Creative AI may be the most disruptive technology for the music business since the Napster era of piracy.
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Already in 2023, over 10 different music AI models have been released by independent researchers and big-tech companies like Google and ByteDance, allowing users to generate custom tracks in seconds using a mere text prompt.
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Hundreds of thousands of AI-generated songs are now listed on streaming services.
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At large, generative AI tools for audio, text, and visual art have picked up tens of millions of users, forcing us to rethink traditional notions of creativity, ownership, and attribution.
At this critical juncture, we’re thrilled to release our Season 3 report on creative AI, which provides a comprehensive guide on the technology’s emerging opportunities and challenges for music.
Over the last three months, more than 50 contributors in our community came together to analyze and discuss the impact of creative AI across the music-industry life cycle, from music creation and ideation to distribution and monetization. As with previous seasons, we explored the landscape in a highly interdisciplinary and collaborative way, including:
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Curating a database of over 80 different music AI tools
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Annotating the terms of service for 11 AI companies
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Interviewing 15 different artists and startup founders
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Running an AI sentiment survey with over 150 responses
Our goal with this report is to bring more transparency on the current state of music AI to anyone with a stake in the outcome, including artists, rights holders, software developers, and startup founders. We hope our findings provide a helpful starting point for understanding the critical commercial, legal, and ethical issues at stake as AI continues to transform the business of creativity at large.
REPORT OVERVIEW
Believe it or not, this is our first season with no articles.
Instead, we've produced three slide decks and one interview podcast — each dedicated to a particular lens on the creative AI landscape, spanning creative, legal, commercial, and ethical concerns.
Our goals with this new format are to make our research more accessible to an industry audience, present our findings in a more shareable and visually striking way, and accommodate a wider range of preferences for consuming information.
You can click directly to each chapter below:
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The state of music AI tools [deck] — Digging into music AI tooling, use cases, and business strategies across the creative lifecycle, informed by our own music AI database.
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Temp check: AI sentiment across the industry [deck] — Understanding music-industry needs and sentiments around creative AI, from a survey of over 150 stakeholders.
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AI and music copyright [deck] — Addressing artists' legal questions about creative AI and ownership, through the lens of AI tools' terms of use.
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Building a creative AI community [podcast] — Looking behind the scenes at how we built a community around creative AI experimentation — and are incorporating AI into our larger strategy.
FREE WEBINAR
We'll be hosting a free kickoff celebration tomorrow (Friday, February 16) from 1PM–2:30PM EST via Zoom.
During the event, our community researchers will lead us through the main findings from our three season decks. We'll leave around 30 minutes at the end for attendees to ask questions about our research and the future of AI in the music industry at large.
You can learn more and sign up here.
HOW TO SUPPORT OUR RESEARCH
With the exception of our Season 3 podcast, this report is available exclusively to paying members.
We're an independent, 100% bootstrapped research community — so if you found our research valuable, we'd really appreciate your support! We have multiple support options depending on your payment preferences and budget. All financial contributors to Season 3 will be credited on our report landing page.
MAKE A ONE-TIME DONATION
You can make a fiat or crypto donation of any size to show your support for Season 3. All donations will be split between the W&M organization and our Season 3 contributors.
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Fiat: Click here
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Crypto: Click here
MINT OUR SEASON 3 PASSES
Both new and existing members with crypto wallets can mint our Season 3 NFT passes, which were designed by Ana Carolina and give holders access to a wide range of research and community benefits. All proceeds will be split between our Season 3 contributors and our crypto treasury.
We offer both annual and lifetime NFTs for Season 3. All NFT holders get access to Water & Music's membership benefits; lifetime NFT holders additionally get access to a one-on-one AI-related consultation with a core W&M team member, exclusive merch, and early access to new W&M products in development.
Learn more and mint here. STREAM holders as well as members of several aligned Web3 orgs are on our 24-hour early allowlist — make sure to check the site to see if you're eligible.
Thanks so much for your support! <3