It hasn’t been all that long since CDs were still the primary way consumers purchased their music. 2014, in fact, was the first year that digital music revenue outpaced that of it’s compact disk counterpart. Before and since, the digital music industry has been evolving by the minute in all parts of the industry from recording to music sales, and even to ticket sales. Utilizing data wrangling and other means of artificial intelligence, music marketing has also become a much more granular activity as well. Here are five ways that AI is affecting musicians, venues, consumers, and pretty much every other part of the music industry.

Music to Your Ears
One aspect of artificial intelligence is machine learning, which means computers have the ability to collect and process data and determine future outcomes without ever being programmed to reach those outcomes. When it comes to live streams, this machine learning takes cues from users depending on which songs and artists they enjoy the most, and send them new music based on that data. Though it’s not always spot on, users can give further feedback regarding what was marketed to them, and the machine learning continues and the musical niches become smaller and smaller. When it comes to live streaming, machine learning literally brings new music to your ears without any outside influences aside from your own tastes.

Learn
Learning music has also become easier thanks to artificial intelligence, and many applications for tablets and phones are able to teach you new techniques and improve current ones based on feedback and general levels of efficiency with a given instrument. Yousician is a popular program for many instruments, and Simply Piano is a nice free example for aspiring pianists to use.

For artists who are already established in their instrument, learning new songs is now easier thanks to AI as well. An MIT program called PixelPlayer is able to recognize each instrument in a given song and allow listeners to raise and lower the volume levels of each instrument to isolate the sound and practice along with it.

Be Heard
In line with the first section, musicians hoping to market their tunes to appropriate audiences have it easier than ever thanks to AI. Using data tools and strategies, music businesses and musicians can analyze similar data sets to the ones streaming services use, to determine who to market their tunes to. If your music sounds like Tom Petty, for instance, you can utilize data to determine what age groups and locales like Tom the most, and send your music their way.

Hitmakers 2.0
Over the course of the history of music, there have been many behind-the-scenes hitmakers who write and produce music but don’t ever have their names up in lights. Do you recognize the name Max Martin, for instance? Since 1999 he has written a whopping 23 songs that topped the billboard charts, and he produced the vast majority of them. For him, the data he used to devise those songs was simply in his head, but as artificial intelligence continues to allow for more collection regarding consumers’ tastes, the ability to write a song that checks all the boxes of popular trends can give the every day musician the same knowledge that people like Max have received by ear.

Mood Music
This one is still in development, but innovations are on the rise that can measure a person’s stress levels (heart rate, breathing frequency, etc.) and determine what kind of music they should listen to in order to find a mental medium. Mood music used to mean music that made you feel a certain way, but thanks to AI, mood music is becoming music formulated specifically to make you feel a certain way. Exciting stuff!