An AI-generated country song is a smash hit, what does it mean for the industry?

A song created by artificial intelligence has topped a Billboard country music chart, sparking debate across the music industry as artists expressed concerns about what the historic milestone may mean for the future of the business. The new country song titled “Walk My Walk” by Breaking Rust hit No. 1 on Billboard’s Country Digital Song Sales chart last week, reportedly reaching more than 3 million streams on Spotify in less than a month.

AI sparks debate in music industry

The emergence of the tune is the latest flashpoint in an industry-wide debate, particularly in the country music industry, over how AI could eventually impact artists’ bottom lines and the authenticity of music.

“You know, I think, especially in country music, it’s a little controversial right now, “ Aaron Ryan, an editor at country music site Whiskey Riff, told NPR’s “All Things Considered” after he listened to the beat. “We’ve seen a lot of backlash from artists and fans who just aren’t really ready to accept AI-generated music yet. And I think that’s more so in country music than other genres, which have depended on computers a lot more. Country music has really prided itself on the authenticity in songwriting and in music. And there’s a large segment of country music fans that don’t even like things like Auto-Tune, and so I think asking country fans and artists to accept AI is a big pill to swallow for a lot of people.”

Ryan cited Randy Travis, a country music legend, for using AI to recreate his voice for a song he wrote after a stroke that left him unable to speak. The Whiskey Riff editor said even that drew controversy from country music purists.

Hard to track where AI music comes from

He also said that AI-generated music is difficult to track to a specific creator.

“… It’s kind of hard to determine who’s behind some of these songs,” Ryan said. “Like, with this song, when you go on Spotify, it lists the artist, obviously, and then it lists the songwriter. And so then I tracked that songwriter back to another artist called Defbeatsai, which is obviously another AI-generated artist. But other than that, I kind of hit a dead end. I wasn’t able to find out anything about them. And so it’s kind of a mystery who’s behind it and who’s doing it.”

Survey shows most people can’t distinguish between AI and real artists

Adding to concerns is a new survey published Wednesday showing that 97% of respondents could not distinguish the difference between AI-generated music and music created by actual artists. 

Deezer, which conducted the survey, said that most respondents felt uncomfortable not being able to tell the difference, and nearly two-thirds noted concerns about a potential loss of creativity.

“The survey results clearly show that people care about music and want to know if they’re listening to AI or human-made tracks or not,” said Deezer CEO Alexis Lanternier.

Not the first AI song to see success

Billboard confirmed that Breaking Rust is an AI act and revealed it’s one of at least six to chart in the past few months. 

“Ultimately, this feels like an experiment to see how far something like this can go and what happens in the future and in other disciplines of art as well,” entertainment journalist Kelley L. Carter told ABC News.

“AI artists won’t require things that a real human artist will require, and once companies start considering it and looking at bottom lines, I think that’s when artists should rightly be concerned about it,” she added. 

The latest AI hit comes months after Straight Arrow News’ Kennedy Felton revealed that the band known as The Velvet Sundown, which had amassed more than 1 million listeners, was AI-generated. 

The post An AI-generated country song is a smash hit, what does it mean for the industry? appeared first on Straight Arrow News.

Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief

Ella Greene

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