I have a suspicion that most people’s first encounter with AI-generated music might have been unintentional. It’s buried somewhere between songs on a pre-made playlist, or it comes up on autoplay when you’ve got to the bottom of an album’s track list.
Perhaps the artist has an odd name (what kind of a name is Bleeding Verse or Breaking Rust?). Perhaps you notice something strange about a song’s sound: mechanical, cold, generic, uncanny, production value beyond an artist’s means.
More than one person has told me it made them feel violated.
That’s even if you notice, given a study found that 97 per cent of people were unable to tell the difference between human-created and AI music.
The noticing, or lack thereof, is a crucial detail. Perhaps it’s the most significant tool we have in the pushback against the slop that is made to pass for music. We cannot defeat an enemy we cannot or do not see.
AI music is shallow and one-dimensional. There is no story behind these songs. Oftentimes, when there is no human at the helm (some music, of course, will be fully AI-generated, some only partially), there is no context, no biography. There’s a brick wall instead of a window into someone’s life or their psyche. If you dig deeper into what you hear, this could be an easy giveaway that what you’re listening to is soulless slop. Without this, it might be harder to determine.
We need to stay curious about the music we listen to. Music is at its best when it’s an outlet for connection, and when it incites questions. Who is this person whose voice blasts through my headphones? Where are they in the world? How and why do they write like they do? Searching for the answers in whatever means deepens that connection, whether it’s a cursory Google or, ideally, through reading interviews in music media, or listening to a podcast. There’s a tiny shard of someone’s soul there that they’re sharing with you, even when they don’t know you – engaging with it on a deeper level, even just briefly, might be the most enriching, respectful way of receiving that gift.
There’s an argument to be made that as consumption of music has evolved, our connection to it has eroded. In the days before the Internet, interacting with music in a tactile way was normal; there’s a joy to examining the artwork, reading liner notes, buying physical magazines. It adds an extra dimension to listening; it makes music into an experience.
There’s a reason vinyl has enjoyed such a resurgence (see below!). Music was scarcer because vinyl is more expensive, purchases were careful, with a higher opportunity cost to buying something you might not be fond of. Because you want value for money, you invest more in terms of time, energy and emotion in what you listen to, even if it’s a little dense or weird or asks you to listen multiple times to truly appreciate it.
The vinyl resurgence was the reverse swing of the pendulum in the streaming era, in which the connection to music began to be severed. Albums were broken up into pieces and the song was favoured over the body of work, especially as playlist culture began to abound. Listening could be more passive, with songs divorced from their albums and context, no longer part of a complete journey, or experience. In that context, it means that sometimes, people are unable to recall what exactly they’ve just listened to.
In fact, through this, streaming services have created – incidentally or not – the ideal conditions for AI ‘slopification’. If people don’t notice or care what they listen to, if they’re switched off or running on autopilot, it’s easier to feed them AI-generated music. The picture is mixed when it comes to the general public’s stance: a survey by the music and entertainment insight company Luminate found that a third of people feel indifferent about AI music, but it’s becoming more unpopular especially among Gen Z and Gen Alpha listeners. Nonetheless, there’s enough concern among listeners to arouse the suspicion that AI music wouldn’t be the average music listener’s first choice, whether they engage with their music deeply or not.
The AI bubble is troublingly huge. Self-disclosed AI artists such as Xania Monet (the project of Mississippi poet Telisha "Nikki" Jones, who feeds her words into Gen AI tool Suno) (Suno is also often the most popular music app in the App Store?!), have already landed in the Billboard Charts. Around 44 per cent of music that gets added to the streaming service Deezer is AI-generated. Fortunately, however, there’s comfort to be taken in the fact it makes up less than 3 per cent of streams on the platform.
In the fight against AI music, it means there’s a great deal of leverage. There’s still, however, room to create more. Deepening your engagement with music is beneficial in multiple ways, not just to combat AI slop – a deeper appreciation of any form of art is rewarding full stop. If you ever Google the actors you see on TV trying to remember what else they’ve been in that you’ve seen, bring that to music. Ask questions of it. Explore. Read interviews (and keep music media’s heart beating while you’re at it). Most importantly, stay curious.
On the subject of curiosity, here's the aforementioned growth of vinyl over the last decade visualised both in terms of revenue in the US and numbers sold in the UK.
A Billion-Dollar Comeback Stateside
U.S. vinyl record revenue grew more than four-fold in a decade.
Source: RIAA U.S. Music Revenue Database. Figures represent total U.S. wholesale vinyl record revenues as reported by RIAA member companies.
UK Vinyl: From 2.1m to 7.6m Records Sold Per Year
Vinyl sales in the UK have grown more than three-and-a-half times since 2015.
▾ 2021 saw a brief dip to 5.3 million — the only year-on-year decline in the decade — likely reflecting supply chain disruption during the pandemic recovery.
Source: Official Charts / BPI. Figures represent UK vinyl albums and singles combined. 2020 figure pending full BPI confirmation.
In fact, through this, streaming services have created – incidentally or not – the ideal conditions for AI ‘slopification’. If people don’t notice or care what they listen to, if they’re switched off or running on autopilot, it’s easier to feed them AI-generated music. The picture is mixed when it comes to the general public’s stance: a
DiS pod digs into the Government's inaction on ticket touts
The delight at the news that the government were committing to banning ticket touting seems to have run dry, upon news that the policy was missing from this year's King's Speech. The failure to act - and for Starmer's wobbly premiership to at least score an easy goal - comes at a critical moment, amid festival season approaching and ticket touts targeting this month's Radio 1 Big Weekend in particular. In fact, this failure to act could mean resellers pocket £24million from UK fans this summer.
On the podcast, Sean and Helena Wadia sat down with Kat Cereda from consumer group Which? to explain why they had written an open letter - signed by companies as varied as Live Nation, Ticketmaster and the Music Venue Trust - to Starmer asking him to ensure fans wouldn't be fleeced this summer. They also expand upon what the consequences would be if the policy wasn't in the King's Speech, and whether this means the Government will evade true accountability.
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Meet the poet fighting for justice - and resting as a form of resistance - on Sounds Like Change
Have you checked out the newest addition to the Drowned In Sound Podcast Network? Hosted by social change expert Ariana Alexander-Sefre, Sounds Like Change features conversations with artists, thinkers and changemakers as we unpick how music shapes our personal health and culture and drives wider social change.
The guest on the latest episode is the poet, activist and youth worker Shareefa Energy, who also co-produced the Palestine Action documentary To Kill A War Machine and has had work featured on BBC The One Show, Channel 4 and ITV. Within the episode, she delves into everything from activist burnout, rest as resistance, and why joy might be the most radical act of all.
Scenes from the Met Gala - or rather, the 'Hunger Games Ball'?
The Met Gala represents an annual parade of opulence and luxury, but in a time of such political upheaval, I've noticed the sight of some of the globe's richest people parading their wealth turns people's stomach. This reached a fever pitch at this year's event, which took place yesterday.
The event had already been subjected to a boycott after Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his wife Lauren Sanchez-Bezos became this year's sponsors and co-hosts. Protests erupted across New York, where the event takes place. The city's mayor Zohran Mamdani was also among those boycotting the event, encouraging people to focus on affordability over high-profile fundraising events.
One activist group Everyone Hates Elon (10/10 for the name) even placed almost 300 miniature bottles of fake urine throughout the Met museum, representing allegations by workers at Amazon about not being able to have toilet breaks (or that their toilet breaks are timed).
The event has been nicknamed 'the Hunger Games Ball' for a few years now, owing to similarities between its lavish displays of fashion and the films' Victory Tour, but it now feels more pronounced than ever.
Happy local elections week!
This week on the forecast: drizzle, grey skies, and a big political storm by Friday morning. The local elections are taking place on Thursday 7th May, and if there are elections in your area, this could be a huge chance to express how you truly feel about both local democracy and the Government's overall performance. Get down to your local polling station, even to vote tactically, and make a difference. Not sure who is best placed to stop Farage in your area? Have a gander at StopReformUK.vote