I am sitting here much later than I wanted because technology assaulted me once again. Normally it is a printer that causes this type of frustration turning a simple task into an hours long one. This morning it was the AI music generating tool.
A few months ago I wanted to see if it could generate accurate public domain songs. I figured this would be a good test of skill. Like how artists used to go to the Louvre to copy famous works of art. If I could output Amazing Grace and have it sound like Amazing Grace then that would be a skill.
Unfortunately I discovered that the filter on the tool had changed. It was no longer outputting public domain works. I attempted a few things and then finally gave up and made an original song in the same tune. Which might be the entire issue. Before when I was trying to do it you couldn’t simply hum the tune and have it correct. That is a newer feature.
There is also the Amazon problem. It isn’t such a problem for something like Moby Dick or other extremely famous works. The Penguin Classic or Signet version will be at the top, but for other works in the public domain sometimes all that exists is cheap print on demand versions, and they are awful. I have read a couple of these books and while the words are right the formatting is off.
With AI music now being uploaded to Spotify they likely want to cut this off at the pass. They want people searching for Amazing Grace and finding Amy Grant and not 10,000 AI generated versions of Amazing Grace. So Suno either plays ball with public domain or Spotify tightens all AI restrictions.
Music is something very interesting to think about. A lot of it is already sampling and computer generation. One of my favorite bands growing up, Nine Inch Nails, was one guy and a computer. The same goes for other bands and artists and then there are bands like Old Gods of Asgard and Dethlok that don’t exist.
In many ways music was primed to be generated. Add in how generic music has been since 2000 and it isn’t hard to imagine the exact scenario that is playing out where AI music is often more popular than human music. At the end of the day the best solution might be one that already exist. Ask if Hank really done it this way.
David Huzzard Writes 