Abbey Road Studios has revealed that assistive composition platform DAACI is the 19th start-up to join its music tech incubation programme, Abbey Road Red.
DAACI is a patented ‘meta-composition’ tool that employs AI as its core tech. Its founders have created a system based on PhD research with the UKRI Centre for Doctoral Training in Artificial Intelligence and Queen Mary University of London.
The start-up’s technology brings emotional intelligence and an ability to understand narrative details and contextual connotations in the music it creates.
Abbey Road Red has explored the potential in different approaches to automated composition using algorithms and machine learning since Red’s launch, beginning with its second cohort in 2017 featuring AImusic. The start-up was subsequently acquired by Apple earlier this year.
Red alumnus Scored explored adaptive music for sync in 2016, while Humtap used artificial intelligence for composition in 2018. More recently, LifeScore (2019) created an adaptive music platform using high quality recorded audio, and BrainRap (2021) created an assistive lyric platform that uses AI to suggest words to songwriters that suit their narrative and flow in real time.
With DAACI, Red aims to help usher in a new form of assistive composition technology, while putting writers and artists first. Musicologists have created proprietary algorithmic rules for the system which respond to a brief and descriptors from a composer or artist user. Textures and specific note choices can be tweaked and revised by music creators.
Isabel Garvey, managing director, Abbey Road Studios, said: “We’ve been exploring assistive technologies since we launched Abbey Road Red. We believe DAACI represents a step change in music composition assistive technology, putting the creator first and truly enhancing a bespoke artist/composer creative experience.”
We believe DAACI represents a step change in music composition assistive technology
Isabel Garvey
Karim Fanous, innovation manager, Abbey Road Red, said: “Writing and creating music is a unique human endeavour informed by our feelings, the stories of our lives, our relationships with others, moods, and so much more which varies wildly from day to day. A generative system can never replace that. But the right assistive system could lift an artist’s creativity and productivity to a new level or take some of the mundane task burdens away. We look forward to exploring this and more with DAACI’s brilliant team of composers, musicians, musicologists and coders.”
Abbey Road Studios will be working with DAACI throughout its six-month incubation. As well as putting DAACI in front of Red’s mentor and stakeholder networks, including parent company Universal Music Group, they will team with artists, composers and music creators on potential opportunities across the gaming and creator tools space.
Rachel Lyske, CEO, DAACI, said: “At DAACI we are constantly exploring the most exciting and pioneering advances in music creation. That’s why it’s so thrilling that DAACI and Abbey Road Red are joining forces in our mission to forge the future of music and AI. Abbey Road Red brings a wealth of experience through its rich history as a world-renowned music technology incubator. The future of music is an infinite and universal landscape, and we look forward to navigating it with Abbey Road Red.”
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