Artificial intelligence
Björn von Abba: Better songs with AI than with musicians
Abba musician Björn Ulvaeus speaks at the innovation conference DLD. photo
© Sebastian Raabe/dpa
Artificial intelligence (AI), which can automatically generate parts of songs, is already being used in music production. Much more will be possible in the future, predicts Björn Ulvaeus.
Abba musician Björn Ulvaeus believes that artificial intelligence can write better music than many humans over time.
Previously, during an appearance at the DLD innovation conference in Munich, he pointed out that up to 100,000 songs and other recordings had come to the Spotify streaming service every day in the past year. “Don’t you think artificial intelligence will be able to write better music than a lot of those 100,000 songs a day?” he later asked. “It will happen. I’m afraid it will happen.”
So far mainly support for the composers
Software that can automatically generate at least parts of songs is already being used in music production. So far, it has primarily been seen as a tool to support composers. Ulvaeus, in a dig at today’s music world, doubted there was enough quality control. “I’ve worked hard to recognize garbage.” When he and his Abba partner Benny Andersson composed songs, “we threw away about 95 percent of what we wrote”. He asked rhetorically how many of the authors of the millions of new songs dealt with “garbage” in a similarly rigorous manner.
Ulvaeus used his DLD appearance to appeal for support for Ukraine. “The brave Ukrainians are fighting for freedom,” he said. And not only for himself, “but also for us”.