Bowie was working with digital lyric randomizers in the ‘90s, it’s only recently that AI-generated music has come into its own.
Adverts and computer games often bypass copyright and licensing issues by creating their own soundtracks using programmes such as Jukebox and Amper, which create music from basic parameters such as mood, tempo and genre.Meanwhile, musicians including Holly Herndon and Francois Pachet have made albums with AI collaborators.
Plus the art of the deepfake has emerged thanks to programmes that can consume an artist’s entire work and recreate new examples based on the patterns it finds.
Jay-Z, for instance, recently had to take action against YouTubers posting fakes of him rapping Billy Joel songs and speeches from.