For songwriters with a need for speed, AI music creation software is an ideal solution. The programs accelerate non-inspirational songwriting by automatically generating catchy top lines, melodies and chord progressions.
Southern uses a variety of AI tools to compose songs, including Amper Music and Google’s Magenta. They all work in a similar way by using attention mechanisms to understand musical concepts.
What Is AI Music Software
AI software can compose new music or enhance existing songs. It can also help with songwriting, production and mastering. While many musicians see the emergence of AI as a threat to their livelihood, others are optimistic that it can make the creative process more efficient and open up new possibilities.
There are a number of different tools that create music through AI, including Amper Music, Google Magenta’s NSynth Super, IBM Watson Beat, Flow Machines, Jukedeck and Spotify’s Creator Technology Research Lab. These programs allow musicians to choose a genre and instrument, then create music that matches their preferences. The music can then be edited and combined with other clips or stems to produce a finished track.
The biggest challenge is that these programs tend to create very simple music. While the technology has the potential to create complex compositions, it’s still a long way from matching the quality of music produced by humans who have spent years working on their craft. This may be part of the reason that AI music is not yet widely available, despite companies like Boomy claiming to have generated more than 14 million tracks.
Another factor is that a lot of AI music contains snippets from copyrighted compositions. This can be problematic if you’re looking to use AI to generate background music for videos or other content, as it could lead to copyright infringement lawsuits.
Can AI Software Write Music
Some musicians fear that AI music production software will replace them. It’s a feeling that has accompanied every new technology in music-making, from the synthesizer to drum machines to MIDI. But in reality, the AI tools that allow songwriters to create their own music are not a threat. Instead, they are a powerful tool that allows them to produce high-quality music faster than ever before.
Most AI composers use a process called deep learning to create songs. This means they are fed huge databases of existing music and taught to create something new from it. While these tools are useful, they still have a long way to go before they reach the level of human music producers. For example, they can’t create 2Pac or Ella Fitzgerald inspired tracks and their harmonies sound a bit robotic.
The newest AI tools also provide songwriters with quick and easy inspiration. For instance, AI-powered apps like ChatGPT and Jasper can help with writer’s block by generating original song lyrics. And AI-powered platforms like AIVA, Flow Machines, Amper Music and MusicAI can create custom music for songwriters to give them creative ideas that they can then edit and perfect with their own creativity.
Some musicians, like Arca and Holly Herndon, have embraced AI to push their creativity in new directions. And more musicians are working to make AI accessible for everyone. While obstacles like copyright complications and other hurdles remain, these musicians hope that AI will become a democratizing force for music creation.
How Does AI Writing Software Work
For songwriters who want to get ideas quickly, AI writing software is an essential tool. These programs take input like musical keys, instrumentation, beats per minute and the point where a song should build to a climax, then generate melodies and chord progressions that musicians can use.
Many of these AI tools are easy to use, even for beginner producers. For example, the composer who created the viral hit “Heart on My Sleeve” likely used a vocal modeling AI to extract melodies from Drake and The Weeknd tracks. Then, they probably used a music production tool to shape the AI output into an actual song.
Other AI writing software is a bit more complicated, but it can still help musicians compose original songs. For instance, software from companies like Google’s Magenta, Sony’s Flow Machines and Audioshake allows users to select an instrument, the key of a song, tempo, whether it should be in major or minor and the style they’d like their music to have. The software then picks the most popular notes from a given song and offers up possible melodies and chord progressions.
However, it’s unlikely that any AI program can write music that is truly compelling or creative. As the famous quote from Dylan goes, “Creativity has much to do with experience, observation and imagination,” and that’s just what human musicians need to create music that makes people feel something.
Is AI Composing Music Reliable
There’s been much excitement about AI composing music. But the fact is, it’s not really there yet. A few companies like Jukebox and MusicLM have released some tracks, but a listen quickly tells you that the output isn’t quite Drake-level quality. What’s more, these pieces don’t credit the artists who created them, which isn’t good for the original creators and could potentially lead to copyright issues down the line.
More importantly, though, these music-making programs lack something that human composers have: the ability to generate new ideas that don’t rely on pattern recognition. “AI is great at recognizing patterns,” Steinmetz says, but it doesn’t understand how those patterns relate to one another or what they mean in context. “That’s why I think it’ll take a while for AI to truly change the game,” he adds.
Many of the existing AI tools that allow musicians to create music use deep learning to analyze source material and pick out elements like chords, rhythm, tempo, and melodies. Some of these tools, such as Flow Machines and OpenAI’s MusicLM, can even compose full songs with little input from humans.
Other AI tools are designed to help with specific tasks like generating beats or constructing song lyrics. For example, a tool called SKYGGE works with text and randomly reorders words to generate unique combinations that can be used as lyrics. Ultimately, it can save time and frustration for writers who might otherwise struggle with writer’s block.
What Are Best AI Music Programs
Many AI music programs allow users to create songs without a musical background, freeing them from tedious processes such as chord progressions and melody writing that often hinder beginner musicians. They can also reduce the need for expensive music equipment and studios.
The most popular AI songwriting tools are software programs that can generate musical compositions from scratch, but others have been designed to help musicians edit existing music and create new beats and melodies. These AI-powered programs are able to read MIDI files and use their algorithms to generate music that sounds like it was written by a professional musician.
One such example is Loudly, which uses ML algorithms to create music. The tool’s advanced playback engine combines and warps audio loops to produce authentic-sounding music that follows a chord progression. The collaboration between Loudly’s music team and ML experts makes it unique in the field of text-to-audio technology.
Other AI-powered music programs include Ecrett, MuseNet and BandLab. The first two can create complete songs based on an inputted style and the latter provides musicians with stems that they can edit within their digital audio workstation (DAW).
Another excellent AI music composer is Aiva, which can compose emotional soundtracks for video games. It can be used by independent game developers, novices in music or seasoned professional composers. The Aiva app offers a variety of preset styles and the ability to upload MIDI files for inspiration. It can even recreate an existing soundtrack if needed.
Can AI Music Software Replace Musicians
With the advent of AI music tools, many producers fear that their jobs could be at risk. But Southern believes this fear is unfounded.
She explains that AI is simply a tool to help with the creative process, and it doesn’t replace musicians. Instead, she believes that it’s a way to speed up the process and make things more efficient for producers.
In fact, she points out that some of the most popular tools for music production today are based on AI technology. These include apps like Boomy and Pictory that automate tasks and accelerate the workflow. These tools can save producers time and money, and they can also provide them with the spark of inspiration they need to craft their next hit song.
However, it’s important to remember that AI is only as good as the data and training it receives. For example, when Huawei engineers built their new AI-based piano player, they had to feed it a lot of Schubert symphonies in order for it to be able to compose music in that style.
Another concern with using AI music software is the potential for copyright issues. Since most of the elements in AI-generated songs come from real music, they may be subject to copyright infringement lawsuits. That’s why it’s important to use copyright-free music when soundtracking your video content. This will prevent your content from being taken down due to a copyright claim.