In a world plagued by technological advancement, what’s the impact for musicians?
Adam Stothard (he/him) // Co-Editor-in-Chief
Emilyn Lai (she/her) // Illustrator
This past November, the song ‘Walk My Walk’ by Breaking Rust hit no.1 on the Billboard Country Digital Song Sales chart. Normally this wouldn’t be newsworthy, but the song—along with all the surrounding visual artwork accompanying it—is entirely AI generated. While some aren’t convinced the song succeeded on merit, the chart-topper nevertheless provoked a conversation about realism within music and the nature of authenticity. But, what do local musicians make of this?
Sean Finan, a local Vancouver musician, filmmaker and journalist remains hopeful about the music scene, not due to AI but in spite of it. In a world where AI can pump out ready-made pop, Finan sees an opportunity for musicians. He asks, “The great thing about AI is it poses the question: What is the point of humans?” Finan recently starred in a satirical short film titled ‘Braindead Fiends,’ which makes use of AI to display its inherent worthlessness. Finan offers, “If art is meant to be mindless entertainment, then that’s fine, but it’s not going to be what I consider the highest purpose of art, which is to cause a profound experience.”
Although Finan may make occasional use of AI to satirize those who genuinely like it, he remains steadfast in his belief that AI cannot produce anything artistically valid. “It comes back to the idea that art is supposed to be transformational.” He goes on to speak on the ethical ramifications of it, noting, “You’re always going to want to choose the more ethical option, and with how unethical AI is, even if the song is fine, you’re always going to choose the human option.”
Furthermore, Finan takes aim at companies who’ve slyly integrated artificial intelligence into their platforms, such as the music streaming giant Spotify. “What Spotify is doing is pumping AI music into playlists so they don’t have to pay artists as much. It’s stuff that they’ve created, so they can push, like, sonic narratives that are tricking people. It’s not explicitly said [that] it’s AI.” He speculates, “This is the straw being broken on the camel’s back, in terms of Spotify,” referencing the exodus of popular alternative artists such as Hotline TNT, Massive Attack, Xiu Xiu, King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, Deerhoof, Chad Vaangalen and many others pulling their music from the platform.
While Spotify still remains the biggest music streaming service in the world, it’s been facing a growing backlash over the years for a litany of reasons. Some examples include their low artist pay-per-stream rate and their CEO Daniel Ek’s investment in an AI military defense company and allegations of purposefully pushing AI music in their curated playlists. Lately, artificial music has been going widespread in streaming. ‘Bands’ and ‘artists’ such as Breaking Rust or the Velvet Sundown have been popping up on playlists, not to mention the massive amount of artificially generated ‘calming piano music’ or ‘lofi beats’ highlighted on the platform.
When it comes to music production itself, AI ‘tools’ have become more normalized. Charlie Puth admitted he used the AI production tool Replay to create background vocals for his song Changes. But, what’s interesting is the push for companies to rebrand pre-existing tools to be “AI-powered.” For example, the online music service LANDR has a tool that would master (a complicated production process that readies your songs for being played across all devices and optimizes loudness) your music, a service I used myself when I published my own album back in 2020. But since the proliferation of AI, they’ve begun to describe their mastering process as an “AI mastering algorithm.” It begs the question: what changed? From what can be discerned, it does the same thing it did before it was branded as AI.
“From what I’ve seen, people are still putting their stuff on Spotify. But, they’re encouraging. I think it’s less about people saying, oh, don’t do Spotify, but we know it’s bad” says Jewel Epp, a student in the music therapy program at Capilano University. “There’s been such a push for physical media. Everyone’s Instagram stories in my program are filled with almost daily encouragement to buy CDs and buy records and things like that, which I think is great.” The arguments for purchasing physical media are well documented, but furthermore, Jewel notes the aspect of live performance when talking about music. “One of the biggest things we talk about going into our careers is that music therapy is not just pressing play. It’s bringing the guitar to the hospital bedside and singing live to the person because there is something different. Scientifically, it is shown like pain relief, the parts of the brain that are used . . . when it’s real, when it’s a human.”
So, where do we go from here? Many have pointed out that while AI may be infiltrating the streaming space, the transfer of energy between a performer and a crowd is harder to replace. While tech companies may be profiting off of people being sequestered to their bedrooms, frying their dopamine, they have yet to ruin the live performance. So, if you’re worried about AI in music, the best way to quell those anxieties is by going to a live performance, to feel the vibrations in the room emanating from a live artist doing what they do best. As it stands, witnessing a raw live performance is something yet to be taken away by an algorithm.