TicketNews: Universal Music Group (UMG) is signaling that artificial intelligence is no longer just an experiment, but a cornerstone of its future. In a major announcement Tuesday, the music giant unveiled a collaboration with NVIDIA designed to change how billions of fans interact with music—while maintaining that artist rights and compensation remain the “North Star” of the initiative.
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I have to admit that the idea of this AI tool is intriguing, I am very bad at finding music that I like, and if there is an AI tool that can analyze melodies and find songs similar to songs I already like, that does sound appealing. However, with the existence of AI music it's not difficult to imagine a terrible feedback loop where this AI tool only gives recommendations of AI songs that technically have similar elements to actual songs, but with none of the soul, joy, or whimsy that actual music is created with. I just think we should take all the AI and lock it in a box so it stops being annoying and ruining everything, but of course that's impossible, and our billionaire overlords are gonna do whatever they want, and right now everyone seems to want to shove AI into every possible place it can go.
I think that many companies are currently building their futures on AI while current AI models aren't able to produce the high level output they are looking for yet. It feels a bit like they are putting all of their eggs in one basket. Despite this I am intrigued by how using AI can help to provide data and statistics if developers can ever find a way to make the current or future AI models better at math. I think that it is important to embrace AI in certain situations; it isn’t going away anytime soon, so we must learn how it fits in within our society. A lot of the fear of AI is because people aren’t informed about how it works or what it can be used for without interrupting their ways of life. I won’t lie and say that I am not apprehensive about AI, but I do think that once we find the niche that AI can fit into within our society/ workforce we can use it in a positive way.
I think using AI to search for music and ASSIST with playlist creation is alright as long as it is done write. There should be no AI generating music. AI helping with searches based on nuanced subjects and vibes and also making recommendations based on what one may like sounds alright in concept. It just needs to be managed correctly so that information isn’t collected or leaked that people don’t want to be and also so that the algorithm/system doesn’t get overrun or too accustomed to certain genres and songs in such a way that it doesn’t work properly and ends up giving everyone the same recommendations. As long as this is done and strict guidelines and limitations are followed and upheld I can see this technology working out and being alright. This is coming from someone who is very anti-AI too and likes creating playlists themselves. I will admit even I have trouble finding songs I like and a toll to help out would be quite nice.
The idea of ‘responsible artificial intelligence’ is intriguing to me. Though I don’t really think Universal Music Group’s approach is particularly responsible. They seem to be trying to integrate AI into the creative process of musicians, which doesn’t really sit well with me. Disney seems to be doing something similar with the deal they struck with OpenAI a few weeks ago. Both companies seem to be trying to get ahead of the AI curve, trying to take control of the algorithms to meet their own goals, while cracking down on unlicensed use. The ongoing litigation both companies are bringing against AI companies is probably going to be the closest thing we have to regulating AI, assuming they win in court. Copyright infringement has become a massive problem since generative AI gained prevalence in 2022, and it seems like the federal government would rather see Nvidia, OpenAI, Anthropic, and other companies like them see record profits than protect artists who create original work.
I don’t really love the idea of AI getting involved in music, but I still thought this article was interesting. The discovery tools UMG is talking about honestly sound kind of helpful, especially for people like me who struggle to find new songs I actually vibe with. At the same time, I can’t shake the feeling that this could easily slide into a weird direction. If the system starts recommending AI-generated tracks that technically “match” my taste but don’t have any real emotion behind them, that just feels off. I get why UMG wants to control how AI is used instead of ignoring it, but I also understand why so many fans are frustrated. Music is so tied to human expression that it’s hard to imagine AI being involved without taking something away. I’m not completely anti-tech, but I do think the industry needs to be really careful about what gets lost in the process.
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