ABBA legend reveals his one rule for making AI music at SXSW London event
ABBA star Björn Ulvaeus, who has leaned into music’s technological revolution through his ABBA Voyage hologram show and his campaigning work around music and AI, has said that while he uses AI to make music, it’s essential to rely on a sense of “inner direction” to make sure the music is high quality.
It comes amid the songwriter’s criticism of AI-generated music. Ulvaeus, who has been working with the International Confederation of Songwriters and Composers to represent musicians and creators’ rights, is raising awareness around the fact that AI-generated music is exploiting music written by humans, who don’t get a cut in the paycheck from songs written and produced by computers.
Speaking at the SXSW London event in Shoreditch he insisted that human talent and an instinctual sense for quality must be paired with AI tools. “You need inner direction that says ‘this is good, I’ll keep this, that is garbage, I won’t keep that,” Ulvaeus said.
ABBA star Björn Ulvaeus: songwriting is hard work. AI cannot do it
“I think you have to have it. If there’s a talent in songwriting that’s it, the rest is hard work.”
“It’s unimaginable that you can bounce back and forth with a machine that can give you ideas to go in different directions, and it is really going back and forth,” he said, adding that AI is “very bad at lyrics, but it can give you ideas.
“It is like having another songwriter in the room with a huge reference frame. It is really an extension of your mind. You have access to things that you didn’t think of before.”
Ulvaeus was instrumental in bringing the ABBA Voyage spectacular to London, which has been hugely profitable. It uses holograms to bring the quintet that originated in the 1970s to life every evening for a live audience.
Reflecting on his own experiences of making hit singles with ABBA, he said the band “learned to throw away 95 percent” of their ideas. “I hear people say they’ve written 200 songs this year and I don’t think they have,” he added. “Out of that 200 maybe keep ten percent. We could go weeks, full time office hours and have very little to show for it.”
Speaking of the commitment needed to create high quality output in the age of AI, he said: “A lot of people walk away and say ‘it’s good enough,’ but it isn’t. You have to go that extra few inches.”
The SXSW festival originated in Austin, Texas, in 1987 as a festival of ideas. The London event, in its inaugural year, features hundreds of talks, workshops, masterclasses and live music and cinema events with thought leaders, entrepreneurs, and creatives. It takes place throughout Shoreditch until 7 June. Sadiq Khan opened the event, which originated in Texas in 1987, by pitching London as an international AI hub.