First trickle of generative AI music videos

[Black Shepherd Carnage]

These are surely only the first drops leaking through cracks in a dam due to burst sooner rather than later. Personally, I do not like this stuff at all, but waves and waves of it are undoubtedly on the way. Especially now with Sora released, it's going to be even easier for individuals to go from idea to full length visual... something. I don't exactly watch music videos that much anymore, but will filmed ones survive such a budget squashing alternative? Any other thoughts?

High On Fire - Burning Down:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJ9yIWBb4pY

Guns n Roses - The General:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0_OFC10hTE

Dandy Warhols (ft. Slash) - I'd Like To Help You With Your Problem

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3H2AVm1uD8

[Bürggermeister]

Money talks. It'll overwhelm in no time at all. Videos, like the songs themselves, are now a loss-leader, an expense just to get people interested in your brand so you can sell them branded tat. There'll still be a niche market for those who can afford to spend on producers, directors, editors and such, but, like music, the days of spending big on recording and production, for all but the very wealthy few, are over.

Those with talent and a good work ethic will still be able to use this new tool to create innovative and valid art but, for most, it's a cheap, easy and quick means of getting some sort of visual representation out there.

[Bürggermeister]

Also worth mentioning, we so, so early into the evolution of this technology. The videos you linked are shonky as fuck but give it a year and you'll be amazed how it improves - also as people learn to manipulate the technology to get better results. I've used midjourney for images for about 18 months and the difference in the quality then and now is terrifying. It's genuinely astonishing how much better it is in such a short space of time. It's only going to improve, too.

Soon, you'll be typing in "1985 celtic frost mixed with 1988 metallica" and getting songs and it'll probably take less than a minute to compose and spit an mp3 at you. End times 🤣

[Eoin McLove]

Perhaps we will see a response to it with bands deciding to make their own low budget, highly creative videos. I like that idea.

The HoF doing sounds really good but yeah, not sure about the vid.

[Bürggermeister]

It would be cool to see a human reaction but I reckon finding a platform to host it will be the hard bit. It feels like there's an avalanche of endless, instant content coming in the next few years and I can't see how the youtube or spotify can stop it completely swamping their platforms. There's money to be made if you have enough clicks on enough links, so it's going to be ruthlessly exploited to fuck, no doubt about it. Unlimited amounts of AI generated shite swamping everything, all the time. Music and music videos might have to go back to physical copies and word of mouth for distribution 

[Eoin McLove]

Just keep to the underground, away from all that noise and you're laughing. The usual story 

[The Butcher]

In the comments is exactly how I feel with the GNR one "This is like someone asking for an AI generated song and video by GNR"  Absolutely woeful stuff along with the Dandy Warhols one too - The High On Fire one is the best out of the lot - maybe the song is colouring my judgement a tad but I am interested how dark you can go with the AI stuff so there's that too. Plus I can see some extra video editing/manipulation going on with the HoF video than just pure 100% AI generation. From an IT perspective, the tech is impressive in itself but the end product we are seeing now already feels generic & lifeless. Maybe the likes of Sora once available to the general public and following improvements might change that...pandoras box ain't closing. I'm waiting for the first terrible McDonalds AI generated ad, poor Bill Hicks would implode instantly or perhaps he'd be bemused the marketing boyos are going out of a job

You expect all the lower level / unsigned bands doing it but kinda surprised to see GNR etc do it. Those lyric/visualiser type videos will probably go 100% the AI route.

I don't really watch music videos anymore either so that medium has been devalued along with music for a long time so makes sense that this stuff will start to swamp YouTube. I'm hopeful something decent might come out of it - or as we were talking about social media sites and forums on another topic, maybe there will be some unique inspired creativity that will spawn from this relentless AI tide that's coming down the tracks.

Some bands are not even doing music videos - 20 to 30 second clip for their social media pages are probably yielding just as much of a return than a full-length video that majority of people aren't going to watch all the way anyway.

[The Butcher]

I'm hopeful something decent might come out of it - or as we were talking about social media sites and forums on another topic, maybe there will be some unique inspired creativity that will spawn from this relentless AI tide that's coming down the tracks.

OR extremely pessimistic thinking would be that since AI will be able to understand the essence of any unique creative style and create new stuff with it since this tech could become extremely vicious in that sense which it could eventually kill off most creativity since it's killed off any incentives related to it 

[Mooncat]

It would be cool to see a human reaction but I reckon finding a platform to host it will be the hard bit. It feels like there's an avalanche of endless, instant content coming in the next few years and I can't see how the youtube or spotify can stop it completely swamping their platforms. There's money to be made if you have enough clicks on enough links, so it's going to be ruthlessly exploited to fuck, no doubt about it. Unlimited amounts of AI generated shite swamping everything, all the time. Music and music videos might have to go back to physical copies and word of mouth for distribution 

I think about this a lot. Not even in the context of music, but at the point where AI swamps everything (coming on top of a zeitgeist where everything is already fake as fuck), will we eventually start to see somewhat of a move away from the internet? Or at least a return to much more niche forms of it, like private blogs or forums. It feels like the internet is set to become a version of Homer's website where's it's just a bunch of random, clashing shit. When it's nothing but AI generated soulless bullshit, punctuated by ads endlessly, it's hard to imagine people not just tuning out and starting to find ways to check back into real life. In a society of absolutely untethered, rampant capitalism and exploitation, the internet is a click war in a race to the bottom. Hard to imagine how it evolves into something widespread useful and engaging from there.

With regards to music, I'd love physical media to come back and I do think things will start to go that way for a lot of people, but I can't see it ever coming back the way it was. I'd say the importance of live music is where the future lies to escape AI hell.

[Ollkiller]

The guns n roses one is dire. Other two vids just don't work. Now in a year or two, as has been said, it could be indistinguishable from the real thing so could take the expense out of making a video.

[Eoin McLove]

It might make it more enticing for real bands to create something less soulless, too. Depends on the band and their mindset. If they just want instant gratification and likes then AI all the way. If they want to develop simething deeper and more lasting, or even just to be contrary and elitist, you may see bands revert to a bit of elbow grease.

[Ducky]

I've always thought "anything would be an improvement over lyrics videos", and heyyo I was clearly wrong about that.

[Mooncat]

It might make it more enticing for real bands to create something less soulless, too. Depends on the band and their mindset. If they just want instant gratification and likes then AI all the way. If they want to develop simething deeper and more lasting, or even just to be contrary and elitist, you may see bands revert to a bit of elbow grease.

I'm sure the odd ones will if it really adds to what they're saying with their art, but in an era of obsolete music videos, but where you need something to put on YouTube, it's an alternative to a still image of the album cover or a lyric video (or at least will become a fancier lyric video). Still think you're better off just doing a live video playing along to your track if you want something cheap but reasonably effective. During the pandemic we did short videos of all 4 band members recording themselves playing the video at home, and then just did a video edit where the screen was divided into 4 squares with all 4 members playing simultaneously. As we did more of the videos, the setups and backgrounds and performances of each member would become more elaborate as we started to have fun with it. Super quick easy, free, and generally got way more engagement from people than just a still image.

As mentioned earlier, will be interesting to see how it evolves in the next year or two, or how detailed your commands can get.

[Eoin McLove]

Oh yeah, no doubt it will be the next big thing. It will absolutely take over. But as always I suppose I'm optimistic that there will be a few dissidents taking matters into their own hands and using this as an opportunity for creative flourishing.

[The Butcher]

But what's if AI eventually is able to copy every new creative flourish? As someone said, maybe physical content becomes a genuine alternative again and bands opt to disconnect and limit their availability. Something could unravel there. Of course it only takes one dope to put that online and ruin it.


Also side note: this reminds me of the TED talk with two programmers who mapped out every melody combo in MIDI copyrighted it and released it to the public domain -