Computer Program Creates Music Based On Emotions

A group of researchers from the University of Granada (UGR) has developed Inmamusys, a software program that can create music in response to emotions that arise in the listener. By using artificial intelligence (AI) techniques, the program enables original, copyright-free and emotion-inspiring music to be played continuously.

UGR researchers Miguel Delgado, Waldo Fajardo and Miguel Molina decided to design a software program that would enable a person who knew nothing about composition to create music. The system they devised, using AI, is called Inmamusys, an acronym for Intelligent Multiagent Music System, and is able to compose and play music in real time.

If successful, this prototype, which has been described recently in the journal Expert Systems with Applications, looks likely to bring about great changes in terms of the intrusive and repetitive canned music played in public places.

Miguel Molina, lead author of the study, says that while the repertoire of such canned music is very limited, the new invention can be used to create a pleasant, non-repetitive musical environment for anyone who has to be within earshot throughout the day.

Everyone's ears have suffered the effects of repetitively-played canned music, be it in workplaces, hospital environments or during phone calls made to directory inquiries numbers. On this basis, the research team decided that it would be "very interesting to design and build an intelligent system able to generate music automatically, ensuring the correct degree of emotiveness (in order to manage the environment created) and originality (guaranteeing that the tunes composed are not repeated, and are original and endless)."

Inmamusys has the necessary knowledge to compose emotive music through the use of AI techniques. In designing and developing the system, the researchers worked on the abstract representation of the concepts necessary to deal with emotions and feelings. To achieve this, Molina says, "we designed a modular system that includes, among other things, a two-level multiagent architecture."

A survey was used to evaluate the system, with the results showing that users are able to identify the type of music composed by the computer. A person with no musical knowledge whatsoever can use this artificial musical composer, because the user need do nothing more than decide on the type of music."

Beneath the system's ease of use, Miguel Molina reveals that a complex framework is at work to allow the computer to imitate a feature as human as creativity. Aside from creativity, music also requires specific knowledge.

According to Molina, this "is usually something done by human beings, although they do not understand how they do it. In reality, there are numerous processes involved in the creation of music and, unfortunately, we still do not understand many of them. Others are so complex that we cannot analyse them, despite the enormous power of current computing tools. Nowadays, thanks to the advances made in computer sciences, there are areas of research -- such as artificial intelligence -- that seek to reproduce human behaviour. One of the most difficult facets of all to reproduce is creativity."

Farewell to copyright payments

Commercial development of this prototype will not only change the way in which research is carried out into the relationship between computers and emotions, the means of interacting with music and structures by which music is composed in the future. It will also serve, say the study's authors, to reduce costs.

According to the researchers, "music is highly present in our leisure and working environments, and a large number of the places we visit have canned music systems. Playing these pieces of music involves copyright payments. Our system will make these music copyright payments a thing of the past."

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Loud Music Can Make You Drink More, In Less Time, In A Bar

Commercial venues are very aware of the effects that the environment -- in this case, music -- can have on in-store traffic flow, sales volumes, product choices, and consumer time spent in the immediate vicinity. A study of the effects of music levels on drinking in a bar setting has found that loud music leads to more drinking in less time.

"Previous research had shown that fast music can cause fast drinking, and that music versus no music can cause a person to spend more time in a bar," said Nicolas Guéguen, a professor of behavioral sciences at the Université de Bretagne-Sud in France, and corresponding author for the study. "This is the first time that an experimental approach in a real context found the effects of loud music on alcohol consumption."

Researchers discretely visited two bars for three Saturday evenings in a medium-size city located in the west of France. The study subjects, 40 males 18 to 25 years of age, were unaware that they were being observed; only those who ordered a glass of draft beer (25 cl. or 8 oz.) were included. With permission from the bar owners, observers would randomly manipulate the sound levels (either 72 dB, considered normal, or 88 dB, considered high) of the music in the bar (Top 40 songs) before choosing a participant. After the observed participant left the bar, sound levels were again randomly selected and a new participant was chosen.

Results showed that high sound levels led to increased drinking, within a decreased amount of time.

Guéguen and his colleagues offered two hypotheses for why this may have occurred. "One, in agreement with previous research on music, food and drink, high sound levels may have caused higher arousal, which led the subjects to drink faster and to order more drinks,"" said Guéguen. "Two, loud music may have had a negative effect on social interaction in the bar, so that patrons drank more because they talked less."

In France, observed Guéguen, more than 70,000 persons per year die because of chronic alcohol consumption, and alcohol is associated with the majority of fatal car accidents. "We have shown that environmental music played in a bar is associated with an increase in drinking," he said. "We need to encourage bar owners to play music at more of a moderate level ... and make consumers aware that loud music can influence their alcohol consumption."

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Listening To Music Can Change The Way You Judge Facial Emotions

It is often said that music is the language of emotions. Simply, we are moved by music. But can these musically induced emotions arising through the auditory sense influence our interpretation of emotions arising through other senses (eg visual)?

A recent research project led by Dr Joydeep Bhattacharya at Goldsmiths, University of London showed that it is indeed possible to influence emotional evaluation of visual stimuli by listening to musical excerpts before the evaluation. Volunteers listened to a short musical excerpt (15 seconds) and then judged the emotional content of a face.

The research found that the prior listening to happy music significantly enhanced the perceived happiness of a face and likewise listening to sad music significantly enhanced the perceived sadness of a face, and this music-induced effect was maximal when the face was emotionally neutral. Further, by recording brain waves, the study showed that prior listening to music could induce changes in the brain activation patterns which are usually not directly under our conscious control.

"What surprises us," Bhattacharya said, "is that even as short as 15 sec of music can cause this effect. However more research is needed to find how long the effect lasts or if, and how, other factors such as musical preference, personality, control this effect.

" So next time you meet your boss, listen to a happy tune beforehand. At least they will appear pleasant even though they might reject your holiday application!

"Although music is primarily related to auditory modality," Dr. Bhattacharya commented, "it has functionally significant cross-modal components: some of which we can consciously control, and some others, possibly not!"

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How To Make Money as a Musician

If you're going to go full time as a musician, you're clearly going to need to make some cash. How can you make money as a musician without resorting to heading back to your day job? It can take a little creativity as your getting your music career off the ground. These ideas will get you started.

Here's How:

1. Play Live:

Playing live is an obvious choice when it comes to making money as a musician. You can make money through show guarantees, door split deals or even passing around a tip jar. Of course, if you don't have much a proven track record when it comes to pulling in an audience, you're not in a great position to demand large fees. Building up to this will take time. Every little bit helps, though, and even if you go home with $15, take the long term view and treat each low paying gig as a step towards increasing your earning potential. Selling merch can help a lot, which brings up to our next point...

2. Sell Your Music:

Well, duh, you think. Of course you should sell your music, but the trick here is to make sure your fans don't have to look far to find it. Digital distribution is a must, whether you go through an aggregator that places your music all over the net for you or if you approach services on your own, one by one. Selling music at shows is also important. You can sell CD-Rs at shows, as long as you price them accordingly and make it clear that they are CD-Rs when you sell them. If you're pressing physical copies, check out your local record shops to get them in on consignment (some shops also accept CD-Rs).

3. Sell Merch:

Diversifying what you have to sell will boost your earning potential. This doesn't mean get 5000 t-shirts made at some price that will make your credit card weep. Make your own t-shirts, buttons/badges, stickers and so on and sell them at your shows and on your website. Merch does especially well at shows, after your fans have just seen you play and are all caught up in the spirit, and as long as you keep your overhead down, merch can give your income a nice little boost.

4. Play Other People's Music:

The talents that you hope will allow you to make a career out of playing music can help you make ends meet until the day you get to play your songs exclusively. Session musician work for other musicians can help you bridge the financial gap and make some extra money. As a bonus, you'll be honing your own skills and meeting people who can create opportunities for you.

5. Musical Odd Jobs:

OK, so the point here is to move away from your day job, but if you need to make some extra money, doing something music related - even if it doesn't specifically involve YOUR music - is a good choice. Much like working as a session music, the idea here is to use your knowledge and talents to help other musicians (and get paid for it). Are you a great producer? Get some studio work. Are you a pro at booking shows? Do it for other musicians. Got design skills? Do cover art or websites for musicians or music related businesses. Tap into your music skills to put some extra money in your pocket.

Tips:

1. Promotion, Promotion, Promotion:

Your ability to make a living as musician depends A LOT on your ability to promote your music. You've to make sure people know about your music, where they can get it, when you are playing and so on. Not sure where to begin?

2. Protect Your Assets:

It's pretty easy to get taken for a ride in the music industry, so it's always a good idea to get things in writing. If you don't understand a particular deal, seek advice before putting pen to paper. Putting things in writing doesn't have to involve huge lawyer bills.

Heather McDonald

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