New survey suggests over half of musicians would conceal their use of Artificial Intelligence

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Music

A report conducted by Pirate Studios demonstrates the somewhat precarious use of AI in music production and what it means for the future.

A survey conducted by Pirate Studios has revealed telling insight as to the current and predicted use of AI within music with musicians reporting on their own experiences as the technology gathers steam. The international music studio group surveyed over 1,000 artists of which only 48% revealed that they would publicise the use of AI in their own music.

The survey raises an interesting and hotly contested debate as to the transparency and levels of dependency associated with AI as more and more musicians make use of the technology to develop ideas and explore new tools.

53% of respondents had concerns about how their audience might perceive music created with the assistance of AI.

Many musicians are already publicly using AI, using it to reimagine their own creative output and in some cases channeling new personas and projects through the technology entirely. However, there has been much debate as to the ethical and practical use cases of the tool in both music production and songwriting with the argument being that as it evolves it might detract from the human element of art and music. This is a debate not limited to the music industry alone.

Further results from the study conducted by Pirate Studios revealed that 25% of musicians surveyed have already experimented with AI in music production. 46% of musicians who haven’t experimented with AI in music production would consider using AI music tools in the future and 55% of artists are learning new skills in response to AI advancements.

The survey was conducted across Europe, American and the UK and raised a number of valuable reflections on the nature of AI technology.

Cristoph Krey, a musician who uses Pirate’s Brooklyn rehearsal studios with his band, MYAI, reflects on the benefits and opportunity of AI.

“What I see as a negative is, if you don’t have any sort of technology background, it is a huge learning curve for a lot of artists to get involved with AI. It’s one more thing that artists now have to do on top of everything else that they have to do to create value.”

Pirate’s CEO, David Borrie, addressed artists’ fears about using and being known to use AI:

“Understandably, artists are hesitant about adopting AI in the studio, and also hesitant about broadcasting their use of this controversial new technology. It’s useful to look back at the introduction of tools like autotune which faced criticism in their early days, but eventually found their place in the music industry. AI’s journey toward becoming a standard tool in music creation may follow a similar path, as artists and audiences alike adapt to this innovation.”