Dutch Artists Express Concerns Over AI Music Tools: DeWolff Vocalist Worries About Theft of Artistic Elements

Dutch artists express themselves in the AD their concerns about the theft of all kinds of artistic elements such as melody, style and voice by tools such as Udio, apps that make music based on artificial intelligence (AI).

Tools like Udio use existing music to train the algorithm to produce music. “” Make a song in style Zoutelande van Bløf le Maan vibe’, you can put that in and a song will come out,” said Pablo van de Poel, a musician in the rock band DeWolff.

“Music is my life and the fact that AI can take something like this away really worries me. At the same time, we play live mostly and that will never go away so soon.”

Assistant professor Emilie Rademakers understands where artists’ fears come from. “The success of these types of programs largely depends on their accessibility: you only need to enter a few keywords to create a tune.”

“Many artists can continue to do their work by doing commercial work from time to time, such as making sweaters for advertisements,” says Van de Poel. “With the advent of AI, it’s not that’s happening anymore.”

Dawn Brothers band members are concerned about the rise of AI:

Caspar de Kiefte of Kunstenbond, the union for cultural workers and artists, recognizes the painting by Van de Poel. “Udio has only been around for a short time. At the moment, artificial music is mostly used for background music in cafes and shops. But AI will make the sector much smaller, because it will be much harder to make a living. as an artist.”

Transparency also plays a role, according to Rademakers. “The apps say they use legally protected music, but it is not known what data sources they use and how they process the music.

According to BumaStemra, the organization that manages the copyrights of around 38,000 Dutch music makers, permission from the rights holder is required to use existing music. But the group has not yet received any complaints about the devices.

But Rademakers doesn’t expect artificial music to replace artwork. “Joost Klein is appreciated because he brings together different emotions in an innovative way. By doing this, he touches what is going on in people’s minds. He cannot app will never do that.”

The European AI Act is expected to be officially published in May, after which the rules will come into effect in stages. The law should lead to clearer rules regarding artificial intelligence.