back to article Important note: Humans can use AI to make music and still bag a Grammy

Artists using machine learning software to make music can win a Grammy someday, thanks to a change in the awards' rules. The Recording Academy, the organization in charge of the Grammy Awards, updated its eligibility criteria earlier this month, stating only human musicians can be nominated and win. On Tuesday, CEO and …

  1. elDog

    Fat chance enforcing these types of rules/restrictions.

    Content is generated by a whole host of methods. Very little (if any) is original. Using an AI to craft a segment of a melody or even the vocals won't really be detectable especially once its gone through the normal blending and transformations. A fools errand just to make the "professional" societies look like they have an important part in the process.

    Of course this applies to all forms of art - text, visual, music. And it's just going to get more intense.

    (Speaking solely as a programmer who's artistic output is wonderfully exceeded now by the AI "helpers".)

  2. jake Silver badge

    "at least some musicians turn to artificial intelligence to create music."

    That would be most "popular" musicians of the last 30-odd years, no?

    Or maybe it's supposed to sound artificial and plastic ...

  3. Omnipresent Silver badge

    LOOK MA...

    I'm a musician, no hands!

    1. bo111

      Re: LOOK MA...

      Soon with real time music generation/remixing on demand

  4. stiine Silver badge

    How in hell are they going to handle royalties? How far can you subdivide a penny?

    1. jake Silver badge

      "How far can you subdivide a penny?"

      Pretty far if you have tens of them. Farther still if you have a couple hundred thousand.

  5. PRR Silver badge

    Meanwhile on the book side of the aisle:

    "....an author noticed the Best Sellers in Teen & Young Adult Contemporary fiction had been flooded with fake books. .....cheesy covers and gibberish descriptions. How do they become bestsellers? The bad guys create the fake book, upload it to Amazon, and then use click farms to download the books and "read" them to eat up KU payments."

    "KU" is Kindle Unlimited- members pay a flat rate for all they read, but Amazon throws a tenth-cent a page to the author. Screwy business model but it IS Amazon.

    I browsed a few. This is not even good AI. Some of it is utter gibberish, worse than the crapola the programmers report their "helpers" turn out, perhaps not even good for real estate listings.

    To their credit, Amazon IS removing this drek.... a few a day, on >100 crapbooks going back to April (>2months).

    1. PRR Silver badge
      Trollface

      > "KU" is Kindle Unlimited-..... Amazon throws a tenth-cent a page to the author.

      I have been told that "amazon pays .004 cents per page."

      If so, a 125 to 250 page book fully-read earns a half buck to a whole buck.

      The standard deal on paper books can be set for several bucks. The KU "advantage" may be that a reader does not have to commit to a whole book to start reading (and throwing those big 0.004 cents rewards to authors).

  6. Pascal Monett Silver badge

    "she would be happy to split royalties 50-50"

    Careful what you wish for, there. You might end up with an AI version that is more successful than you.

    1. Graham Cobb

      Re: "she would be happy to split royalties 50-50"

      Genuine question (I know little abut the music biz)... what royalties would she be due? I *thought* that if someone else recorded a song made famous by another singer they only had to pay royalties to the writers (lyrics, composer, arranger, etc) - not to any earlier performers. And that the licence terms terms are fixed, not negotiated.

      Of course I am assuming there would be no fraud - no one pretending the AI was actually Grimes.

      Performance rights would be harder, I guess, as it would not be clear who was performing.

      1. jake Silver badge

        Re: "she would be happy to split royalties 50-50"

        "what royalties would she be due?"

        Depends on how well she negotiated her contract with the owners of the rights.

        "I *thought* that if someone else recorded a song made famous by another singer they only had to pay royalties to the writers (lyrics, composer, arranger, etc)"

        Usually it's the recording company of the original artist that gets the lion's share. They might agree to shuffle a couple bob to the original writer(s) etc, but getting that money out of them is nearly impossible. Their lawyers (and lobbyists) are far, far larger than those of a mere musician. The money-grubbing bastards.

  7. katrinab Silver badge
    Windows

    How is this any different to the likes of Hatsune Miku which was released about 15 years ago?

    1. jake Silver badge

      The so-called "Vocaloid" world requires humans to create the words and music (and/or vocal script) before running them through the synthesizer. AI does it all by itself, usually with just a little prompting by humans.

      The first of the Vocaloids was released about 20 years ago, the "Hatsune Miku" thing is second generation(ish).

  8. IGotOut Silver badge

    Simple question.

    How would they know?

    Let's face it look at a lot of songs and AI would generate fare more coherent lyrics.

    I am the Walrus springs instantly to mind.

  9. RAMChYLD

    > If AI is used to generate an artificial voice for the lead vocals of a track, the piece could be eligible for the songwriting category but not the performance category

    So Hatsune Miku and her ilk are not qualified for awards? Good luck telling that to JASRAC...

    1. jake Silver badge

      The article specifically said this was the rules of The Recording Academy, the organization in charge of the Grammy Awards.

      JASRAC has nothing to do with it.

  10. Mitoo Bobsworth

    Depends, really -

    Both of these lyric sets were written by real people. One of them would definitely benefit from AI intervention.

    "HOLY WARS - THE PUNISHMENT DUE" - Single by Megadeth

    Writer/Producer - Dave Mustaine

    Brother will kill brother

    Spilling blood across the land

    Killing for religion

    Something I don't understand

    Fools like me, who cross the sea

    And come to foreign lands

    Ask the sheep, for their beliefs

    Do you kill onGod's command?

    A country that's divided

    Surely will not stand

    My past erased, no more disgrace

    No foolish naive stand

    "BABY" - Single by Justin Bieber, featuring Ludacris

    Writer - Jutin Bieber, Christopher "Tricky" Stewart, Terius "The-Dream" Nash, Christopher Bridges, Christina Milan

    Producer - "Tricky" Stewart, Terius "The-Dream" Nash

    Baby, baby, baby, oh

    Like baby, baby, baby, no

    Like baby, baby, baby, oh

    Thought you'd always be mine, mine

    I'm gone (yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,yeah,yeah)

    Now I'm all gone (yeah, yeah,yeah,yeah,yeah,yeah)

    Now I'm all gone (yeah, yeah, yeah,yeah,yeah,yeah)

    Now I'm all gone (gone, gone, gone)

    I'm gone

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon

Other stories you might like