Artificial intelligence (AI) has proved a controversial matter in the music industry – resulting in legal tussles, job losses and a decline in musical quality.
Only last month Universal Music Group had an AI song removed from online services as it represented ‘a violation of copyright law’.
However, British pop icons the Pet Shop Boys argue that the technology can be used in a positive way in the creative process.
The group’s singer, Neil Tennant, said AI could ‘fill in the blanks’ if a song has been left unfinished, such as when the composer is suffering from writer’s block.
Tennant and his bandmate Chris Lowe said they are looking at new technology as they prepare their ‘Dreamworld’ greatest hits tour in Europe this summer.
Neil Tennant, performing here in Milan in May 2022, says AI could be a tool for songwriters to create music
‘There’s a song that we wrote a chorus for in 2003 and we never finished because I couldn’t think of anything for the verses,’ Tennant told the Radio Times.
READ MORE: Universal has AI song removed
Universal Music Group said the AI song represents ‘a violation of copyright law’
<!—->
Advertisement
‘But now with AI you could give it the bits you’ve written, press the button and have it fill in the blanks.
‘You might then rewrite it, but it could nonetheless be a tool.’
The duo, who have never been afraid to embrace new tech, were impressed by Abba Voyage, the virtual concert featuring avatars of the four members of Abba performing their songs.
Starting in May 2022, Abba Voyage concerts are being held in a purpose-built venue called Abba Arena at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in east London.
Abba Voyage is set to go on until January 2024, giving bandmembers a constant stream of revenue without having to go on stage themselves.
When asked if the Pet Shop Boys had thought about following in Abba’s footsteps, Tennant said: ‘Well, as we say, “They’re all looking at it,” but I think Abba is a unique phenomenon.
‘They’re perfect for that presentation because their sound was striving for perfection, they were only together for a short while, then they disappeared in a way that nobody else has disappeared.’
His bandmate Chris Lowe added: ‘So the answer is, we’ll probably do it.’
Pet Shop Boys are looking at new tech as they prepare their ‘Dreamworld’ tour in Europe this summer, potentially along the lines of Abba’s avatar experience in London (pictured)
Five years in the making, the concert featured four 3D digital versions of the group’s younger selves singing and dancing to some 20 of their hits
Tennant was also amazed by the teenager daughter of their manager asking a bot to come up with a song in the style of Pet Shop Boys.
Although it’s unclear what bot she used, OpenAI, the company responsible for ChatGPT, has a range of Pet Shop Boys-style tunes on its online AI Jukebox.
OpenAI scraped 1.2 million songs, 600,000 of which are sung in English, from the internet and paired them the lyrics and metadata, which was fed into the AI to generate approximations of many different artists.
Pet Shop Boys have embraced new innovations in their career; in 1993, when promoting their album ‘Very’, they used state-of-the-art computer technology to place themselves in a modern computer graphic world.
Meanwhile, their contemporaries Duran Duran used an AI called Huxley to make a music video for their 2021 hit ‘Invisible’.
The band’s keyboard player Nick Rhodes called AI the ‘new frontier’ that will see albums ‘being made by new musicians in bedrooms rather than in big studios’.
‘It’s easy for people to say it’s humans that are able to create masterpieces, but I think we know, we’re moving forward now, and it’s an exciting time because machines will dictate some of the things we do and help us with many more,’ Rhodes said.
Listen to AI-generated tunes on OpenAI’s Jukebox below
However, the use of the technology as a composition tool throws up some important questions over copyright.
Recently Canadian rapper Drake has been victim of AI songs developed to sound like him, which his record company have been trying to put a stop to.
Fake Drake tunes – one called Winters Cold and another called Not a Game – appeared across multiple platforms including TikTok and YouTube earlier this year.
One user on YouTube said: ‘You can tell though the AI says things and delivers certain lines a way that Drake normally would not…. but still this is some scary sh*t.
Canadian rapper Drake (pictured) has fallen victim to songs created to sound like him with artificial intelligence
‘Because you know at some point they will combine these AI with the robot prototypes that are out there. Next thing you know… machines taking over.’
Also in April an AI-generated song featuring the simulated voices of Drake and The Weeknd was pulled from streaming services by Universal Music Group for ‘infringing content created with generative AI’.
The track went viral and by the time it was removed it had been streamed 600,000 times on Spotify and received 15 million views on TikTok views and 275,000 on YouTube.
But not all artists are adverse to the idea; Elon Musk’s ex-Grimes told artists they can use her voice in AI-generated songs for a fair split of the royalties.
