AI Challenges in the Era of Music Streaming: an analysis from the perspective of creative artists and performers

Abstract

This paper addresses the challenges posed by Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the music industry from the perspective of the sustainability of the business models involved in the creation of value in streaming platforms, and considering the perception of composers-lyricists and performers, understood as key players in the value creation process. To this end, the authors resorted to a state-of-the-art delimitation based on recent literature and updated reports, and to a semi-structured questionnaire applied to a qualitatively representative international sample of creators and performers, both professional and amateur. This approach, albeit preliminary, shows that AI contributes to intensifying some of the problems highlighted in the consolidation of the streaming platform model, in particular with regard to its two major sustainability challenges: the shift of value from creation to technology and the increasing homogeneity of its inventory, with impacts in cultural diversity and creativity. It also highlights that generative AI concentrates its impact on the creation and consumption stages of the value chain, affecting the scope and possibilities of the value creation of musicians, composers, and performers and of music users’ experience. The perception of creators combines uncertainty and pessimism, characterising technological innovations as accelerating the dysfunctions of the streaming platform model and resulting in devaluation of the artistic profession and creative activity. Possible solutions include the regulation of AI application frameworks, and the establishment of procedures or indicators to facilitate users’ ability to choose between “artificial creativity” and “natural creativity”.