Music culture and AI

The anthology Artificial intelligence of sounds offers a solid overview of the current discussions on artificial intelligence in the music industry. The topics range from technical backgrounds to questions of copyright protection, production and mediation to reflections on developments in art criticism. Most of the articles are easy to read. Highlights include Ludger Brümmer, who makes the statistical principle of Markov chains, which are important for AI, comprehensible, and Michael Schmidt with an overview of physical and digital tools for composition with the help of AI.

Dorte Lena Eilers provides entertaining anecdotes on the historical reactions of the arts pages to early attempts to compose and perform AI-inspired works. The critics' guild caught ChatGPT cold, she writes. The derision she pours on the Linz-based Ars Electronica and the Karlsruhe Center for Art and Media Technology, which "don't have the future under control", could also be directed at the texts in this book.

Although the blurb asks to what extent the "neat separation between work, arrangement, interpretation and performance still fits in with AI-supported musical practice", the topic is dealt with in a conventional feuilleton style that neatly separates these areas. The entire collection of texts thus seems somewhat nostalgic. It should be helpful for the generations that were socialized before the digital revolution. Digital and presumably soon AI natives will use YouTube and ChatGPT to gather their information on AI developments in the music industry. With all the associated risks. And this is probably the main strength of the book: You can trust the information practically without reservation.

Artificial Intelligence of Sounds - Ethics and Aesthetics of Digital Music Culture, edited by Michael Schmidt, 124 p., € 22.00, Edition text + kritik, Munich 2025 , ISBN 978-3-689-30030-2