Who wouldn’t want the opportunity to release a record featuring the performance of their favourite deceased artist. Who wouldn’t want to feature the performance of Prince, Hugh Masekela, Miriam Makeba in their new Summer 2024 hit.
How? You may ask. Well, Artificial Intelligence seems to be the gift that keeps on giving…or is it?
Many of us first saw the impact of the emergence of AI in the creative sector when the Canadian born rapper Drake found himself in hot water after releasing “Taylor Made Freestyle” which featured the AI generated performances of Snoop Dogg and deceased California Love rapper Tupac Shakur.
With the prevalence of Artificial Intelligence and its ability to generate not just content, ideas or even school assignments (oops…). But the AI’s ability to generate musical works or imitate the voice of another artist, has placed it under the microscope within the creative sector.
An added layer of concern is the fact that the legal status of these works within South African law remains undetermined.
Here are some of the things we think you should know:
What is AI?
Artificial Intelligence, otherwise known as AI, refers to the ability of machines to learn from data ingested into the model, to create an output.
The benefits of using AI in your creative process
Are you experiencing writer’s block? Use AI as your sounding board or muse. Allow the features of AI to inspire your writing journey. Explore new ideas, melodies, musical styles and genres. But remember, for a musical work to be copyright protectable within the South African context, it needs to be an original creation of the human mind.
- Are you an independent artist recording your music in your home studio? AI can save you time and money while enhancing the overall sound of your music by providing you with more affordable solutions for music production. An improvement to the quality of your music means an improvement to the overall audio experience of your listener – now this is an ultimate win-win.
The drawbacks of using AI
- Often times, your listeners are drawn to your music based on the emotion and feelings that it invokes them. Musical pieces may end up sounding clinical and disingenuous when you replace your creative abilities with AI.
- Using AI to generate music may result in legal and ethical challenges regarding copyright and ownership, which could be detrimental to your brand and ability to earn on those songs. Tupac’s Estate gave Drake 24 hours to take down the song, failing to, this would have resulted in a very expensive and very long legal battle for the “Family Matters” hit maker.
Responsibilities
If you have used AI in the composing or writing of a song, ensure that you inform your publisher and distributor, as it is part of your responsibilities to provide them with your original and unencumbered works.