Music from Kylie Minogue, John Farnham, INXS, Midnight Oil, AC/DC, Tones and I, Gotye, Ben Frost, Nick Cave, Tame Impala, Parkway Drive, The Living End and Vance Joy has been found in a database of 12 million songs used to teach artificial intelligence.
This database, listing songs available on YouTube, is used by AI systems to train the ability to recognise and create music. AI relies entirely on these massive databases, trained on almost everything ever placed on the internet. And Australia’s inclusion in these databases is huge. Kylie alone has 182 songs in just one database.
The volume of Australian music used to train AI has caused significant anger in the Australian music industry, driven by the knowledge that “AI for music creators” platforms such as Suno create as much music as Spotify’s entire catalogue every two weeks.
Dobe Newton, co-writer of folk classic I am Australian and member of the Bushwackers, has music included in the databases. He believes there is “no real ethical nor moral underpinning” to current AI music practices.
Jesse Pattinson of The Delta Riggs is concerned about “the opportunity it will take away from real artists”. Screen composer and APRA board member Caitlin Yeo told me she holds “deep concern for the future of music made by humans for humans”.
