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Universal Music Group chairman/CEO Lucian Grainge took aim at artificial intelligence again on Wednesday (April 26), this time blaming AI for the “oversupply” of “bad” content on streaming platforms and pointing to user-centric payment models as the answer.
AI tools have exploded in popularity in recent months, and Grainge has been an outspoken critic of generative AI being used to mimic copyrighted works, as with the song “Heart on My Sleeve,” which used AI to generate vocals from UMG artists Drake and The Weeknd.
In fervent comments Grainge made during a call discussing UMG’s earnings Wednesday, the executive said AI significantly contributes to a glut of “poor-quality” content on streaming platforms, muddies search experiences for fans looking for their favorite artists and generally has “virtually no consumer appeal.”
“Any way you look at it, this oversupply, whether or not AI-created is, simply, bad. Bad for artists. Bad for fans. And bad for the platforms themselves,” Grainge said.
The head of the world’s largest music company specifically called out the role of generative AI platforms, which are “trained” to produce new creations after being fed vast quantities of existing works known as “inputs.” In the case of AI music platforms, that process involves huge numbers of songs, which many across the music industry argue infringes on artists’ and labels’ copyrights.
Grainge argued that “the flood of unwanted content” generated by AI could be reduced by adopting new payment models from streaming platforms. UMG is currently exploring “artist-centric” models with Tidal and Deezer, while SoundCloud and Warner Music Group also announced a partnership on so-called user-centric royalties last year.
“With the right incentive structures in place, platforms can focus on rewarding and enhancing the artist-fan relationship and, at the same time, elevate the user experience on their platforms, by reducing the sea of ‘noise’ … eliminating unauthorized, unwanted, and infringing content entirely,” Grainge said on Wednesday.
While UMG continues exploring alternative streaming payment models with partners Tidal, Deezer and others on what form alternative streaming payment models should take, an analyst on Wednesday’s call asked Grainge if, in the meantime, the company would ever consider licensing songs to an AI platform.
“We are open to licensing … but we have to respect our artist and the integrity of their work,” Grainge said. “We should be the hostess with the mostest. We’re open for business with businesses that are legitimate and (interested in) partnership for growth.”
Fugees rapper Pras, accused in multimillion-dollar political conspiracies spanning two presidencies, was convicted Wednesday (April 26) after a trial that included testimony ranging from actor Leonardo DiCaprio to former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
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Prakazrel “Pras” Michel was accused of funneling money from a now-fugitive Malaysian financier through straw donors to Barack Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign, then trying to squelch a Justice Department investigation and influence an extradition case on behalf of China under the Trump administration.
The defense argued the Grammy-winning rapper from the 1990s hip-hop group the Fugees simply wanted to make money and got bad legal advice as he reinvented himself in the world of politics.
Michel first met Malaysian financer Low Taek Jho in 2006, when the businessman usually known as Jho Low was dropping huge sums of money and hobnobbing with the likes of Paris Hilton. Low helped finance Hollywood films, including “The Wolf of Wall Street.” DiCaprio testified Low had appeared to him as a legitimate businessman and had mentioned wanting to donate to Obama’s campaign.
Michel also testified in his own defense. He said Low wanted a picture with Obama in 2012 and was willing to pay millions of dollars to get it. Michel agreed to help and used some of the money he got to pay for friends to attend fundraising events. No one had ever told him that was illegal, he said.
Prosecutors said Michel was donating the money on Low’s behalf, and later tried to lean on the straw donors with texts from burner phones to keep them from talking to investigators.
After the election of Donald Trump, prosecutors say Michel again took millions to halt an investigation into allegations Low masterminded a money laundering and bribery scheme that pilfered billions from the Malaysian state investment fund known as 1MDB. Low is now an international fugitive and has maintained his innocence.
Michel also got paid to try and persuade the U.S. to extradite back to China a government critic suspected of crimes there without registering as a foreign agent, prosecutors said.
On that charge, the defense pointed to testimony from Sessions, who was Trump’s top law enforcement officer until he resigned in 2018. Sessions said he’d been aware the Chinese government wanted the extradition but didn’t know Michel. The rapper’s ultimately futile efforts to arrange a meeting on the topic didn’t seem improper, the former attorney general said.
Billboard is introducing a peer-voted award to run alongside its annual Country Power Players list of country music industry’s most influential executives. This new Country Power Players’ Choice Award will honor the executive whose peers believe has had the greatest impact across the music business over the past year, from recording and publishing to managing and touring and beyond. Vote here.
Voting is now open to all Billboard Pro members, both existing and new, with one vote per member.
Billboard launched its first Players’ Choice Award with the Power 100 list earlier this year.
The first round of voting will begin April 25, with an open call for nominees.
The second round of voting will begin May 8, in order to narrow down the top 25 nominees into the final five top executives.
The third round of voting will begin May 15, to select the winner from that list.
If you are not yet a member of Billboard Pro, you can join here.
Billboard is introducing a peer-voted award to run alongside its annual Country Power Players list of country music industry’s most influential executives. This new Country Power Players’ Choice Award will honor the executive whose peers believe has had the greatest impact across the music business over the past year, from recording and publishing to managing and touring and beyond.
Voting is open to all Billboard Pro members, both existing and new, with one vote per member.
Billboard first launched its Players’ Choice Award with the Power 100 list earlier this year.
The first round of voting is now open and will run through May 7 with an open call for nominees. Vote below.
The second round of voting will begin May 8, in order to narrow down the top 20 nominees into the final five top executives.
The third round of voting will begin May. 15, to select the winner from that list. Voting concludes May 21 at 11:59 p.m. EST.
Vote here:
The annual IMS Business Report was presented today (April 26) at IMS Ibiza. The dance industry conference annually presents the report, which breaks down notable growth (and lag) sectors of the scene and also provides a yearly valuation of the worldwide industry.
For the first time, the report was authored by MIDiA Research’s Mark Mulligan, who presented it today to a packed room. These are eight of the key findings.
1. The Global Dance Music Industry Grew By 34% In 2022, Reaching a Value Of $11.3 Billion
This number is 16% higher than it was before the pandemic, during which the value of the global industry reached historic lows as live events shut down. But, the report states, “2022 saw festivals and clubs rebound, finally shaking off most of the effects of the pandemic, representing nearly half of all dance industry revenues.”
The report notes that hardware and software combined were the next largest revenue source, but also the slowest growing. Music rights around recording and publishing grew by 14,% representing just under a fifth of the overall total.
2. The U.S., Germany & U.K. Have the Three Biggest Spotify Monthly Listener Bases for Electronic Music
This makes sense, given that these countries are also three of the world’s biggest music markets. But while Netherlands and Australia are smaller, they are multiple times higher as a share of the total population (Netherlands rate is seven times higher than the US). This means that electronic music simply has more cultural reach and impact here in these two countries.
3. Electronic Music Is Outperforming Hip-Hop In Social Follower Growth
Electronic music’s fanbase growth is happening most powerfully on social platforms, and TikTok especially. Here it’s growing 10 times faster than hip hop. TikTok launched #ElectronicMusic as its latest genre campaign in 2021 and hosted LIVE events from artists including Disclosure, BICEP and David Guetta As of March 2023, since June 2022, average daily creations for #ElectronicMusic are up 113% on the platform.
4. Music Software, Skills & Hardware Are Becoming Increasingly Valuable
Music production boomed during the pandemic, fostering more creators than ever before. And although growth slowed in 2022, revenues around software, hardware and production skills hit $6.6 billion, of which $2.8 billion was from dance producers and DJs.
5. Electronic Music Artists Represented 39% of All Festival Bookings In 2022
That’s up from 33% in 2021.
6. Female DJs Gained Traction, But 2022 Still Saw Male DJs Increase Their Share of Global Bookings
Though female DJs represented 15% of top 100 DJ bookings at festivals and other events, in 2022, this share fell from 21% in 2021. In the post-Covid return to live, male top 100 DJs saw their bookings grow 1.7 times faster than their female counterparts. Meanwhile, 67% of female artists reported feeling pressure to look good, while only 14% of male DJs reported feeling this same pressure.
7. Ibiza Came Back Big Following the Pandemic
Ibiza club ticketing revenue reached €124 million ($137 million) in 2022, up 55% from the €80 million ($88 million)registered in 2019. This growth was a result of increases in the number of events per venue, average ticket prices, and the total number of tickets sold going from two million in 2019 to 2.5 million in 2022.
8. Tech House Remains Beatport’s Leading Genre
The genre is followed in popularity by techno, house, melodic house and techno and drum and bass, dance/electropop, deep house, progressive house, indie dance, minimal/deep tech and trance. Despite the dominance of these sounds, 33% of all sales on the dance world digital download platform come from genres outside the platform’s top 10.
9. SoundCloud Is Foundational to Dance Music Culture
The platform saw a 24% growth in dance/electronic plays in 2022. The platform also hosts DJ sets, mash ups, rarities not presented on other platforms, and allows DJs and producers to connect with their fans in a way Spotify does not.
10. The Dance Scene Is In a Better Place Than It Was Pre-Pandemic
The reports states that “the dance music industry has shaken off the effects of the pandemic, coming out the other side, bigger, better, stronger and more relevant than ever.”
Universal Music Group’s revenues rose 11.5% to 2.45 billion euros ($2.71 billion) last quarter, as sales generated by Morgan Wallen, Taylor Swift, TOMORROW X TOGETHER bolstered results in both recorded music and music publishing.
The world’s biggest music company reported revenue from its recorded music division rose 11.7% to 1.92 billion euros ($2.1 billion) in the quarter ending March 31 compared to the same period a year ago. Revenue from subscriptions and streaming rose by nearly 10% to 1.33 billion euros ($1.47 billion) and physical revenue rose a whopping 32% to 313 million euros ($346 million), while revenue from downloads and other digital revenue — the smallest line item in the division — fell by 19.1% to 55 million euros ($60 million).
The publishing division’s overall revenues rose 13.3% to 425 million euros ($469 million), with digital revenue contributing the most, increasing by nearly 21% from a year ago to 231 million euros ($255 million). Synchronization revenue rose around 11% to 69 million euros ($76 million), while performance revenue slipped 1% to 90 million euros ($99 million).
“Our strong start to the year demonstrates our consistency in developing great artists and introducing their music to fans around the world,” UMG chairman and chief executive Lucian Grainge said in a statement. “We look forward to building on this momentum and furthering our track record of transforming disruptive technologies into opportunities to accelerate our business for our artists, fans and shareholders.”
Overall earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) for the quarter fell by nearly 43% to 261 million euros ($288 million), driven primarily by equity-based compensation expenses UMG began rolling out in the fourth quarter of 2022. Stripping out those compensation expenses, UMG reported adjusted EBITDA rose 14.7% to 522 million euros ($576 million) compared to the year-ago quarter, and adjusted EBITDA margin grew 0.6 percentage points to 21.3%.
UMG’s Earnings Highlights:
Revenue rose 11.5%, or 9.3% in constant currency, to 2.45 billion euros ($2.71 billion) versus the year ago quarter.
EBIDTA fell 42.5% to to 261 million euros ($288 million)
Adjusted EBITDA rose 14.7% to 522 million euros ($576 million)
Adjusted EBITDA margin grew 0.6 percentage points to 21.3%
Recorded Music Division Highlights:
Recorded music revenue overall rose 11.7% to 1.92 billion euros ($2.1 billion)
Subscriptions and streaming revenue rose by nearly 10% to 1.33 billion euros ($1.47 billion)
Physical revenues rose 32% to 313 million euros ($346 million)
License and other revenue rose 9.2% to 226 million euros ($250 million)
Downloads and other digital revenue fell by 19.1% to 55 million euros ($60 million)
Music Publishing Highlights:
Music publishing revenues overall rose 13.3% to 425 million euros ($469 million)
Digital revenues rose by nearly 21% from a year ago to 231 million euros ($255 million)
Performance revenues slipped 1% to 90 million euros ($99 million)
Synchronization revenues rose around 11% to 69 million euros ($76 million)
For the last week, the most talked-about song in the music business has been “Heart on My Sleeve,” the track said to have been created by using artificial intelligence to imitate vocals from Drake and The Weeknd and uploaded to TikTok by the user Ghostwriter977. And while most reactions were impressed, there was a big difference between those of fans (“This isn’t bad, which is pretty cool!”) and executives (“This isn’t bad, which is really scary!”). As with much online technology, however, what’s truly remarkable, and frightening, isn’t the quality – it’s the potential quantity.
This particular track didn’t do much damage. Streaming services pulled it down after receiving a request from Universal Music Group, for which both Drake and The Weeknd record. YouTube says the track was removed because of a copyright claim, and “Heart on My Sleeve” contains at least one obvious infringement in the form of a Metro Boomin producer tag. But it’s not as clear as creators and rightsholders might like that imitating Drake’s voice qualifies as copyright infringement.
In a statement released around the time the track was taken down, Universal said that “the training of generative AI using our artists’ music” violated copyright. But it’s a bit more complicated than that. Whether that’s true in the U.S. depends on whether training AI with music qualifies as fair use – which will not be clear until courts rule on the matter. Whether it’s true in other countries depends on local statutory exceptions for text and data mining that vary in every country. Either way, though, purposefully imitating Drake’s voice would almost certainly violate his right to what an American lawyer might call his right of publicity but a fan would more likely call his artistic identity. There are precedents for this: A court held that Frito-Lay violated the rights of Tom Waits by imitating his voice for a commercial, and Bette Midler won a similar lawsuit against Ford. Both of those cases involved an implied endorsement – the suggestion of approval where none existed.
The violation of an AI imitation is far more fundamental, though. The essence of Drake’s art – the essence of his Drakeness, if you will – is his voice. (That voice isn’t great by any technical definition, any more than Tom Waits’ is, but it’s a fundamental part of his creativity, even his very identity.) Imitating that is fair enough when it comes to parody – this video of takes on Bob Dylan‘s vocal style seems like it should be fair game because it’s commenting on Dylan instead of ripping him off – but creating a counterfeit Drake might be even more of a moral violation than a commercial one. Bad imitators may be tacky, but people tend to regard very accurate ones as spooky. “Heart on My Sleeve” isn’t Drake Lite so much as an early attempt at Drakenstein – interesting to look at, but fundamentally alarming in the way it imitates humanity. (Myths and stories return to this theme all the time, and it’s hard to think of many with happy endings.) Universal executives know that – they have talked internally about the coming challenges of AI for years – which is why the company’s comment asked stakeholders “which side of history” they want to be on.
This track is just the sign of a coming storm. The history of technology is filled with debates about when new forms of media and technology will surpass old ones in terms of quality when it often matters much more about how cheap and easy they are. No one thinks movies look better on a phone screen than in a theatre, but the device is right there in your hand. Travel agents might be better at booking flights than Expedia, but – well, the fact that there aren’t that many of them anymore makes my point. Here, the issue isn’t whether AI can make a Drake track better than Drake – which is actually impossible by definition, because a Drake track without Drake isn’t really a Drake track at all – but rather how much more productive AI can be than human artists, and what happens once it starts operating at scale.
Imagine the most prolific artist you can think of – say, an insomniac YoungBoy Never Broke Again crossed with King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard. Then imagine that this hypothetical artist never needs to eat or sleep or do anything else that interferes with work. Then imagine that he – or, really, it – never varies from a proven commercial formula. Now clone that artist thousands of times. Because that’s the real threat of AI to the music business – not the quality that could arrive someday but the quantity that’s coming sooner than we can imagine.
It has been said that 100,000 tracks get uploaded to streaming services every day. What happens once algorithms can make pop music at scale? Will that turn into a million tracks a day? Or 100 million? Could music recorded by humans become an exception instead of a rule? In the immediate future, most of this music wouldn’t be very interesting – but the sheer scale and inevitable variety could cut into the revenue collected by creators and rightsholders. The music business doesn’t need an umbrella – it needs a flood barrier.
In the long run, that barrier should be legal – some combination of copyright, personality rights and unfair competition law. That will take time to build, though. For now, streaming services need to continue to work with creators and rightsholders to make clear the difference between artists and their artificial imitators.
Fans who want to hear Drake shouldn’t have to guess which songs are really his.
For the Record is a regular column from deputy editorial director Robert Levine analyzing news and trends in the music industry. Find more here.
The annual IMS Ibiza dance music industry conference launches today (April 26), marking the opening weekend on the famed Spanish clubbing mecca.
IMS Ibiza 2023, the dance second largest conference after Amsterdam’s ADE, is expecting roughly 1,300 delegates from around the world at the luxe Destino Pacha Ibiza resort, which IMS is once again taking over for the three-day event. Co-hosted by dance world legend Pete Tong and BBC Radio 1 DJ and dance producer Jaguar, IMS 2023 is happening April 26-28 with a cavalcade of artists, agents, managers, journalists, managers, label owners and more, altogether representing a flurry of companies including YouTube, Tunecore, Deezer, BBC Radio 1, WME, Wasserman, Beatport, Ultra Music Publishing, the Association For Electronic Music and more.
The intensely robust IMS 2023 schedule — “An absolute monster in terms of curation and the level of speakers coming,” says IMS co-founder Ben Turner — features more than 130 keynotes, discussions, parties, workshops and networking events happening at Destino and satellite locations. Naturally, these include the island’s prestige clubs including Amnesia and Hï, along with the historic Dalt Villa, a UNESCO world heritage site that will once again become a rave during the IMS closing party.
But while the conference will span many topics, Turner anticipates the practicalities and legalities of artificial intelligence to be a major topic of conversation as the music industry at large grapples with how to not just profit from AI, but to understand its potential and sustainably contain its capabilities.
“Electronic music culture has been driven by independence from its roots,” Turner says, “and I think that’s still is a core component of why we’re different… I think our industry is in the best position to embrace AI, because of that independent spirit and that understanding of ownership of IP, and how ownership of masters and publishing gives you more freedom to experiment with this stuff — whereas the majors are just going to do what they always do, which is freak out and shut all the doors.”
IMS will also once again feature the presentation of its annual business report, which surveys the health of the dance music industry across sectors including streaming and live events, and which serves as an industry tool to determine growth sectors. For the first time this year, the report has been prepared by MIDiA Research, and will find new focuses in music publishing and the creator economy, “which around electronic music is obviously huge,” says Turner. This year’s report also reflects “a huge bounce back” of the industry following the pandemic, with this year’s report reflecting 2022 metrics.
IMS Ibiza 2022
Courtesy of IMS Ibiza
Also new this year is IMS’ partnership with Beatport, the digital download platform that acquired a 51% majority stake in IMS this past January. With conferences typically presenting slim margins and IMS’ 2022 partnership with Pollen falling through in the wake of that company’s collapse, the Beatport sale has allowed IMS to create a new level of financial solvency.
“Being really honest about it,” says Turner, “we nearly didn’t survive the pandemic. We had to do refunds, we didn’t have a show for three years, we had zero income coming in, we had to cut overhead, we had to cut our small but core team. There was a big question of, ‘Can we still do this? Can we afford to still do this? And can we afford to risk doing this?’”
Turner emphasizes that he and the other IMS founders are maintaining organizational and curatorial control the conference, that Beatport can help IMS grow and that the IMS team has “been really encouraged and feel extremely supported by them.”
But while the Beatport acquisition is presenting new opportunities, it also came with baggage due to a 2022 VICE article alleging sexism, racism and a toxic work culture within Beatport. Following Beatport’s acquisition of IMS, longstanding music industry diversity and inclusion advocacy group shesaid.so announced — after a seven year partnership with IMS — that it would be putting a “temporary pause” on its participation in IMS this year. (Read shesaid.so’s complete statement on the topic.)
So too did U.K. advocacy group Black Artist Database, which suspended its partnership with Beatport last August. The organization also recently released a statement that it would not be sending any members to IMS 2023. In an April 13 statement, IMS noted that the conference “understands and respects the need to make such decisions and will continue to remain strong supporters of both organizations and the values that they stand for. Our continued, long-term, widely-acknowledged commitment to diversity, inclusion and equality in all its intersections is demonstrated in our 2023 programming and it remains a core tenet of our ethos.”
“We understand why they needed to make their statements, Turner says. “Our door is always open, and we hope that we can work with both organizations in the future. I don’t see why that can’t happen. I think there needs to be dialogue between all of the parties, I don’t think this gets resolved any other way than people communicating and trying to understand each others perspective.”
“I’m on a mission is to help make dance music a more equal place that is representative of minorities, while supporting emerging artists,” IMS co-host Jaguar adds. “I’m really proud of the work we are doing alongside Ben and the IMS team to achieve this at the summit.” She adds that “It wouldn’t feel right to go into this week without extending my love, support and solidarity to Black Artist Database and shesaid.so, who will sadly not be present at IMS this year. What [they] both stand for is incredibly close to my heart and so important.”
While IMS delegates largely arrive from throughout Europe, Turner reports “a growing number of hardcore American attendees,” a demographic he attributes to the fact that “there isn’t a conference with a narrative left around the business of electronic music in America.” (IMS did host a one-day event in Los Angeles for five years, during the apex of the EDM boom.) He says if IMS is to add another event to its schedule, it will be in the U.S.
“I think we’re globally-minded in our output, but I do think America has its own set of issues, its own dialogue, its own need for its own Summit, no question. Because America is so big, and there’s an inward looking industry, quite a lot of people don’t think much beyond America in terms of their travel or their even in some cases, their ambitions. There’s a very strong home grown scene that deserves to have its own moment.”
For this week, though, the moment will once again be in Ibiza. Billboard will be reporting from the conference this week.
Boundary-pushing pop artist Grimes has left Columbia Records, according to a source from the label. The singer’s longtime manager, Daouda Leonard, confirmed the news.
The Canadian musician signed with Columbia in March 2021, marking her first major label deal after releasing five albums on independent labels prior. Geidi Primes and Halfaxa both arrived in 2010 on Canadian indie Arbutus Records, while her last three albums — Visions (2012), Art Angels (2015) and Miss Anthropocene (2020) — were released on 4AD.
Visions hit No. 98 on the Billboard 200 and No. 17 on Billboard‘s Top Alternative Albums chart. Art Angeles landed at No. 36 on the Billboard 200 and topped the Top Alternative Albums chart. And Miss Anthropocene hit No. 32 on the Billboard 200, No. 4 on Top Alternative Albums and No. 1 on the Top Dance/Electronic Albums chart.
Grimes has long teased her forthcoming sixth album, BOOK 1, offering many status updates during her time at Columbia. Last fall she even shared on social media that the project was done and may be released in two parts.
“Album is done we’re mixing. My friend and I. perfected the last song in the plastic surgery clinic cuz they wouldn’t let me leave and we were laughing that this was the most Hollywood moment of all time. I have 20 songs so maybe BOOK 1 and BOOK 2? Deciding format/ tracklist,” she wrote on Twitter.
Last month, Grimes offered a sneak peek into the long-awaited album during her performance at Miami’s Ultra Music Festival. During the set, she also unveiled her latest venture, ELF.TECH, an app and web-based operating system, as well as unveiled Grimes Gen 1 Avatars, the first series of her own virtual artificial intelligence avatars.
Over the weekend, Grimes took to Twitter to voice her support of A.I. Posting a screenshot of an article about fake hits by Drake and The Weekend, made using A.I., Grimes wrote: “I’ll split 50% royalties on any successful AI generated song that uses my voice. Same deal as I would with any artist i collab with. Feel free to use my voice without penalty. I have no label and no legal bindings.”
Spotify CEO Daniel Ek said Tuesday (April 25) that, contrary to the widespread backlash artificial intelligence (AI) tools have faced, he’s optimistic the technology could actually be a good thing for musicians and for Spotify.
While acknowledging the copyright infringement concerns presented by songs like the AI-generated Drake fake “Heart on My Sleeve” — which racked up 600,000 streams on Spotify before the platform took it down — in comments made on a Spotify conference call and podcast, Ek said AI tools could ease the learning curve for first-time music creators and spark a new era of artistic expression.
“On the positive side, this could be potentially huge for creativity,” Ek said on a conference call discussing the company’s first-quarter earnings. “That should lead to more music [which] we think is great culturally, but it also benefits Spotify because the more creators we have on our service the better it is and the more opportunity we have to grow engagement and revenue.”
Ek’s entrepreneurial confidence that AI can be an industry boon in certain instances stands in contrast to a steady campaign of condemnation for generative machine learning tools coming from Universal Music Group, the National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA) and others.
At the same time, companies including Spotify, Warner Music Group, HYBE, ByteDance, SoundCloud and a host of start-ups have leaned in on the potential of AI, investing or partnering with machine learning companies.
The industry is still sorting the ways in which AI can be used and attempting to delineate between AI tools that are helpful and those that are potentially harmful. The use case presenting the most consternation uses a machine-learning process to identify patterns and characteristics in songs that make them irresistible and reproduce those patterns and characteristics in new creations.
Functional music — i.e., sounds designed to promote sleep, studying or relaxation — has become a fertile genre for AI, and playlists featuring AI-enhanced or generated music have racked up millions of followers on Spotify and other streaming services. This has led to concerns by some record executives who have noted that functional music eats into major-label market share.
For Spotify’s part, in February the platformSpotify launched an “AI DJ,” which uses AI technology to gin up song recommendations for premium subscribers based on their listening history, narrated by commentary delivered by an AI voice platform.
“I’m very familiar with the scary parts … the complete generative stuff or even the so-called deep fakes that pretend to be someone they’re not,” Ek said on Tuesday’s episode of Spotify’s For the Record podcast. “I choose to look at the glass as more half-full than half-empty. I think if it’s done right, these AIs will be incorporated into almost every product suite to enable creativity to be available to many more people around the world.”