Publish at June 11 2025 Updated June 11 2025
Technology is infiltrating our lives in all directions, and A.I. in particular is provoking two reactions. The first is one of fascination, to discover the extent to which they are capable of responding in a matter of seconds to questions or commands that we ourselves carry out. The second reaction is one of rejection, as the current possibilities of artificial intelligence are already hurting many professions. What will happen as it continues to perfect itself? Just look at the videos produced by AI, which are increasingly "realistic" and difficult to qualify.
The music world, like the fine art world, is currently living between these two positions. For some, AI is a tool that encourages greater creativity, while others denounce its learning methods, style-copying editing and so on.
In March 2025, a rather left-field song arrived on New Brunswick community radio stations. Attributed to a certain Océanne Chamberland, the song was quickly deprogrammed and banned from the ADISQ (Association québécoise de l'industrie du disque, du spectacle et de la vidéo) playlists. A move that the two musicians behind the project had foreseen. Because Océanne Chamberland doesn't exist. The song would come from texts by an author wishing to remain anonymous, and from the work of Samuel Wagner, Philippe Bourque and Suno, the most popular AI in music creation.
The idea of the two musicians was to give an opportunity for the writings of a person not at all versed in song to come to life. Above all, it was a signal to the Quebec industry: AI is already here, you can't ignore it. They point out that digital music has long been sidelined and, today, giants like Spotify are raking in all the profits and artists are getting the crumbs. For them, the time to address the issue is now.
In fact, their album, co-produced by the AI, is being produced by Warner Music, which is well aware that the two men used Suno... a tool that Warner Records and many others are suing for plagiarism by the algorithm. It has to be said that the democratization of AI has led to average Internet users having fun creating fake covers of music by popular artists. Nine Inch Nails by Céline Dion is perfectly conceivable with just one request to an AI. In fact, the singer's team roundly denounced this type of practice in the spring of 2025. YouTube, which has established good partnerships with the music industry, doesn't accept this either, and tries as hard as possible to remove these experiments from its platform.
However, while the industry is in turmoil, deregulation of AI seems to be on the agenda of the American presidency. The same is true of the UK, where the aim is to relax intellectual property laws in favor of algorithms. Because artificial intelligence improves with access to previous data, the same goes for music AIs. In fact, streaming platforms are beginning to see a significant percentage of their output produced by AI.
A study by the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers shows that creators' incomes will fall dramatically over the next few years due to the use of AI. On the other hand, established musicians admit that algorithms enable them to better refine the final rendering of songs.
As a result, AI is blowing hot and cold. There are still reasonable fears for the salaries of composers and songwriters who could do without it, and at the same time, the industry also sees possibilities for new approaches to music creation.
Jean-Michel Jarre, well known for his electronic music, talks of AI as the new revolution that will bring forth artists we can't even imagine yet. Certainly, some jobs in the music world will have to change, or will be more threatened, but other careers will emerge from this revolution, such as sound specialists in artificial intelligence, ethical consultants and so on. What's more, algorithms are also helping some people to launch their own careers in music creation, in opera chat or in other artistic fields.
What if this AI push leads to a new paradigm? What if it leads to more telegraphed formats under the AI banner, and on the other hand to authentic musical approaches? In this way, we could see musical formats that are based on performances solely on the instrument without editing or changes. This trend would lead to imperfections being accepted as an important component of human creation. In fact, these inaccuracies are part of the charm of live shows, where a standardized song on an album is transformed according to the artist's mood.
This leads some to argue that, despite artificial intelligence, we'll always be a little more interested in those who perform, and in the emotions of art that algorithms are completely unable to reproduce convincingly... for the time being.
These debates need to be taken seriously and thought through by the music world and those who train the industry's future workers. Technology isn't going away, so we need to find ways of balancing it all, making sure that everyone can make a comfortable living from their craft and that AI becomes a tool and not a means of robbing artists.
Image: Peggy und Marco Lachmann-Anke from Pixabay
References:
Chou, Gabrielle, and Nicolas Lang. "The sound mutation: how generative AI is redefining the music industry's business model." Artefact. Last updated November 20, 2024. https://www.artefact.com/fr/blog/the-sound-shift-how-generative-ai-is-redefining-the-music-industrys-business-model/.
Desjardins, Félix. "Artificial intelligence in music: AI won't be able to replace our stars and our emotions." Le Journal de Montréal. Last updated: July 13, 2024. https://www.journaldemontreal.com/2024/07/13/lintelligence-artificielle-pour-le-meilleur-et-pour-le-pire-lemotion-talon-dachille-de-la-musique-generee-par-lia.
Fois, Alessandro. "The human in music: a reflection on authenticity in the age of technology." Alessandro Fois. Last updated February 23, 2025. https://www.alessandrofois.com/fr/lumano-en-musique-une-reflexion-sur-lauthenticite-a-lere-de-la-technologie/.
"AI and musical creation, towards a new model?" Ministère De La Culture. Last updated: February 11, 2025. https://www.culture.gouv.fr/actualites/ia-et-creation-musicale-vers-un-nouveau-modele.
"Artificial intelligence: where does AI get its inspiration to create a song?" Franceinfo. Last updated: February 24, 2025. https://www.franceinfo.fr/internet/intelligence-artificielle/intelligence-artificielle-d-ou-vient-l-inspiration-de-l-ia-pour-creer-une-chanson_7094259.html.
Lofaro, Joe. ""These recordings are fake": Céline Dion denounces AI-generated music." Noovo Info. Last updated March 7, 2025. https://www.noovo.info/nouvelle/ces-enregistrements-sont-faux-celine-dion-denonce-la-musique-generee-par-lia.html.
"The impact of digital technologies on singing." Forum Opera. Last updated: November 12, 2024. https://www.forumopera.com/limpact-des-technologies-numeriques-sur-le-chant/.
"Music industry files lawsuit against AI services." Radio-Canada. Last updated: June 26, 2024. https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/2083563/industrie-musique-poursuite-service-intelligence-artificielle.
Marcoux, Valérie. "Un album coréalisé avec l'AI qui ne passe pas." Le Soleil. Last updated: April 19, 2025. https://www.lesoleil.com/arts/musique/2025/04/19/un-album-corealise-avec-lia-qui-ne-passe-pas-KJEZSVTUBFF67GMNBZZG73BJRY/.
Raguet, Théotim. "AI-generated music invades music streaming platforms." BFMTV. Last updated: April 17, 2025. https://www.bfmtv.com/tech/actualites/streaming/la-musique-generee-par-ia-envahit-les-plateformes-de-streaming-musicales_AV-202504170284.html.
Rojas, Daxia. "L'intelligence artificielle, alliée ou concurrente des créateurs de musique?" La Presse. Last updated: November 22, 2024. https://www.lapresse.ca/affaires/techno/2024-11-22/l-intelligence-artificielle-alliee-ou-concurrente-des-createurs-de-musique.php.
Urbain, Thomas. "The music industry tackles AI drift, with still limited success." Le Devoir. Last updated: April 7, 2025. https://www.ledevoir.com/culture/musique/864844/industrie-musique-attaque-derives-ia-succes-encore-limite?.
Vulser, Nicole. "Artificial intelligence 'threatens the future of creators' in music and audiovisual, says global study." Le Monde.fr. Last updated: December 4, 2024. https://www.lemonde.fr/economie/article/2024/12/04/l-intelligence-artificielle-fera-fondre-les-revenus-des-createurs-dans-la-musique-et-l-audiovisuel_6428841_3234.html.
Nine Inch Nails - The hands that feeds - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwhBRJStz7w
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