AI artists blow up on country music chart

Two of the hottest songs in country music were generated by artificial intelligence, signaling an uncertain new frontier for the genre and the music industry.

Why it matters: The success of "artists" Breaking Rust and Cain Walker pits AI technology against humans who earn their living as songwriters, artists and music business professionals.

Driving the news: Breaking Rust has the No. 1 song on the Billboard country digital song sales chart with the single "Walk My Walk."

• Cain Walker's "Don't Tread On Me" comes in at No. 3 on the same chart.
• Ella Langley, a human singer-songwriter, is No. 2 on the chart with "Choosin' Texas."

Threat level: The situation is ringing alarm bells in Nashville.

• Dating back to the 1950s when husband-and-wife writing duo Felice and Boudleaux Bryant were churning out hits for the Everly Brothers, Nashville has been a songwriting capital of the world.
• Songwriting and music publishing are the cornerstones of the city's music industry. Countless singer-songwriters flocked to Nashville over the decades, and successful ones like Don Schlitz and Liz Rose proudly carried on the city's songwriting tradition.

Yes, but: The age of streaming already put the traditional country music songwriter under threat as royalties declined. The number of professionals who make their living as just songwriters, and not also as performers, has dropped precipitously.

• Streaming revenues continue to grow, and songwriters fought in 2018 to pass the Music Modernization Act, which they hoped would create more favorable revenue structures.
• Still, it's gritty out there. Against that backdrop now comes AI-fueled competition.

Reality check: Billboard's country sales chart only tracks paid downloads — a small piece of the music market today. It doesn't reflect streaming and radio airplay, which are factored into Billboard's more influential Hot Country Songs chart.

By the numbers: Breaking Rust boasts 2.3 million monthly listeners on Spotify. Cain Walker has over 842,000.

• By comparison, ascending singer-songwriter Jackson Dean, whose single "Heavens to Betsy" is climbing the country radio charts, has 1.6 million monthly listeners.

Between the lines: Aaron Ryan, editor at the country music website Whiskey Riff, took a critical view of the situation in a recent post: "With advances in technology, a lot of these songs are nearly indistinguishable from the real thing, which obviously poses a risk to actual artists, songwriters, and fans who value real art over AI slop."

• Ryan reports the songs released by Breaking Rust are credited to a person named Aubierre Rivaldo Taylor, who is also behind other AI artists.

Songwriter advocates express concern

The sight of AI-generated songs topping sacred country music charts sent shockwaves through Nashville this week.

What they're saying: "To creators, AI is scary and it's existentially scary," Bart Herbison, executive director of Nashville Songwriters Association International, the nation's leading songwriter advocacy group, tells Axios. "In this instance, it's ignited a conversation that I've never seen in my 28 years in this job."

• "I'm going to speak to [the impact of AI on the] songwriter and songwriter protections. AI is here, but what we've espoused for a couple of years are the four P's: permission, payment, proof and penalties," Herbison says, explaining NSAI's stance on AI copyright protections for songwriters. "We want to see that in any context, whether it's the song or the artist that AI produced."

Friction point: Herbison says he questions whether the AI tools used to generate successful songs are "trained on human works, and whether there's compensation for that."

• Tennessee became the first state last year in the country to pass a law protecting creators from deep AI fakes.
• Advocacy groups want creators to be compensated if AI models its work after them. They want penalties in instances of unlicensed use of an artist's voice or likeness.

We want to hear from you: What do you think of Breaking Rust and Cain Walker?

• Email nashville@axios.com and let us know.

Editor's note: This story has been updated with additional information.

By Nate Rau