An AI generated song named “Celebrate Me” reached No. 1 on iTunes top charts for the United States on April 17. This song gained more streams and popularity than music created by actual people. This song that happened to reach No. 1 is only one of many songs released to the public by AI generated artists.
These songs generated by AI should not take the place of real human music artists.
One major issue created by these non-human artists is that they replace talented and hard working humans. The majority of popular artists spend their whole lives working to get to where they are today. Although their music is not always perfect, most of the world enjoys listening to this music and consider it art. Art is defined to be skill acquired by experience, and these artists must labor through many obstacles to be as widely known as many of them are, unlike these AI generated songs.
Humans pay for lessons with vocal coaches, change their diet, practice their whole lives and are naturally talented with the capability to sing, play instruments and produce music. While artists work their whole lives to be better at what they do, these AI artists are programmed to be flawless and make music that contains no error. With the level of music being generated, humans will most likely choose the songs that sound better and fit their standards of what they consider to be good music. AI can generate any kind of music it is asked for, while humans must put in effort to please their fans. Unfortunately, people who make a living on their music are left with less pay, popularity and hope that they will reach their goals in the music industry.
Other issues that come with AI generated artists and songs are the differences in fan bases that are to come and are already starting to happen in the music industry. The music industry thrives on its viewers and fans that make singers and songwriters as famous as they are. People and influencers bring even more publicity to these singers and songwriters because of their following as well. They criticize singers’ actions, outfits, music and relationships, but they also praise them for the same reasons depending on if they like them or not. Whether it is good or bad, social media brings publicity to the entire music industry. This aspect would be completely altered if real human artists are replaced by AI generated music.
Also, in the same way that people are involved in the musicians’ lives, children and young adults all over the world are able to watch them on the internet and look up to them as role models. Many young people don’t have others in their lives that they are able to truly look up to and try to be like. Fortunately for most of them, they have open access to the internet where they can find role models in these stars. This influence and hope the children find in their favorite singers spark ambition and dreams in the future generations to come. Children and young people truly adore these people that they are seeing because of their talent, lifestyle and public displays of kindness. Fans begin to dress like them, go to their concerts, follow them on social media and make these celebrities their whole personality.
Although individuals say that these AI generated songs bring more diversity and a sense of newness to the music world and industry, this small period of having a new type of music will quickly vanish while also replacing real humans’ careers.
AI generated artists will change the entire music industry and not for the better. This new form of music should not be comparable to music created by real people.
