “My song ‘INTENTIONS’ is on the very short list of songs that I wrote about myself, becoming an adult and realising that you can never be in control all the time. I struggled with accepting the things I could not change, and in the face of change, I staggered too. So when my Mum and my friends told me about an AI version of my song being on the net and my fans began asking me to release it, I struggled sooo hard to accept that. But that’s the old me. It’s happening, so why fight it?”
This story is written and edited by the Global South World team, you can contact us here.
