AI music: death of culture or its new life? Producer Sergei Podosinov - about what we will listen to tomorrow

Music producer Sergei Podosinov

Right now, 30% of the Yandex.Music and VK charts consist of tracks made using artificial intelligence: generated vocals, prompt arrangements, and often text from ChatGPT. The global music industry is struggling with neural networks and looking for ways to preserve musical culture, but in Russia, as usual, everything is different: neuromusic has become mainstream, the main trend of the year. It is supported by streaming platforms, record labels, AI enthusiasts, and even listeners. Music producer Sergei Podosinov, at the request of Republic-Weekly, explains why this happened and what will happen next.

French streaming platform Deezer estimates that almost half of all music currently uploaded is AI tracks. We are talking about 80–100 thousand phonograms per day. This became possible thanks to the development of music generation services: Suno, Udio, Boomy and others. The paid version of Suno allows you to make an unlimited number of generations, and the cost of producing a track now tends to zero. Of course, scammers also take advantage of this. They create AI farms with which they generate up to 10 thousand tracks per month and upload them to Spotify with covers and metadata. Distribution services are used (so everyone can upload their music), after which listening bots are connected so that the platforms transfer royalties. The margins are crazy, comparable to drug trafficking, so any risks of blocking and restructuring the system are compensated by excess profits. The most famous example is the case of American Michael Smith, who agreed to pay compensation for fraudulently obtained funds in the amount of $8 million. According to various estimates, from 95 to 98% of downloaded tracks are neuroslops that have not been heard by any living person, including the author of the generation.

The remaining few percent are tracks generated by enthusiasts based on their own poems or works of famous poets, as well as covers, remixes and all kinds of memes.

In April, the global top of Shazam (an application for music recognition. - Ed.) was topped by an alleged cover of “Grey Night” performed by rapper Ye (better known as Kanye West). It was actually a generated video that went viral on TikTok and Instagram, which is what led to millions of Shazams.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xmCgMpxy54&list=RD4xmCgMpxy54&start_radio=1

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