Arts & Culture

Q&A: Will AI usurp the desire for human-made music?

Artificial intelligence is everywhere in the music business, whether you recognize it or not. It’s there when you stream – every Spotify recommendation is the product of AI-driven algorithms – and composes music based on its knowledge of previously published works. It’s even breathed new life into long-gone voices of performers like John Lennon.

At the same time, AI music raises concerns about copyright infringement and has fueled a debate about what can be authentically called “music.”

Ed Freeman, Skyler Clark-Hamel and bandmates perform songs outside under a canopy.

Blues Jam, the Darden School’s own rock ’n’ roll band comprising faculty, staff and alumni, plays a recent gig with professor Ed Freeman on the keyboard, far left, and doctoral student Skyler Clark-Hamel, center, on bass and vocals. (Photo by McGregor McCance, Darden School of Business)

For perspective, UVA Today checked in with two musicians at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business.

Ed Freeman, University Professor and Olsson Professor of Business Administration, is a business ethics expert who also composes, arranges and performs music. Some 20 years ago, he founded Blues Jam, a rock and blues band that includes Darden School faculty, students, staff and alumni.

Skyler Clark-Hamel, who earned his master’s degree from the Darden School in 2023 and is a current doctoral degree candidate, holds a music degree from the Berklee College of Music. Before joining academia, he worked as a touring and recording artist, entrepreneur and agent in Nashville. Clark-Hamel plays guitar and is a lead singer in Blues Jam.

Here are their reactions to three provocative thoughts on AI’s influence on music.

Q. Will AI destroy music as we know it?

Freeman: AI will undoubtedly change music, but it won’t destroy it. Making music is part of who we are as humans. There is always room for great music, no matter where it comes from.

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Clark-Hamel: AI will not destroy music as we know it. It will be used as a tool to create, much like the drum machine didn’t destroy opportunities for drummers and instead opened new avenues for creativity. It is difficult to find a top tour or album today where a drummer doesn’t utilize samples, pads, triggers or loops of some kind.

Q. Will AI create new opportunities for musicians?

Freeman: Most technologies have created opportunities, at least for some. I don’t know what they will look like, and I don’t know what other skills musicians will need. We have to make AI work for us, helping us to make better music.

Clark-Hamel: Some new opportunities will inevitably arise, but AI will also destroy a lot of the training ground that up-and-coming musicians have traditionally relied on. While AI might lower the barrier to entry for some musicians, reducing the required skill, it will also allow many people to be more creative. It is too soon to tell whether the new opportunities that AI creates will be better or worse.

Skyler Clark-Hamel, left, and Ed Freeman, right.

Darden School doctoral student Skyler Clark-Hamel, left, and professor Ed Freeman say AI will impact human musicians in positive and negative ways, but will not replace human live performance. (Contributed photos)

Q. Will AI affect the draw of live performances?

Freeman: Drum boxes and multi-instrument recordings on keyboards, etc., were not great for ensembles, but they did create some opportunities. If AI music is not great, then more human opportunities will exist. Overall, I am hopeful.

Clark-Hamel: Listeners will crave the real, the authentic, while also enjoying immersive, previously impossible-to-execute performances. Both of these things will be available in live performance. But the only way to really experience “the real” and know that it is real is to see it in person.

Not only will AI lead to a new era of flourishing for live performances, but people will crave performances that are untouched by AI as much as they enjoy performances that are enhanced by it.