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+ DEFINITIONS for MUSICIANS

This document provides clarity on terms in the standard and their meanings. It also helps artists understand the motivation behind the standard.

FOREWORD

The most crucial definition is musical work–The selection and arrangement of essential musical elements; musical compositions that can be sung, put to words, played, or sampled. These components can be combined and layered in varying intensities over time within a rhythm, making music creation such a complex and amazing art form.

 

When a human selects or arranges notes, sounds, and beats, they are the essential composer of that work. However, if something else, like a machine, selects or arranges them, it is the essential composer.

We fully support musicians who use AI in ways not covered by the standard or who find it challenging to agree to it for various reasons.

For instance, some musicians use AI to generate intentionally curated, composited, and recombined tracks to form remarkable and innovative tracks, which may not fit well with the VerifiedHuman label. However, they might find it useful for other works created using traditional methods. 

In this way, we aim to be helpful and encouraging to all musicians everywhere. 

HUMAN-AI COLLABORATION LEVELS
 

VerifiedHuman™ uses a 5-point spectrum to indicate the level of human versus AI involvement in musical work. All VerifiedHuman™ labeled work must meet or exceed Level 3 (VH3).

 

VH5 - >99% Human-Composed (<1% AI-Generated)

  • Music composed entirely without AI assistance

  • Includes unique human musical perspectives and creativity

  • No traces of automated processes

  •  

VH4 - Mostly Human-Composed

  • Predominantly human-composed with minimal AI assistance

  • May use AI for basic tasks (pitch correction, timing correction, noise reduction, track levels, normalization, etc.)

  • Human creativity dominates

 

VH3 - Balanced Human-AI Collaboration

  • Equal partnership between human and AI

  • Harmonious integration of human and AI-generated content

  • Significant human creative input maintained

 

Work below VH3 is not eligible for the VerifiedHuman™ label.
 

USING CONTENT OF UNKNOWN ORIGIN (AIU)

Sometimes, musicians use sounds, tracks, loops, rhythms, and samples where the source material is of unknown origin. In other cases, the musician may suspect that AI has generated some of the material they are using, but the origin, time, place, purpose, etc., are unknown or uncertain. In such cases, we encourage musicians to use the VerifiedHuman label with an AIU (AI–Unknown) tag: VerifiedHuman AIU. We leave it to the musician's discretion when the tag is helpful.
 

In the spirit of this standard, the question remains: Did you compose it, or did AI compose it? We believe the musician's intention to create and present musical work as their own should always remain with them. Therefore, we urge all musicians to follow the Five-Note/Five-Beat Principle and iterate their work in the creative process to ensure that their final product is unique and distinctive.

DEFINITIONS

Here are definitions of words and ideas used in the Standard for Musicians.

Standard

A specific definition of human behavior

Musician

The composer (or player/performer) of musical work

Represent

Present, share, or show work with others

Musical work

The selection and arrangement of essential musical elements; musical compositions that can be sung, put to words, played, or sampled

Team

A group of people working together

Intellectual property

A work or invention that is the result of creativity, such as a manuscript or a design, to which one has rights and for which one may apply for a patent, copyright, trademark, etc.***

 

Essential

The fundamental elements or characteristics of something

Essential musical elements

Notes, sounds, and beats–can be heard as songs, melodies, rhythms, or parts

Essentially composed

When a musician selects or arranges essential musical elements in a meaningful way to create musical work (see Essential Composition below)

Human

Noun: a human person; adjective: from a human person

Generative AI

Shorter definition–machines that create novel (new) content | Longer definition–generative artificial intelligence (AI) describes algorithms (such as ChatGPT) that can be used to create new content, including audio, code, images, text, simulations, and videos.****

Machine learning

"Systems that act like humans"*

Other generative processes

Other processes involving AI or machine learning to create novel (new) content

OTHER DEFINITIONS

Other definitions of words and ideas related to the Standard for Musicians are here.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

A field that combines computer science and robust datasets to enable problem-solving. It also encompasses machine learning and deep learning sub-fields, frequently mentioned in conjunction with artificial intelligence. These disciplines comprise AI algorithms that seek to create expert systems that make predictions or classifications based on input data.*

AI-Affective Music Generation (AI-AMG)

An interdisciplinary field that requires knowledge of artificial intelligence, music theory, and principles of music composition, as well as the fundamentals of affective science.*****

AI language modeling (or Large Language Modeling (LLM))

Systems that can generate natural language texts from large amounts of data. Large language models use deep neural networks, such as transformers, to learn from billions or trillions of words and to produce texts on any topic or domain. Large language models can also perform various natural language tasks, such as classification, summarization, translation, generation, and dialogue. Some examples of large language models are GPT-3, BERT, XLNet, and EleutherAI.**.

Beat

A repeating measure of time

Data-based composition

Generating new musical compositions based on existing datasets of music using AI learning and training

Emotion Evaluation/Emotion Targeting

Training AI systems to create affective music to inspire a particular emotional response in humans

Interpretation

A way of understanding or explaining the meaning of something

Note

A musical sound representing a pitch in a duration of time

Personal, original idea

An idea representing a specific human being's unique insight or experience in the world

Recording

Capturing sounds that can be played back

Rule-based composition (AI)

Generating music with AI by defining theory-based parameters such as specific progressions of chords, lines of melody, or rhythms within which AI can create musical work

Rough

Refers to work in unfinished draft form

Scratch or scratch track

Refers to making a rough track or rough version of a sequence to use as a working reference

Score

A larger collection of music arranged thematically

Sequence

A part of a song or musical track containing notes, beats, or other sounds

Song

A short poem or series of words set to music and meant to be sung or recited.

Sound

Audible vibrations

Values

Principles or standards of behavior


Values-based

Relating to principles, values, or ethical assumptions that motivate human behavior​

INTERPRETATION

SOURCE

*IBM: What is artificial intelligence (AI)?

***Oxford Languages

****McKinsey & Co. | What is generative AI?

Here are commonly accepted ways AI assists in composing and enjoying music.

 

Curation through popular streaming services like Apple Music, Spotify, and Pandora uses AI to create personalized playlists based on users' preferences. 

 

Algorithmic technology is used to add a vast range of effects to recordings and live performances, making digital effects an integral part of musical production.

 

AI-assisted mixing and mastering is a relatively new concept. By leveraging the power of AI, music can be made more powerful and enjoyable.

 

More and more musicians are using composition software to explore innovative forms of cross-genre music, which is becoming more widely accepted.

 

Using AI to generate writing prompts for songwriters is a commonly accepted practice that helps them explore new ideas and create music that resonates with their audience.

COMMON USES

Numerous questions, similar to the one below, call for musicians to rely on their independent interpretation and be guided by their personal values.

Q: Can I use AI-generated music as a starting point for my own version of the song?

As a musician, it's important to exercise caution when leveraging generative AI in music composition. You should determine the extent to which you want to rely on the AI-generated music and how much you want to modify it to create your unique version. It can be challenging to differentiate between your own creativity and the algorithmic power of AI.

SOURCE

​*IBM | What is artificial intelligence (AI)?

**Microsoft | Learn | LLM

***Oxford Languages

****McKinsey & Co. | What is generative AI?

*****AI-Based Affective Music Generation Systems: A Review of Methods, and Challenges | ADYASHA DASH and KAT R. AGRES

THE FIVE-NOTE PRINCIPLE

When it comes to composing music, simply copying and pasting entire musical sequences is not true composing. It means that you are replicating a composition that has already been created by someone or something else. As a general rule, if AI selects five (5) specific notes and puts them together into a sequence, then the AI has written that sequence. The same principle applies to unique collections of percussion. Beats are merely marks in time, but if AI selects five distinctive percussive sounds and puts them together in a sequence, then AI has written that rhythm. Five is not a magical number, but it's considered enough to be a considerable sequence. The main idea behind this principle is to ask the question, "Did you create it or did AI?" This pertains to all compositions, no matter how many notes, sounds, or beats are involved.

ESSENTIAL COMPOSITION

Musicians create compositions by arranging notes, sounds, and beats, forming melodies, rhythms, and songs.

 

The fundamental question that establishes the essential composition of a musical work is Who or what composed it. This applies to entire scores, songs, or even smaller sequences of musical work.

RATIONALE

Music creation is based on two primary elements – the note and the beat.

Compositions come to life when notes and beats are arranged in a way that produces audible music. This can be achieved through singing, playing an instrument, sampling, or layering sounds.

ASSUMPTION OF HUMAN COMPOSITION

If a human puts notes and beats together to produce music that can be experienced meaningfully, then that human is the essential composer.

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