In this article, I want to help guide you on how to develop an AI music artist using the same techniques as a music producer and an A&R executive. A&R means artist and repertoire, and their job is to develop the artist to be sellable to the market.

AI-generated music has evolved and less than 24 hours ago of this article, ElevenLabs released their Eleven Music engine that is way more superior and better than the other cheesy music generators on the market.

In this article, we will discuss how to build an AI music catalog with Eleven Music, use other AI tools to create an artist that can help generate revenue for you.

I have already created an example of a music artist that is an AI-generated sistas who play the flute – you must understand why I did this strategically to help you maximize the opportunity of this new paradigm.

Creating an AI Music Artist

Because AI music can be created by anybody, you must focus on a strategy having your AI artist stand out and can scale up. The best strategy for an AI artist is to focus on a musical instrument instead of being a vocalist. The reason why is because AI vocals are not good or distinctive versus a human singing voice.

However, you can focus on an artist performing with an instrument and have an artist similar Kenny G, Carlos Santana, or Regina Carter. This kind of AI artist become versatile and can perform multiple genres around the world and hear their distinctive sound in all of those genres.

For our example, we are using an AI-generated African American flute player. In the demo, you can hear the flute among the music generated – that is her signature mark.  That is how people recognize her style.  Notice she is versatile and can have photos in urban areas, in a flower bed, in a concert hall, or just at home.

To develop an AI artist first create what is known as a consistent character that is derived from a model reference. This gives your AI artist the same look, then you can use them in almost any AI “photo-shoot” or AI-video snippet.

Some people want to give a fantasy character to their AI music artist, but I think the best thing is to have a realistic face to compete with real people and resemble real music artists for a global audience.

In our example, we have a music artist that represents a free-based sista who plays her flute and works with all styles of music around the world. She represents the freedom and peace many of her listening audience can relate to.

Please note we are using Flux.1 Krea that is a new level of GenAI that can create more “rough” and realistic photos that appear more realistic and human. You can go to their online platform and create some free images for your artist photo and album cover.

Creating AI Music

This is our cheat sheet I want you to study to produce the music for our music artist. I do have some music production skills. I want you as a Black media person to stay away from AI-based electronic synth and focus more on acoustic and analog sound from the SalSoul Records to the Philly sound to the NeoSoul sound.

You will see that I’m using a “flute lead” that is the AI artist performing. Notice I’m using 4/4 and using the bpm of 118.  Be mindful that bpm goes with heart rate as a guide. If you want relaxation music and chill ambience, that’s your average heart rate of 70-90bpm which is chillhop and chillout music range. R&B hits get about 100 to 114bpm, and danceable is 115bpm to 128bpm, and it get wild with drum and bass and dubstep around 132 to 172bpm.

In my setup you will see a bass groove and something I used a plucked bass. I use an electric piano and can also use a regular piano as well. Notice I removed vocals and lyrics. I do use them from time to time but with ElevenLabs, I recommend you create lyrics on a common theme of your artist like living free, moving on, and rising up.

With the instruments I have chosen, our artist can play ambient jazz, chill-hop, trip-hop, drum and bass, smooth house, funk jazz, relaxation music. I have already created genres such as Middle Eastern and Asian style music with her flute playing to target those regions, making my artist a global versatile music style heard around the world.

Distributing AI Music

To distribute your music, the goal is to focus on production style and genre style. By using an instrument first AI artist, you can be globally diverse on the style of music. The flute is a universal music that can perform on African music, European music, Latin American music, Asian music. This allows you to have an instant global reach with your artist.

To create a distributable asset, we strongly recommend you focus on instrumental and ambiance. They call this style “world music” and this allow your AI artist music to be played at third spaces like chillhop cafes, hotel lobbies, mediation rooms at the spa, music soundtrack, or soundscape to videos on YouTube.

To generate revenue, we recommend giving your AI artist a social media presence and releasing tracks and albums very frequently to create brand domination globally, very fast scaling. I can only tell you with us at Toshikiso Hubs, we would be happy to distribute your works at our hubs for digital sale and for streaming at our chillhop cafes and we will pay royalties through our settlement system.

Afroasiatic Thailanta Strategy

With all this paradigm shifting with AI media technology – you are the new Black media. You can move with the rest of us Afroasiatic and be at a coffee shop in Ueno, Tokyo working on creating an AI music label with virtual artists that you promote around the world.

There is massive opportunity here to creating exclusive music for a venue for a fee, license some works you created for a sponsorship, create DJ tracks of some of the songs (just strip down to bass kick, and flute lead, with pulsating arpeggio synth pads), convert to different language and global music styles and promote on social media.

Create live streaming of your artist on a YouTube channel where people can donate money. Create photos of your artists in different scenes and poses to gain subscribers and a following and sell exclusive streaming access using a token-based revenue model.

You are doing this all up in Japan and Thailand and Bali and Vietnam, in a place of peace and focus, working on your new place in the 21st century. You really got this, and I hope to hear about your AI artist, their personality, and their music catalog soon.