Roland and Universal Music Group publish ‘Principles for Music Creation with AI’ in new partnership

Roland and Universal Music Group (UMG) have announced a new partnership and published a joint manifesto titled Principles for Music Creation with AI.

The collaboration outlines some core values around how the companies approach AI in music creation. They also added that they plan to “advocate their adoption across the music industry and creative community”.

UMG and Roland have also announced they will partner together beyond these initial principles on a new research and development hub, a collaborative project that will develop methods for identifying music ownership and origins, as well as integrating Roland products into existing UMG-owned music production facilities.

Published as part of Principles for Music Creation with AI, Roland and UMG’s principles include the following:

• We believe music is central to humanity.
• We believe humanity and music are inseparable.
• We believe that technology has long supported human artistic expression, and applied sustainably, AI will amplify human creativity.
• We believe that human-created works must be respected and protected.
• We believe that transparency is essential to responsible and trustworthy AI.
• We believe the perspectives of music artists, songwriters, and other creators must be sought after and respected.
• We are proud to help bring music to life.

You can find out more about the new partnership here.

AI has been a hot topic in the music industry over the past 18 months, with questions around ownership, human creativity, IP and identity rights all being debated. Previous attempts to create consistent guidelines for the creative industry include the Human Artistry Campaign, which was co-founded by the RIAA and of which UMG is also a member. 

The jury is still out on how music makers feel about AI, with a recent survey finding that “over half” of producers wouldn’t reveal they used AI in the music making to fans.