As music generated using artificial intelligence (AI music) becomes more prevalent — originating not only from individuals but also commercial services — the need to study it and its impacts becomes important. How can this material and its sources be meaningfully studied and critically engaged with, especially considering the unprecedented scales possible with generative AI? The paper begins to answer this question by considering AI music along seven aspects: 1) the company providing an AI music service; 2) its founders and employees; 3) the use of the service; 4) the users; 5) the algorithms; 6) the music; and 7) the sustainability. We make our discussion more concrete by considering the contemporary AI music service Boomy. While our investigations are preliminary and focused on a single AI music service, we argue that they open several interesting avenues of exploration for many disciplines and their intersections to help prepare for the coming flood of AI music. This paper asks many more questions than it answers, which is a feature (not a bug) of it advocating for a new domain of study: AI Music Studies.
QC 20241113