Life after Death : A.I’s & Ghostwriting
This title is a biggie reference.
Hi friends,
I’ve been thinking about what, probably, you and everyone around you has been talking about, in one form or another, over the past couple weeks - and that’s A.I, particularly, A.I music.
For those who don’t know, there are tools out there which allow you to record a song, and use A.I to make your verse sound like Drake, the Weekend, or anyone else, is performing it. This tech has been out there for a while but it recently caught fire with the release of an “A.I Drake” song called “Heart on my Sleeve.”
The song has been taken down numerous times but has been received almost as well as any typical Drake release.
You can hear the record below.
I like the song. But, I think that the most significant thing about this event is what it could mean for aspiring songwriters.
As some will know, many artists, Drake included, hire talented writers to help craft their songs. This includes artists such as Rihanna, Beyonce, Michael Jackson, and the list goes on.
It’s usually the case that these writers lack the vocal ability and/or “artist package” to deliver the songs themselves. Likewise you have artists who have the vocal ability but not the skill to write great songs, at least not for a sustained period of time (See one hit wonder).
As a reminder, an A.I didn’t write this Drake song (although, it could in future) or produce the beat. A human did, and used an application such as Voicify.ai to put Drake’s vocals on it.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the creator of these A.I hits ends up writing songs for other artists, we could even see Drake play it on tour (as the internet loves a come up story).
What i’m curious to see is whether we start to see young writers use technologies like this to build their portfolios? I don’t think that they can use it to make money (legally) so self-promotion seems like the only viable benefit of doing this kind of thing.
Maybe in a few years we will start to see, as standard practice, songwriters with catalogues of Drake, Nirvana, Whitney Houston, A.I generated songs to show the extent of their writing ability.
Furthermore, what about posthumous music? Labels who own the rights to late artists can potentially create new songs, rather than released old unfinished ones. Given they have access to producers, writers, and even the artist’s lyric pad, they can generate new verses, songs, even albums using A.I.
Very interesting times.
Hope that made you think
-O