Technology has been instrumental in changing music, literally. Such a statement shouldn’t be remotely controversial, yet even uttering these words brings out all the Luddites engaged in a battle against reality. What else explains all those people who’d have you believe vinyl is better than digital?

Another area where reality and perception don’t match is artificial intelligence. It’s already in widespread use within the music industry and has been for years – for example, automated song mastering software has been around for a while already. Yet in a recent poll, 52% of musicians wouldn’t admit to using AI tools – whilst another survey reveals a majority think restrictions should be imposed on the technology.

So what exactly are musicians using? The Pirate music studio decided to do what no one else apparently has – they asked the question to a thousand musicians, and those musicians told them. The results revealed that 30% of those using AI technology did so to help with songwriting – meaning there could be sections or even entire songs whose lyrics are now being written by a computer.

ChatGPT was the AI tool most commonly used – mostly for lyric writing, but also to come up with rhymes and variations for musicians with a bad case of writer’s block. Other bits of AI tech on the list included Ozone 11, BandLab Songstarter, and Google’s own Magenta Studio.

In the meantime, just for some Boxing Day fun – we’re all a bit merry in the office today – we decided to try it ourselves. We asked ChatGPT to write a song about Ears To The House – and this is an excerpt of what it churned out…

We’re undecided…