Ah the promise of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
The disrupter of everything, and now the replacer of musicians.
A parliamentary inquiry into the challenges and opportunities within the Australian live music industry is currently underway.
In response, Melbourne University academics say in their submission (unimelb.me/3L170K3) that ‘AI could jeopardise the livelihoods of home-grown musicians and threaten the viability of the nation’s live music scene’.
For those who enjoy live music, and for those who earn their living from it, it’s been a rough ride since federal and state governments savaged the industry during Covid.
Artists were among the first to get hit, and the industry still struggles.
Monash Uni reported that Covid lockdowns caused a ‘Massive decline in attendance and revenue, and that live music attendance dropped by 67.5 per cent nationwide between 2019 and 2020, with only 7.7 million tickets sold in 2020, compared to over 23 million in 2019’.
Now with the emergence of AI, artists are faced with another threat to their earning capacity.
How long will it take big tech music streaming services like Spotify to change their algorithms and prioritise AI-generated music or even generate their own music?
There’s already semi-convincing Frank Sinatra AI on Youtube singing popular songs he never sang.
Melbourne University’s submission into live music calls for the competition regulator, the ACCC, to review artist remuneration arrangements under digital platform services, and to examine the potential impact of AI-generated music on the sector.
Artificial Intelligence bill
Better still, the federal government could bring an AI bill before parliament.
The European Commission’s AI Act is a world’s first. Section 1(C) of that act requires providers of general-purpose AI models to put in place a policy to respect EU copyright law.
According to theconversation.com, that ‘makes it clear that any use of copyright protected content requires the authorisation of the rights holder concerned unless relevant copyright exceptions apply’.
It’s worth considering, given OpenAI (creator of ChatGPT) is facing various US court cases around how it uses copyrighted information.
Perhaps this is a significant turning point for humanity, and the relationship we have with the neat robots, software and apps that we create and consume.
Will listeners be always drawn to the stories and emotions conveyed by artists, or will humans gradually drift away from the essences that make us human?
A unique advantage humans have over AI is live performances. There is real value seeing artists perform live.
A 3-D digital hologram of Amy Winehouse was touring the world in 2019. Will that become the norm?
Hans Lovejoy, editor
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