{"id":310521,"date":"2025-11-27T15:55:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-27T15:55:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/310521\/"},"modified":"2025-11-27T15:55:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-27T15:55:07","slug":"how-ai-is-rewiring-the-creative-process-for-musicians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/310521\/","title":{"rendered":"How AI is rewiring the creative process for musicians"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

David Usher, musician and founder of Reimagine AI, has spent years exploring how artificial intelligence can support, not replace, creativity in the arts.Supplied<\/p>\n

Ahkilo is curious. Cautious but curious. The Toronto-based multi-platinum hip-hop producer with production credits on tracks for Drake, Roy Woods and Jazz Cartier has been experimenting with artificial intelligence in his creative process.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m in the industry, so I understand where it has negatives for sure,\u201d says Ahkilo, whose real name is Deshaun Levy. \u201cBut sometimes I get on my laptop and I\u2019m not fully sure what to make, you know? I\u2019m just not sure how to approach it.\u201d <\/p>\n

So Ahkilo turns to Staccato, a Canadian AI platform designed to help musicians develop new ideas using machine learning to suggest melodies and musical progressions. Similar to ChatGPT, the platform takes natural prompts such as \u201cgive these chords and bass a mellow, nostalgic feel and add a jazzy element\u201d and reworks the existing MIDI \u2013 a digital file format that encodes notes, timing and instrument data rather than recorded sound \u2013 to generate new musical ideas.<\/p>\n

Ahkilo likens it to a collaborator. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like a friend in the studio, you can ask \u2018what do you think about this?\u2019 \u201d he says. \u201cThen you can rearrange and move stuff around, add your flair to it and it\u2019s yours.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ahkilo is part of a growing wave of Canadian musicians and producers experimenting with AI as a creative partner. From Staccato to Canadian artist Grimes\u2019 open-source \u201cElf.Tech\u201d \u2013 an AI voice software she launched in 2023, inviting artists to clone and remix her voice \u2013 these tools are reshaping how music is written, produced and even performed. It\u2019s blurring the lines between where inspiration ends and automation begins.<\/p>\n

Critics argue that AI risks diluting the human creativity and emotional authenticity that give music its meaning, while flooding music streaming platforms with derivative, machine-made content. Others warn it could undermine artists\u2019 livelihoods and blur long-standing boundaries around authorship, ownership and consent.<\/p>\n

Jeff Lupker founded Staccato out of his own creative process as a musician and researcher. While completing his PhD, he built AI software that helped him overcome writer\u2019s block by suggesting what could come next in a composition based only on his own work and public-domain material. <\/p>\n

After seeing how much faster he could write, and how the tool helped him break creative blocks instead of second-guessing ideas, he realized other musicians could benefit from the same kind of co-writer tool. He then partnered with his brother-in-law, Jason Kowalczyk, to turn the prototype into a company.<\/p>\n

\u201cTraining data has become a dirty word,\u201d Mr. Lupker says, referring to the collection of songs, recordings, or other inputs used to teach an AI system how to recognize patterns and generate music in a similar style. Staccato uses public-domain music to avoid copyright issues. \u201cWe have checks and balances in the backend that if there\u2019s anything copyrighted, we could block it before it ever comes out,\u201d he says. \u201cThat\u2019s another reason we do MIDI over audio \u2013 melodies are going to be the most identifiable thing with MIDI, since you\u2019re going to put all your sound design, flavour and colour to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Multi-platinum producer Ahkilo turns to AI as a way to break creative blocks. He compares it to a studio companion that enhances, rather than replaces, his own artistry.Supplied<\/p>\n

Ahkilo argues AI-generated vocals and sounds have their place as long as they\u2019re used as a creative tool to sketch or demo a particular style, not to replace real performances. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s AI software that allows you to manipulate vocals, so we could send a song that sounds similar to the artist, to give them quick ideas,\u201d Ahkilo says. \u201c(But) Staccato forces you to make the magic. It\u2019s not giving it to you on a platter \u2026 You have to produce the record, to use your taste, your expertise of style and sound choice \u2013 the human aspect of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2016, David Usher, a musician and frontman of rock band Moist and author of Let the Elephants Run: Unlock Your Creativity and Change Everything, worked with Google to develop Lyric AI. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was the first AI agent that could collaborate with humans to write song lyrics,\u201d Mr. Usher says. <\/p>\n

It piqued his interest in AI, inspiring him to launch Reimagine AI, a Montreal-based creative studio that develops interactive and generative art experiences. Usher says the company explores how artificial intelligence can augment \u2013 rather than replace \u2013 human creativity, blending code, music and storytelling in projects for both artists and brands.<\/p>\n

However, Mr. Usher says making music with AI doesn\u2019t interest him. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf we\u2019re using AI to work as a tool within a process, I can see how that could be fun,\u201d he says. \u201cBut when you\u2019re just writing in prompts to get music (that\u2019s) not what I want to do with my music time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Usher says he\u2019s not anti-AI \u2013 he uses it in most facets of his digital life. But it matters what happens between giving an AI song generator a prompt and the final project. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen there is no manipulation or very little manipulation between the entry of the prompt and the output of the product, that\u2019s where it gets really tricky,\u201d he says. \u201cBecause you don\u2019t really have much influence over the product.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jada Watson, a professor of digital humanities in the School of Information Studies at the University of Ottawa, researches the intersection of music and AI. She says ethics are a massive part of the conversation. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re dealing with situations where artists are not able to consent to their life\u2019s work being put in a training data set,\u201d Dr. Watson says.<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s an often overlooked component to the debate about AI\u2019s role in music and the creative process. Dr. Watson says AI can allow individuals with a disability to create in a meaningful way. \u201cWe can\u2019t disregard that reality. These technologies create pathways to creation that were otherwise not there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even still, Ms. Watson says we need to confront the fact that most of the AI tools that are being used, ultimately, have been stolen from somebody else. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere needs to be some kind of way of creating training data that is acquired ethically, responsibly, with creative forms of control, compensation, et cetera, so that individuals who are drawn to the technology are able to create as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Ahkilo, the checks and balances built into Staccato allow him to incorporate AI without feeling like he\u2019s compromising artistic integrity or breaking from his ethics. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s literally just a tool to get started. If the artist likes the melody, we go with what they\u2019re feeling,\u201d he says. \u201c[With AI vocals] artists are not really going to mess around with this stuff, but production-wise, it\u2019s interesting to them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: David Usher, musician and founder of Reimagine AI, has spent years exploring how…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":310522,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[1401,62,276,277,49,48,2922,127839,61],"class_list":["post-310521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-adveditorial","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-noastack","tag-ordid3871303198","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=310521"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310521\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/310522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}