How singer used AI to compose music

dubai — Popular YouTube singer Taryn Southern took the AI Everything Summit audience by surprise with her live performance and demonstration of a song from her first AI-produced solo album.

Southern said that being a YouTuber, she was always interested in looking for different tools to help make her job easier. “A couple of years ago, I read about how AI could compose music and that got me curious because being a YouTuber, one does not have a lot of time or money to spare. Having some kind of a tool to make the process easier, I started playing with AI tools and within a week, I realised I could make an album using these tools.”

Southern decided to push the limits of AI composition, putting the sound of her new album into the hands of four AI programmes: Amper Music, IBM’s Watson Beat, Google’s Magenta and AIVA. Aptly titled I Am AI, the album was the first of its kind to be fully composed with and totally produced by AI.

Having a background of coding, Southern said it was easier for her to grasp the concept and decide to augment her abilities using AI.

“I used AI to substitute skill sets

I use AI as a collaborative tool and the difference is that AI never gets tired and works on my schedule.”

Taryn Southern, YouTube singer

that I don’t have. For example, I cannot play a musical instrument but I can write melodies and lyrics. So I take the help of AI to play the instrument for me. I use AI as a collaborative tool and a partner, and the difference is that AI never gets tired and works on my schedule.

“AI helped point out a lot of the biases I had in my style preferences as a musician. I had released 60 singles prior to this AI process and I realised I certainly have a style heavily oriented towards pop music. AI introduced me to other types of music.”

Southern demonstrate how she creates music using AI, before belting out a foot-tapping number, with AI music in the background.