The Big Topic: Why the criticism of Reading & Leeds booking The 1975 is undeserved
Read More
Credit: Far Out / Possessed Photography
The Big Topic: Why AI has no place in music
Earlier this week, Capitol Records dropped AI rapper FN Meka and apologised to the Black community for the distasteful signing. They were accused of attempting to use computer programming to profit from Black culture and responded by cutting ties with the fake artist almost instantly, providing a showcase of modern music culture in the process after being hyped, going viral and getting cancelled within a 48-hour period.
The virtual rapper was the creation of start-up Factory New, a Universal-owned label, and had only been announced as part of Capitol’s roster on August 12th. Ryan Ruden, the company’s executive vice president of experiential marketing and business development, was thrilled with the signing and gleamed how Meka “meets at the intersection of music, technology and gaming culture”. However, the failure of this project shows why music is one of the few industries AI can’t replace.
On the same day, their signing was announced, Meka released their debut single, ‘Florida Water’ featuring Gunna. Bizarrely, Meka’s vocals were performed by an unknown real-life person, although the lyrics were AI-generated.
His image is exceptionally similar to the late XXXTentacion, with Meka having an almost identical cross tattoo on his forehead. It’s almost as if they’ve tried to create an identikit version of a modern rapper and removed any of the baggage of humanity while maximising the profit of robotic labour. Furthermore, despite Future Now’s two founders not being Black, the rapper regularly used the N-word in his lyrics and posted an Instagram post in 2019 that mocked police brutality.
“We offer our deepest apologies to the Black community for our insensitivity in signing this project without asking enough questions about equity and the creative process behind it,” Capitol Records said in a statement. “We thank those who have reached out to us with constructive feedback in the past couple of days – your input was invaluable as we came to the decision to end our association with the project”.
Thankfully the FN Meka project looks to have thankfully ended, but those who want to replace heartfelt emotion with algorithms haven’t given up their battle. However, if it’s going to work, it needs to be a human using AI to assist them with their art rather than handing complete control over to computers.
Although FN Meka’s selling point was his AI identity, there’s a strong chance you’re unconsciously already listening to music made by an algorithm and just don’t realise it. Spotify’s ‘The Chill Out Playlist’ has over 760,000 likes, and a large proportion of artists that feature on it don’t exist.
If you click on an artist on the playlist, they have a generic colourful graphic image which doesn’t feature a human and no text in their ‘About’ section; then chances are they are a Spotify creation.
Take Shapure as an example. Their page lists two songs that boast over 750,000 listens each, thanks to featuring on five combined official Spotify playlists. Not only is this taking streams away from real artists, but it’s also diluting the amount of money musicians get paid for each listen. Artists get paid per stream, and by Spotify enhancing the quantity of songs streamed in the system while the revenue stays the same, musicians earn less every time their effort gets played.
From a financial perspective, it makes sense for Spotify to pay for an AI team operating in Paris to create these profiles, ultimately saving the streaming platform money.
They’ve kept their AI playlist takeover within the realm of lo-fi and ambient background music, which listeners, seemingly, don’t think much about beyond the bubbling beats. Unlike FN Meka, there isn’t a persona attached to their artists, who are all deliberately faceless, and this removes any pretence that the record is anything other than a simple piece of music. There are unpleasant consequences to Spotify’s actions, and the fact they are doing it discretely and in the shadows suggests they know it’s morally bankrupt.
If you need some easy-listening background music, then perhaps AI can cater for that one need. However, how can you connect to an artist that isn’t sentient and blessed with emotion? If it’s soulless, then it doesn’t matter if the instruments can be played inch-perfectly. Bob Dylan’s music is laden with imperfections, but that reminds us of his humanity, which AI will never be able to replicate.
Yes, AI-made music can stop the silence if you’re studying, but if you listen to music to enrich your soul, it’s not your friend. Only the human touch can be there to pick you up when you’re feeling low because, unlike an algorithm, they’ve been there too and written a song stemming from the situation.
