The AI Beat Generator Universal Music Group has invested in.

Created in Midjourney

This could be the biggest threat to beat makers and producers in the future.

I keep a very close eye on what’s happening in the world of AI. From images to chat prompts to video to music. I have friends that have worked professionally as creatives for 25 years that are planning their exit from their career, transitioning into other businesses over the next several years. Technology has put tools in the hands of the general public that easily allow some mildly to moderately impressive artistic creations come to life. Most of what I see is still in very early stages of development or just now starting to gain some traction. Nothing out there I’ve seen is going to replace music creatives… yet.

The big record labels aren’t fond of AI. Or are they? Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you have probably heard or heard-about the AI-fake Drake and The Weekend tracks that garnered 630,000 Spotify and 230,000 YouTube plays in just 24 hours. Universal Music Group put the smack down stating copyright infringement. To get an AI-fake Drake, you have to train it from the real Drake. And herein lies the problem. UMG states that you’re taking and using intellectual property to mimic and create something new. It’s the intellectual property that is owned by the artist and the label. Now, you could train AI from your own voice or the voice of someone who has explicitly given you the right to do so, and use AI to make something completely new, performing in the style of the original performer. In fact, I expect “voice profiles” to be something that you’ll be able to license/purchase in the future. Thousands of vocalists to choose from. Each one sounding very different from each other just as in real life. Click to buy, load the profile and start generating new performances. But music and beats are a little different.

“…Universal Music Group is very interested in that.”

Producers and musicians are, and have been, training AI with their own original productions. AI can listen to 1000 different trap beats and easily reproduce something from scratch that’s usable. AI is pretty good at generating melodies if you’re patient and give it some input. Bass lines are easy enough to render based on chord progressions (which can also be AI-generated). So you have all of these creatives literally teaching AI to do what they do. And Universal Music Group is very interested in that.

So is Disney. And Microsoft. So much so that they all have invested in an AI Music Generation application with $3.8 Million raised as of this writing. The platform I speak of is Soundful. Billed as a background music generator, the trajectory for this technology is actually much more ambitious.

When I first discovered this news I had to try Soundful for myself to see what the hype was about. I signed up for a free account so I could explore what the app has to offer on soundful.com. It asks you what type of creative you are and what categories you’re interested in. Then you be taken to the dashboard where you’ll find both templates and finished tracks to peruse.

“…you have to subscribe to one of the paid plans and then purchase copyrights for the music.”

The templates are labeled by category like “Moods and Themes” and within that category you’ll find sub-genres to choose from. “Action Gaming”, “Coffee Shop” and “Road Trip” are just 3 of the 19 templates found in this genre. Under “Hip Hop” you’ll find 18 sub-genres like “Dark Piano Trap”, “Old School” and “Club Beats”. Over 100 templates in total to get you started. Choose “Global Tracks” from the menu and you’ll be taken to a page that has completed tracks that Soundful has made. Sections for Most Popular, New Releases and Staff picks let you listen to a wide variety AI-generated music tracks that you can audition for possible use. The free plan is restrictive in that you can only use the music tracks for personal or non-profit use. This doesn’t cover using it with social media, let alone uploading it to Spotify. In order to do that you have to subscribe to one of the paid plans and then purchase copyrights for the music. You can compare the plans on their site here.

“It still sounds fairly generic to me. And many of the music tracks have a similar ‘character’ about them that feels like they were done by the same producer.”

So what does it sound like? Out of all the AI-generated music platforms I’ve encountered, it’s probably the best one… but. It still sounds fairly generic to me. And many of the music tracks have a similar “character” about them that feels like they were done by the same producer. Would I opt for purchasing a copyright for any of these tracks? Not yet. Soundful is still in beta and this technology in the whole scheme of things is in its infancy. It will get better. It will become a more viable source for commercial music at some point. Right now, you could use the music tracks as background music for an ad or video that has someone speaking and delivering a message. The music wouldn’t be the focal point. In the future, the goals (driven by money) will be more lofty. But I have to say, listening to these AI-generated tracks didn’t offend me as a listener. If I heard them in an elevator or while shopping in a store I wouldn’t be rolling my eyes.

Created in Midjourney. Struggled with rendering the piano keys.

As an audio engineer for about 30 years you’re probably wondering what I think about the quality of the audio from a mixing and mastering standpoint. Again, it’s not offensive but also nothing special. When auditioning templates the app states that final delivery of the audio will be fully mixed and mastered (by AI of course) and that the template is more of a rough demo. Even still, the music didn’t move me emotionally so mixing it better and mastering it isn’t going to change my opinion.

So where does that leave us? Obviously AI-generated music isn’t going away. It’s only going to get better. The more it learns, the more it trains, the faster this is going to happen. And AI grows exponentially fast as we have seen with things like ChatGPT, Midjourney and Runway. But will it be able to replace humans at some point? Universal Music Group, Disney and Microsoft seem to think so.

I’d love to hear your feedback about Soundful and other AI-generated platforms aimed at creatives and their endeavors. Hit me on my contact page to send me your thoughts.

-Dave