The global music industry is set to undergo more changes as new technology being developed in Cambridge, Massachusetts that will shape the future of music creation. The change is being lead by one company named Suno, said to be on a mission to redefine the boundaries of musical expression through the power of artificial intelligence.
According to Rolling Stones Magazine, Suno is developing technology where a mere text prompt like “Make a reggae song about flying to space,” into their advanced AI model conjures a one minute laid back tropical rhythm song titled “Cosmic Skies.” This fusion of AI-generated music, coupled with OpenAI’s ChatGPT for lyrics, experts are saying could potentially rewrite the rulebook of musical composition.
There are mixed reactions to Suno’s creations online with one person tweeting, “AI audio will “…democratize…” music in the same sense that digital porn democratized love.”
Other reactions range from disbelief to awe but the fearful thought among the music community that the tool is not for artist but for those who could not make music to begin with.
Those "empowered" by this democratization won't be artists. They'll be tedious, soulless richboys.
The tech ecosystem is hellbent on manifest destiny for the STEMdude/Businessbro complex. They rage at the idea that anything isn't theirs. Art is today's target; what's tomorrow's?
— S. Alexander Reed (@industrial_book) March 17, 2024
“Those “empowered” by this democratization won’t be artists. They’ll be tedious, soulless richboys.”
There is also the thought online that Suno’s V3 Alpha model launched in February will be a passing fad.
With shockingly clear audio made just from a text prompt, Suno AI is still in the testing phase and is only available for pro users but it will be free once fully released.
Mikey Shulman, Suno’s co-founder, envisions a future where music creation transcends barriers and is targeting a billion users worldwide harness Suno’s platform for artistic expression. Top put this in context, there are approximately 9,276 employed musicians in the US with the average age being 44.
Artists need not worry that people will copy their styles because if your prompt include the name of a popular name like Bob Marley or Drake, the AI will reject the prompt. The company evolved from Bark, a text-to-speech program to now, you can compose a song with vocals, lyrics, rhythm in just about any genre and generate a lyric video to post on YouTube.
Suno’s approach mirrors that of large language models like ChatGPT, deconstructing human language into tokens to generate text. However, the complexities of music present unique challenges, necessitating innovative solutions to bridge the gap between text and audio. Co-founders Mikey Shulman told Rolling Stone that there are still many details to iron out to get the audio more smooth. “Audio is not a discrete thing like words,” Shulman says. “It’s a wave. It’s a continuous signal.” High-quality audio’s sampling rate is generally 44khz or 48hz, which means “48,000 tokens a second, that’s a big problem, right? And so you need to figure out how to kind of smoosh that down to something more reasonable.”
While Suno’s rise is met with excitement, questions regarding copyright and artistic integrity loom large. Nonetheless, Suno remains steadfast in its commitment to honoring artists and intellectual property rights.
With backing from investors like Antonio Rodriguez, who sold his EchoNest company to Spotify to fuel its algorithm, there is the major risk that record labels like Universal which has taken a stance against artificial Intelligence could sue Suno. “Honestly, if we had deals with labels when this company got started, I probably wouldn’t have invested in it. I think that they needed to make this product without the constraints,” Rodriguez, a partner at the venture-capital firm Matrix said.
Rodriguez also envisions Suno as a transformative force, akin to the democratization of photography by camera phones and Instagram.
Yet, amidst the excitement, concerns linger regarding the potential disruption Suno could bring to traditional music creation avenues. However, Shulman reassures that Suno’s mission is to empower music enthusiasts, not replace artists.
As Suno embarks on its journey, competition also looms in the distance as the music industry braces for change and Google’s Dream Track pick ups momentum on the horizon.
