Imagine taking your favorite song or a song on your favorite playlist and using it to create an entirely different song from it from the tap of your fingertips. Well….thanks to advanced AI, that is more than possible. Various forms of AI generated music or “synthetic media”, Amadeus Code being one of them, have emerged within the past few years and are changing the creative landscape as we know it. In short, Amadeus Code is an artificial intelligence-powered songwriting assistant that can create chord changes, basslines, and beats based on user preferences and a library of popular tracks. However, Amadeus Code can serve multiple purposes in the music synthesis process, which raises some interesting questions to be explored.

Why is this considered synthetic media?

From my understanding, synthetic media (also known as AI-generated media, generative media, and personalized media) refers to any media created or modified by algorithmic means, especially through the use of artificial intelligence algorithms. With that being said, when we think about media we usually assume the news or entertainment but other forms of media are various forms of art. One signficant art form that is indeed media is music and platforms like Amadeus Code are gradually changing the way music is made. Amadeus Code uses depth-first AI algorithms to give the songwriting assistant its functionality. These algorithms then create songs from the combination of presets and chord progressions (melodies) from popular songs that may come across in our library.

How was Amadeus code made?

Although there is a lack of resources that thoroughly explain how Amadeus Code came to be, on a surface level, Amadeus Code was founded in 2012 by a group of music producers who wanted to enhance the performance of music professionals using AI. Today, Amadeus Code is not only supporting music professionals, but is also generating functional music (fMusic™) based upon principles of science. In addition, they have a global music distribution platform that integrates other interconnected AI systems that are used in the global platform. Most recently, in 2020, they released Evoke Music, a searchable music-generating platform. Evoke Music has made it easy for anyone in the world to obtain hyper-casual music with top-end functionality as thousands of songs are generated every month. Another integration that was made by the creators of the platofrm was a project named “Model A.” Released as an iOS app in 2019, the platform showcased the cutting-edge unlimited song generation capacity of Amadeus Code’s AI system. Model A dramatically improved the productivity of modern musicians with its multi-genre versatility and a phenomenal song generation speed of 4 seconds per song. Check out this video below:

Possible ethical ramifications

When we think about ethical ramifications when it comes to AI, we usually think facial recognition or other HCI related applications that have embedded biases. With the music generation process, I believe it may be different in how we think about the ethics of a platofrm such as Amadeus. For one, how does the copyrighting of music come into play when thinking about Amadeus generates songs in the first place? The assistant is essentially taking an already established song to create what some might say a variation of that particular song. “Are AI platforms such as Amadeus going through the proper protocols to use copyrighted music” and “what are the laws that establish how songs can be released through” are two questions that come to mind surrounding this potential issue. On the other hand, a far lesser ethical ramification is music expression in itself. Being that music has always been made solely through human expression, new forms of synthetic music challenge that idea. With just a few clicks or tap, a song can be generated which serves as the antithesis to former ways of music creation. Some may say music is a soul expression, and if we follow that notion, AI serves to provide a “souless” experience. Nevertheless, Amadeus Code gives more people the opportunity to take full benefit of applying music in numerous ways and I can’t wait to see what’s next.