When we hear a song, we usually see the performer on stage, and online, it’s their name that appears next to the song title. However, we often know little about the creators of these songs—the songwriters. Meanwhile, influenced by the breakout of ChatGPT in 2022, by 2023, everything revolved around artificial intelligence (AI), questioning the future of traditional songwriters among many other professions. Artisjus’s dual mission with this campaign is to draw attention to these behind-the-scenes artists and creators and initiate professional and social discourse about the relationship between AI and music.
First, we conducted a survey among songwriters, then, through research, sought answers to how people currently perceive the use of AI in music composition. We issued a press release on the results of the surveys, serving as the announcement for a unique experiment.
While conducting the research, three songs were created: one by a flesh-and-blood songwriter duo, another by human songwriters with the assistance of AI, and the third solely by AI based on a short prompt. These three songs were made available for “blind” listening on the kosziadalt.hu website, and participants could submit their guesses between September 11 and October 8 (Songwriters’ Day) about who or what wrote each song. We encouraged participation through TikTok and Meta advertisements.
After Songwriters’ Day, we released a documentary video series depicting the creative process of the experiment’s compositions and how nine invited guests (renowned composers, music journalists, and AI experts) guessed the songs. Participants were notified by email about their guesses and the correct answers, while we announced the results to the public through a press release.
During the campaign, 15,030 unique users visited the landing page, and the songs were played 19,314 times with 4,303 votes cast. Video ads directing to participation reached 185,745 unique users on Meta platforms and 192,701 users on TikTok. Through media work, we generated over 254 press clippings, including 175 online features (on national news portals, cultural, economic, and regional sites), reaching 1.59 million readers, who shared the articles 405 times, according to Coveragebook. The documentary videos associated with the song were viewed 58,806 times on YouTube in two weeks. On October 8, Songwriters’ Day, artists and musicians, including Animal Cannibals, Magna Cum Laude, Gyöngyösi Ivett, Molnár Máté Road, Depresszió, Lord Zenekar, Marót Viki, Farkasházi Réka, Hajdú Klára, Bérczesi Róbert, Czutor Zoltán, and Hajós András, posted 79 times collectively in response to our invitation, resulting in 21,488 organic post interactions.
