Three songs generated by artificial intelligence topped music charts this week, reaching the highest spots on Spotify and Billboard charts.
Walk My Walk and Livin’ on Borrowed Time by the outfit Breaking Rust topped Spotify’s “Viral 50” songs in the US, which documents the “most viral tracks right now” on a daily basis, according to the streaming service. A Dutch song, We Say No, No, No to an Asylum Center, an anti-migrant anthem by JW “Broken Veteran” that protests against the creation of new asylum centers, took the top position in Spotify’s global version of the viral chart around the same time. Breaking Rust also appeared in the top five on the global chart.
These three songs are part of a flood of AI-generated music that has come to saturate streaming platforms. A study published on Wednesday by the streaming app Deezer estimates that 50,000 AI-generated songs are uploaded to the platform every day – 34% of all the music submitted.
I like to not get music advice from charts. I don’t think I’ve heard AI music. I’m going to not look for it.
Spotify won’t tell you that it is even if you do happen to stumble upon it.
Serious question: Let’s say you hear a song on Spotify, and you like it, add it to your favorites, etc., then later find out it was AI. Do you stop enjoying it? If so, why?
I’ve unfollowed and purged real artists for less
I’d stop listening to it in simple protest. I want to hear music made by people. I have no interest in ai crap. If we keep allowing ai then the real artists will cease to exist. The young people won’t pursue a career in music. Why would they?
F ai
MIDI didn’t stop people from playing instruments. Digital art didn’t stop people from painting. AI can’t put on live performances.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t like AI taking peoples’ artistic jobs any more than anyone else, but I do think this is a bit of an extreme take.
Hatsune Miku has been putting on live performances for decades. There’s no reason at all why an AI-generated musical act couldn’t too.
It makes indie scene significantly harder to get into. For every mildly successful indie artist, there’s thousands of those who failed to break into the scene, now they have to compete with not only their competitor that is more famous than them, they have to compete with 0 effort music from 0 effort producer. It kinda like how game dev is getting harder and harder to get into, as the competition is getting tougher and people expectation is getting higher, even though they don’t have to compete with AI slop that plays and looks like a Ubisoft game yet.
Of course, people who persevere or talented will eventually pops up from the sea of slop, as vocaloid doesn’t kill japanese indie scene. But then vocaloid is entirely different thing than what the current AI issue is.
The industry does not necessarily care if someone’s music is digital or acoustic, but it WILL care if they have to pay you for it.
And that’s the point. Ai means basically no one is getting paid. But the industry is making money.
F ai
And also, the point is to delete the artist. Artists are problematic; they are anti-establishment, opinionated, queer, vocal. Your billionaire overlords want to silence that, by replacing you with a machine.
I would. I have a difficult time separating art from the artist and couldn’t currently bring myself to willingly listen to AI music. Mostly because it’s a soulless conglomeration of what “good music is supposed to sound like” rather than art created by an actual human who has something to say. But to be fair, I feel the same about any pop or country hit that is churned out for the sole aim of getting a hit.
The horrific actions of Ian Dankins made me unable to listen to Lostprophets songs, so if I don’t immediately spot the “underwater” quality of genAI songs…