AI Song Contest - Lessons on how to create in collaboration with AI

Vincent Koops

The AI Song Contest hosted by VPRO was Eurovision with a twist, where teams had to use AI for some aspect of their song entry. Thirteen teams from eight different countries competed, bringing together 61 musicians, developers, and scientists. As judges on the AI Panel, we came up with survey questions to guide teams in documenting how they incorporated AI into their songwriting process. We then carried out a qualitative analysis to better understand what musicians and developers needed when co-creating a song with AI, the fundamental challenges they faced, and the creative strategies they came up with to overcome some of these challenges.