With many people loving the use of AI in creative endeavors and many hating it, the way forward would seem to be about transparency. Embracing this idea, Apple Music is set to start using new tags that will make it clear when artificial intelligence has been used in the creation of tracks.
Apple has not made a public statement or announcement about its plans in this area, but the company has written to its partners in the music industry to share details of what it has in mind.
News of Apple’s plan to be more open about the use of AI comes from Music Business Worldwide. The site quotes a newsletter sent to Apple partners which says that the changes are meant to be “concrete first step toward the transparency necessary for the industry to establish best practices and policies that work for everyone”.
Apple is putting the onus on labels to make use of the tags, and the company says:
Proper tagging of content is the first step in giving the music industry the data and tools needed to develop thoughtful policies around AI, and we believe labels and distributors must take an active role in reporting when the content they deliver is created using AI.
Apple regards informing users about the use of AI as being the same as labelling genre and other things. The company is calling the system Transparency Tags and music distributors will be required to use these if they want their music to appear on Apple Music.
Music Business Worldwide says:
The new framework covers four key creative elements: Artwork, Track, Composition, and Music Video. The Artwork tag, applied at the album level, flags when AI has been used to generate a material portion of static or motion graphic artwork.
The Track tag — available at the track level only — is used when AI generates a material portion of a sound recording.
The Composition tag covers AI-generated lyrics or other compositional elements, while the Music Video tag applies to any visual content, whether bundled with albums or delivered as standalone.
Is this a change that you welcome? Are you a music fan who wants to know when artificial intelligence has been used?
