Meta launches MusicGen, an AI Music Generator
ScientistsatFacebook’sparentcompanyMetahavecreatedMusicGen,anAI musicgenerator.Thelanguagemodelcantaketextsuggestionssuch,for example,“up-beatacousticfolk”or“Popdancetrackwithcatchymelodies”and turnthemintobrand-new12-secondmusicclips,accordingtoMeta’s FundamentalAIResearch(FAIR)team.
Features of MusicGen
Themodel,whichwasmadeavailableasopensourceovertheweekend,canalso createoriginalmusicusingmelodichints.AccordingtoMeta,ittrainedMusicGen using20,000hoursoflicencedmusic,10,000“high-quality”licencedrecordings,
and390,000instrument-onlyfilesfromShutterStockandPond5,accordingto TechCrunch.TheentryofMetaintothefieldofAImusicgeneratorisaturning pointinthisrapidlyevolvingindustry,asthecompanyisnowtheseconddigital behemothafterGoogletocreateitsownlanguagemodelthatcanproduce originalmusicfromtextinputs.
InJanuary,GoogledebutedMusicLM,an‘experimentalAI’toolthatcancreate high-fidelitymusicfromtextinstructionsandhumming,andthismonthit becameavailabletothegeneralpublic.AccordingtoGoogle,theMusicLMtool’s publicusagelevelrequiresuserstoenterapromptlike“soulfuljazzforadinner party”inorderforittofunction.Fortheuserenteringtheprompt,theMusicLM modelwillthenproducetworenditionsofthedesiredsong.Thenyoumayvote fortheoneyoulikebest,which,accordingtoGoogle,will“helpimprovetheAI model.”
Emphasis on Western-style Music
AccordingtoTheDecoder,MusicGen“performsbetteronbothsubjectiveand objectivemetricsthattesthowwellthemusicmatchesthelyricsandhow plausiblethecompositionis”whencomparedtoothermusicmodelslike Riffusion,Mousai,MusicLM,andNoise2Music.Themusicalcomparisons producedbythevariousmodelsaredisplayedbelow.
GabrielSynnaeve,aFacebookresearchscientist,statedthatMetahasreleased “code(MIT)andpretrainedmodels(CC-BYnon-commercial)publiclyforopen research,reproducibility,andforthebroadermusiccommunitytoinvestigate thistechnology”overtheweekend.
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AnotherstudybyMeta’sresearchersdescribestheeffortputintotrainingthe model.TheydiscusstheethicalissuessurroundingthecreationofgenerativeAI modelsinthestudy.Thestudyteam“firstmadesurethatallthedatawetrained onwascoveredbylegalagreementswiththerightholders,inparticularthrough anagreementwithShutterStock,”accordingtothereport.
Thedatasetweused,whichhasahigherpercentageofwestern-stylemusic,may belackingdiversity,thepapercontinued.Thesimplificationweemployinthis
study,suchastheuseofasinglestagelanguagemodelandfewerauto-regressive processes,can,inouropinion,widentheapplicationstonewdatasets.
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