A pen, paper and a composer who knows how to turn loose words into poetry. It sounds like a rustic process of making music - and it is. Among the most played tracks today, most of them were created in "hit factories" made by many hands of men and women organized in "music camps" or much less simple creative dynamics than before. And as if that wasn't enough, in the midst of it all, is artificial intelligence as well.
Technology companies like MXX invest in programs that help artists compose. The company creates software that allows the user to edit their tracks immediately so that they fit pre-recorded video images. They have created a revolution in the music industry.
There are two forms of artificial intelligence: one that came to replace us and one that came to empower us. We're in the second group. It's not about computers replacing musicians or publishers. Both industry and consumers want to base their musical experiences on their experiences, whether they are in their daily workouts, virtual games, or other activities.
MXX was founded in 2015 by Philip Walsh and Joe Lyske, both specialists in artificial intelligence but with different backgrounds. While Philip comes from a finance background, Joe was a composer. Part of his research for the project included generating a tool capable of creating score for film soundtracks that made half of the participating professional composers believe that the work had been thought of by professional colleagues.
The technology used by the MXX "listens" to songs and creates metadata from the understanding of those files. This data shows where songs can be edited, as well as what parts of them can mean to the human ear, such as "creating tension", "climax" or what would be a chorus or a simple verse. When the user indicates what kind of music they want, the software is able to edit the original track so that the result fits the highlighted briefing. This type of technology is much in demand by advertising agencies, game developers and other market makers.
There are 400,000 hours of videos coming up on YouTube every 60 seconds. There aren't enough professionals in the world who can edit and mix all this content on their own. Melodrive is another company that operates in the field of artificial intelligence and music. Based in Berlin, it uses artificial intelligence to generate soundtracks for augmented reality games and general video games. All in real time and automatically, optimizing the player experience and giving them a soundtrack that matches their pace of play.
Artificial intelligence and music have a long growth path ahead. Many startups have been attracting investment in recent years and there is also a direction in that direction for companies like Sony, Google, Spotify, IBM and Facebook. This should come as no surprise. Artificial intelligence will dominate human life, sooner or later. Hopefully this article useful for you. Thank you for reading.