Is AI actually useful for music artists?
AI tools like Midjourney and Chat GPT are already helping music artists create cover art, generate lyrics, and brainstorm social media content. Looking ahead, AI-assisted music creation could streamline songwriting, mixing, and mastering, saving time and boosting creative output.
By Andrew Southworth
Hey friends!
Over the past year AI has become something of a buzzword. It’s been integrated into almost every software platform, and people keep talking about how its going to change the world and take our jobs.
You may have seen some examples where someone uses Chat GPT to instantly write software code (this is amazing). Or you may have heard about visual artists complaining how companies are training AI using their work without compensation them.
Today I want to talk about some AI tools that are useful for music artists.
We’ll look at this in two stages: AI right now, and AI in the future.
AI Right Now
One tool that i’ve been personally using for almost all of my cover art creation lately is Midjourney. It allows you to type in some text and it will generate the image you want. Take a look:
Prompt: black and white image, heavy film grain, raining outside, young guy playing electric guitar outdoors, sitting down on a sidewalk in front of train tracks
Pretty crazy right?
It can sometimes be hard to get exactly what you want, and its particularly bad at text so you may need to add that yourself. But for me it does the job more than adequately.
Next there is Chat GPT itself. You can use Chat GPT for a million things, but here are some examples:
Answer general questions
Writing software code
Writing social media captions
Writing blog posts
Drafting emails
Coming up with lyric ideas
Brainstorming ideas for social media content
Brainstorming ideas for YouTube videos
Here is an example of me asking Chat GPT to write some lyrics on a specific topic.
Prompt: write me a short song about how social media is corrupting our society and making people depressed
(Verse 1)
In a virtual world, where faces hide,
Social media's allure, casting aside,
Connections diminished, screen's glow so bright,
Society corrupted, losing its inner light.
(Chorus)
Oh, social media, a double-edged sword,
Faking happiness, while hearts lay ignored,
In filter-filled frames, reality wears thin,
Depression thrives, as true joys grow dim.
(Verse 2)
Scrolling through feeds, comparing lives,
Vying for likes, as self-worth subsides,
The constant pressure, the need for validation,
Leaving souls empty, lost in a digital creation.
(Bridge)
Once genuine moments, now pixelated lies,
True conversations lost, while hashtags rise,
Oh, let us break free, reclaim our identity,
From the grips of social media, set our spirits free.
(Chorus)
Oh, social media, a double-edged sword,
Faking happiness, while hearts lay ignored,
In filter-filled frames, reality wears thin,
Depression thrives, as true joys grow dim.
(Verse 3)
Let's seek real connections, beyond the screen,
Embrace the beauty of the world unseen,
Unplug from the noise, find solace in nature,
Rediscover our passions, reclaim our true stature.
(Outro)
For social media's grip, we'll no longer stay,
Through mindful use, we'll find a better way,
Together we'll rise, rebuild our society,
With genuine connections and hearts set free.
Pretty amazing right? Even if the first result isn’t amazing, you can have it generate this within a few seconds. You can ask it as many times as you want, get inspiration and refine the core idea on your own.
You can even give it a few lyrics you’ve written, and ask it to continue your lyrics and keep the same tone / meaning.
Let’s ask Chat GPT to come up with some social media content ideas:
Prompt: give me 10 ideas for social media content that a solo alt-pop artist in their 20's could use on Instagram or TikTok.
1. Behind-the-scenes footage: Provide a sneak peek into your creative process, studio sessions, or rehearsals to give fans an exclusive look into your music-making journey.
2. Acoustic covers: Share stripped-down versions of popular songs or perform acoustic covers of your own songs to engage with your followers and showcase your vocal and instrumental skills.
3. Q&A sessions: Host live or pre-recorded question-and-answer sessions where you can connect with your fans, answer their questions about your music, influences, or personal life, and build a stronger relationship with them.
4. Songwriting snippets: Tease your followers with short clips or lyrics of new songs you're working on, building anticipation for future releases and involving them in the creative process.
5. Collaborative challenges: Initiate collaborative challenges where followers can participate by singing, dancing, or remixing your songs. You can feature the best entries on your social media platforms, showcasing the talent of your fans.
6. Personal updates: Share updates on your daily life, travel adventures, or personal milestones to let your followers experience your journey beyond music, helping them connect with you on a deeper level.
7. Fan features: Highlight and appreciate your fans by featuring their cover versions, fan art, or reactions to your music. This shows that you value their support while also encouraging more fan engagement.
8. Throwback moments: Share childhood photos or videos that provide a glimpse into your musical beginnings or memorable milestones in your career, building nostalgia and allowing fans to witness your growth.
9. Inspirational quotes or messages: Post motivational messages, inspirational quotes, or personal insights that resonate with your artistic identity and brand, nurturing a positive and supportive community around your music.
10. Exclusive sneak peeks: Offer exclusive previews of upcoming music videos, album artwork, or merchandise designs as a reward for your most dedicated followers. This boosts excitement and creates hype around your releases.
This is just scratching the surface with Chat GPT, but I want to move on to another topic…
Actual AI music.
One cool platform I came across called lalals lets you replace your vocals with the voice of someone like Drake, Ed Sheeran, Beyonce and more.
The ethics and legality of this when it comes to releasing music using their software is questionable, so keep that in mind. But it is very cool.
There are sites right now that allow you to generate completely AI created music. Aiva and Soundful even allows you to download MIDI files for the music it generates, and you can distribute this music onto Spotify depending on the license you purchase.
AI In The Future
This section is really just me guessing, or dreaming.
One area that i’m incredibly excited about and hopeful that it will come to fruition, is AI assisted music creation.
Imagine you record a guitar riff and vocal line, and with one button press an AI generates bass, drums and piano to match. This would enable songwriters to quickly sketch full songs off of a single performance.
Or alternatively, imagine you record your vocals and instead of having to go through manually tuning and de-breathing your vocals, an AI can go and do that for you.
Another AI software could handle 90% of mixing and mastering, so all the human has to do is step in and tweak a few knobs to get their signature sound. Izotope already has some features like this in their Neutron and Ozone software, so I feel that they will be the first to dive into this further.
These are all examples of software that allows humans to increase their output. When music creators are able to save time they’re able to spend more time on tasks that actually matter and make even more music.
On the darker side…
Eventually AI created music will start to compete with human made music. At first it will just be simple music - lofi hip-hop, relaxing music, instrumental piano etc.
But eventually AI generated vocals will improve. We already have technology to transform vocals into better vocals, technology to have AI write lyrics, and technology for AI to write melodies. It isn’t unreasonable to think in 5 years these tools will be integrated and impossible to detect from a real human.
What does that mean for artists? Well, I think the human connection will become even stronger. Showing your personality on social media, playing live and hosting live streams will become even more important.
People already love forming connections with the creators of the music they love. In a world where a lot of music is AI created that connection is even more valuable.
New Content
Did Spotify save the music industry? Find out why the answer is maybe here:
I created a calculator so you can calculate royalties from Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal and other streaming platforms.
In case you don’t know, I have a podcast! Currently there are 43 episodes and it has over 20,000 downloads.
New episodes!
Recently i’ve been posting a lot on Twitter (or now X, I guess):
Yesterday I applauded Spotify for finally raising prices.
Today I want to scold them a little bit.
Let's talk about things Spotify should do better.
(i'm fully aware most of this stuff will never happen though)
🧵👇
— Andrew Southworth (@southwortha)
1:55 PM • Jul 25, 2023
News
Here are some music industry news highlights from the past week.
Super listeners on Spotify make up 2% of listeners, but account for 18% of streams.
New Soundcloud study shows 1 in 5 artists could double their income under a user-centric streaming model.
Audiomack adds a new connect tool for artists to speak directly with fans.
Daniel Ek sells $100M worth of Spotify shares
Quote of the Week
With artificial intelligence, we are summoning the demon. In all those stories where there's the guy with the pentagram and the holy water, it's like, yeah, he's sure he can control the demon.
Didn't work out.
Whenever you’re ready, there are 4 ways I can help you:
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Website / Store / Funnels. MusicFunnels is the best all-in-one platform for music artists to make a website, online store, sales funnels and build their mailing list.
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