One theme which has cropped up during my research and a question that I have asked when speaking to the majority of my interviewees is with regards to copyright.

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Naturally, in the digital age and now with Artificial Intelligence generated music becoming increasingly present in songs, questions will be asked as to whether there is an increasing danger of the algorithms producing tracks similar to those already in existence.

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The three main case studies featured in my documentary are all in danger of getting caught out by copyright claims but all their representatives which I spoke to are highly confident that they will not be fighting these claims in the future.

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There are two areas of copyright to explore in the case of the use of A.I. in the music industry, the first being how the companies deal with copyright claims made by major record labels and the second, perhaps the less pressing matter, of how the companies distribute licenses to use tracks created by their A.I. software to its own users.

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Both Amper Music and Jukedeck pride themselves on uniqueness. By this they mean that every single track created by their A.I. and related software is uniquely crafted with no risk of it being used by someone else. As a result, any chance of a track being produced by their algorithm which sounds very similar to a pre-existing track, which could be a hugely popular commercial track, would be completely coincidental.

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As Eliza Legzdina from Jukedeck explained to me: “We are confident that our system is built in a way which it won’t duplicate anything that it’s trained on. However, if there happens to be a remarkable likeability to another pre-existing track, that’s purely due to chance and could never be an exact replica. That’s not how the system works.”

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AI. Music is developing software which will 'shape-change' existing songs. What this means is that when you listen to a song, e.g. a Rihanna track, it could be an acoustic version in the morning and then at the gym it could become a deep house or drum’n’bass track and then it could become a jazz track when you’re winding down in the evening.

 

In order to combat potential copyright claims, Lead Audio DSP Engineer at AI. Music, David Ronan, says they are going down the route of trying to approach and work directly with record labels. “We're currently working with original content that will be licensed on our platform, but are also in talks with major labels with regards to copyright issues", he explained.

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With regards to how the companies deal with internal copyright with tracks created by their own A.I., both Amper and Jukedeck have systems in place. Head of Sales at Amper Music Jaime Gillespie said: “We retain the copyright to every track that’s created but we give you a global royalty free, perpetual use license for the track.”

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Amper is currently in open Beta but it is likely that it will be getting pulled soon according to sources I have spoken to at the company. At this moment in time no tracks can be used for commercial purposes if they have been created during the Beta. Once this is over users will start paying to use the service and obtain the license to use created tracks as a result.

 

Jukedeck has three options, one for individuals, small businesses or non-profits, one for large businesses and then there is also the option to buy the copyright. All the options allow the user to use their uniquely created tracks for commercial or non-commercial purposes on any platform or medium but they would only be able to resell the track or make it available for others to use if they bought the copyright.

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To their credit, having spoken to all three companies about this issue, the plans they have put in place seem very secure. However, as A.I. becomes further embedded and encompassed into tracks and in the music industry itself as a whole over the years to come, it is easy to identify that lines could become blurred and there could be some highly contentious copyright claims in the future.

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