Music has existed since the start of human civilization and has remained at the top of the hierarchy pyramid of entertainment in modern society. With numerous music streaming services growing in popularity, more and more people now have access to music for an accessible price. Though new music is being produced every day, music from 30, 40 and 50 years ago still remains popular and remains in the industry as a genre of its own. These songs were most likely the top hits of its time and are the reason why it still is accepted under modern music taste. Though have you ever wondered, what makes these popular music “good” and why is it that these songs are this widely known and listened to? Do these songs have something in common that we yet have not noticed? Murray Stassen writes about how modern machine learning technology may be able to predict the songs that will end up gaining popularity.
By developing then incorporating this technology in the music industry, music producers will be able to identify the future potential of their creators. This would make the music market much more competitive and will change the entire system that they are currently moving under. To add on, Amazon is planning to release a technology that allows just this with not only music but with movies, games, books and other forms of entertainment. This technology would mean a great change in the entirety of the entertainment industry. Though we yet have to wait until we would be able to see this technology in that it is still in the process of development. Reading this, it made me think about the moral and ethics behind the development of this technology. As with any other AI and machine learning related technology, I feel that a machine can never get to the same level of complexity as a human being, and therefore jobs like this should be left for human beings.
What I mean is that by leaving machine learning to judge and filter media, it would kill diversity in music. There are songs out there that did not end up gaining popularity that I may like, and even if I like it you may not. This goes the same with the other forms of entertainment I mentioned earlier. With such technology coming into play, I believe that we are slowly taking away from the natural creativity of humans. To maintain the diversity of content in the entertainment industry, we must reconsider the development of such technology.