Grammy CEO says music industry also has AI concerns
The rise of AI has consumed the arts, just as it has Silicon Valley. Everyone is pondering: Will AI replace me?
Harvey Mason Jr., CEO of the Recording Academy, caused a stir a few months ago.
He announced that the organization’s prestigious Grammy Awards would finally accept music made with artificial intelligence. At first, people were confused, and then Mason came out to clarify that he meant only humans can submit to the awards, but that AI can be used in the creative process.
“It’s a bit of a fine line, but that’s going to evolve,” he told TechCrunch about how the Academy is assessing the use of artificial intelligence in music. “My hope is that we can continue to celebrate human creativity at the highest level.”
The rise of AI has consumed the arts, just as it has Silicon Valley. Everyone is pondering: Will AI replace me? And within music — what happens to copyright? Royalties? To the hard work I’ve put into my craft? Mason said there are indeed concerns sweeping the industry. Some people are scared and nervous, while others are excited and optimistic. Some artists are sending cease-and-desist letters to get unauthorized deepfakes of themselves taken down, while others are embracing their AI versions — so long as they get paid.
“I wholeheartedly believe that AI in music shouldn’t even exist,” musician Devante, the Artist told TechCrunch. “AI should really only be used for simple daily tasks. As an artist, the ‘AI is taking over the world’ take is very real these days. Music is my world and now it’s all too easy for someone to masquerade as something it’s taken my whole life to be.”
“I think a lot of musicians, particularly the ones who haven’t ‘made it,’ are taking a glass-half-empty perspective on AI,” a musician who also works for a Big Tech company told TechCrunch. He asked to remain anonymous because he did not have permission from his employer to speak on the matter. “Just as the industrial revolution did not lead to widespread unemployment and in fact quite the opposite, more creatives, especially musicians, should flip their mindset and lean in.”
AI is already being used in music, mostly in the process of mastering and equalizing sounds, Mason said. The biggest concerns right now in the industry are making sure people get the right approvals to use an artist’s work, making sure humans are credited separately from AI, and making sure people are getting paid fairly, whether that’s the copyright AI is trained on or the likeness of an artist. There’s also the issue of ensuring these protections across the industry.
Mason co-launched the Human Artistry Campaign to address some of these issues and advocate for more guardrails around the use of AI.