There is a strong possibility in the future that more A.I. artists like Hatsune Miku could become global pop stars. But how will record labels promote them?

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This is just one of many important questions for record labels and music marketers to consider. Other important points include what's the legal difference between human inspiration and machine inspiration? What happens if a song is released with A.I. that has learned to sound like Kanye West's voice and write lyrics like him? Who should get the royalty if a future number one hit is written by a machine? Do people care if the music is created by a human or machine?

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Sebastian Lindroth Ahl has over 10 years of experience working in the music industry, representing record labels and artists. He has worked with many famous artists/bands including Justin Bieber, Zara Larsson, the Rolling Stones, Green Day and Icona Pop.

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In February 2017 he founded Yours In Distress, a record label for music created by artificial intelligence based in Stockholm, Sweden. He views the project as being an R&D department for the music industry where he and his colleagues can experiment with ideas using A.I.

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As we look to the future, record labels will certainly need to adapt to the emergence of A.I. and work out a way to market faceless products when we reach a point where general artificial intelligence becomes a music star.

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Sebastian believes that people will still buy into music which is created by A.I. as long as that piece of music is creative, original and relatable, they will not care who has produced a particular song, machine or not.

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He is also under the impression that it may in fact be easier to market an A.I. than a human. “The more artistic and accepted artists become, then the easier it becomes to market them”, he explained.

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“It’s not only about the music, it’s about relevance. Is the artist and their music relevant, are they important, are they standing for something meaningful and valuable? If you have an artificial artist you can create whatever attributes you want them to have. It might be challenging, but also easier in a way.”

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We could reach a point where human music and music created by artificial intelligence becomes indistinguishable. CEO of Amper Music Drew Silverstein believes that is an inevitability and if that does become the case then this echoes Sebastian’s point that it will be easier to market an A.I. artist. This is because as the listener may not necessarily hear A.I. tracks as being different to any human created tracks and they will not necessarily care when they find out if they like a song that has in fact been made by a machine.

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CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO AUDIO CLIPS FROM THE INTERVIEW WITH SEBASTIAN LINDROTH AHL

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