Could your next favourite song be written by Artificial Intelligence?

Circuitboards for brains (Image credit: GraphicaArtis \/ Getty Images)

Scientists at the Sony Computer Science Laboratory in Paris have released Daddy’s Car, a song written by Artificial Intelligence in the style of The Beatles. To our ears it sounds more like a power pop band influenced by The Beatles than The Beatles themselves, but it’s certainly very melodic, with key changes and harmony vocals that conjure up the sprit of Abbey Road if not the precise sound.

The scientists started by creating a database of 13,000 leadsheets (a form of musical notation that lists the basic elements of popular songs). Then they created a new leadsheet in the style of The Beatles using a tool called Flow Composer, a piece of software that allows users to create new tunes based on previously logged melodies.

Finally, created a backing tracking using The Rechord Player, a tool for generating tracks to accompany improvised music. The process was oversdeen by French composer Benoît Carré, who also arranged and produced the song, and wrote the lyrics. You can hear the song below.

While the software cannot currently create music by itself, it can help musicians create new music. So perhaps we won’t have to wait eight years between Metallica albums.

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