Interview of the Month

Impact of AI on Music and its Creators
IPRS panel discussion at the Kala Ghoda Art festival 2024
 
With artificial intelligence slowly but steadily enveloping every dimension of modern life, it was only a matter of time before the realm of creation and music came in its ambit.  How could then, IPRS, the representative body of authors, composers and publishers of music, looking into every possible change and development in the music world overlook this?  Considering the possible impact of AI on creator and creativity, IPRS went on to host a detailed panel discussion highlighting the opportunities and challenges it will pose.
 
Conducted under the umbrella of The Kala Ghoda Art Festival Mumbai on the 28th of January, the discussion was graced by eminent creators and music industry experts. Singer- Songwriter Shalmali Kholgade, Singer-Songwriter Raghav Meatle, Singer-Songwriter Sherrin Varghese, Advocate IP and Copyright Himanshu Bagai.  Film and Media Educator Chaitanya Chinchalikar, moderated the riveting session with his critical inputs.
 
Opening the session, Chaitanya offered his erudite insights and a master class level lecture into the ideation, the build-up and the various stages a technology undergoes before eventually plateauing into an accepted manner through the Gartner Hype Cycle. Busting a few myths, he concluded that AI was no substitute and could not replace a human but a human using AI would replace a non-user. The proper usage of AI in the most productive manner, the innovations emanating from Gen AI along with its various offshoots like Artificial General Intelligence, AI Engineering, Autonomic systems, Prompt Engineering were discussed threadbare.
 
Shalmali Kholgade went on to say that the idea of AI becoming a part of modern music creation was in itself exciting and something she looked forward to.  Writing, Music, Art, she felt, are all bound to be absorbed into the wide tentacled spread of AI and will also help human intelligence and AI to come together and open new avenues for the creator.  She went on to mention that there was an inertia, fueled by the unknown territory AI was, but she is now open and considered AI as another band member. 
 
AI has also brought in new ways to audition singers. The music director can hear his composition in various voices and take his pick from the flock of voices without the need to summon the singer to the studio. This is a paradigm shift in the working process. AI in the hands of experienced creators can drum out excellent results. Here is where, she felt, the experience factor comes into reckoning during creativity. Her stand on AI swung between reluctance and inevitability of accepting the situation and now using it to the right effect for better creative output.
 
Technology has significantly altered the way he makes music, felt Raghav Meattle. Harking back to his earlier days of music creation, he remembered how the advent of programming tools changed the rules of the game. Going ahead, with the use of AI in his creation his core team now is 3 musicians- a breakaway from his earlier 9-member team. Raghav went on to express his approval for the spurt in music demand corresponding to the upwelling in content creation across platforms and the cushy job it is to buy music from websites.
 
Sherrin Varghese, though a regular user of AI in his creations, felt that the human mind is always going to be a step ahead of AI when it comes to creativity.  AI, he added, can be used as a crutch to enhance creativity, but will never replace originality from which stems creativity.  For the AI to benefit the creator economy Sherrin believed would be a long process as it involved the formation of new laws to be drafted and later implemented. Sherrin averred that prompt engineering would soon become the in-demand domain expertise.
 
Speaking about likeness rights in the AI world Himanshu Bagai opined that Indian laws regarding the same are still at an embryonic stage as compared to the West. As an example, he cited the Music Copyright law in India since the amendment in 2012, that allows music creators to monetize their works in the form of royalties- a privilege which by then was available to musicians in the west for over 40 years. While Indian law is still in its infancy when talking about posthumous rights of creators it will eventually matchup with the scales abroad, added Chaitanya. He also brought to light pertinent queries related to the legal framework, particularly in the case of a creators assigning the rights of their works to legal heirs and other prospective scenarios, broadening the scope of the discussion.
 
The fact that no work created by AI can be copyrighted ensures everyone is open to their own interpretation of AI generated work. AI, evidently, is going to give genuine creators a shot in the arm ensuring creators spend more time on the process of creation rather than direct their efforts toward weaving together a preferred team or a desired mix. That AI would also help usher in genuine young talent was also a heartening conclusion drawn from the stimulating panel discussion.
 
A clutch of emerging scenarios like Job displacement, Ethical implications of AI, the swift integration of AI in art, the fact that collaboration unlike replacement is the way ahead, were the other notable takeaways from this IPRS steered trending topic discussion on AI and its various constituents.