Boomy: Make Instant Music With An AI Software

Have you ever wished for money from being a music star? Alex Mitchell might be able to help you achieve your dream. Mr. Mitchell is the founder- CEO of Boomy Corporation. Boomy helps its users make instant music using artificial intelligence (AI) software that does most of the job.

How does it work? Select your preferred genre, click on “create song,” and the AI will compose one for you in 30 seconds or less. The software then selects the track’s key, chords, and melody. And from there, you can refine and finalize your song. You can add or remove instruments, modify the tempo, adjust the volumes, add echoes, and add some vocals.

California-based Boomy Corporation was launched in 2018 and claimed its users had created about five million songs. 

The Boomy website and app also allow you to submit your compositions to be listed on Spotify and other streaming sites. Of course, you can earn money every time your tracks get played.

Even though Boomy owns the copyright to each recording and receives the funds in the first instance, the firm says it passes on 80% of the streaming royalties to the person who composed the song. Mr. Mitchell stated that more than 10,000 Boomy users had published over 100,000 on various music streaming platforms.

“Eighty-five percent of our users have never created songs before. And now we have helped people pay their rent, augment their income, with $100 or $200 a month from Boomy.” – Alex Mitchell.

But, how about the quality of these Boomy-created songs? Some say they sound very computer-generated. You wouldn’t mistake them for people creating music using real instruments.

However, using AI in composing music isn’t exactly new. A US-based classical composer, David Cope, developed a similar software system in the 1980s when he experienced writer’s block. One day, he used the software to write compositions identical to those reported by Johann Sebastian Bach. Mr. Cope, after a few minutes, found out that the computer had composed 5,000 Bach-inspired chorales. These compositions were later released on an album he called Bach by Design.

In 2019, Berlin-based electronic music composer Holly Herndon produced an album “Proto” with an AI system called Spawn that she co-created. Ms. Herndon specializes in this field and has a doctorate in music and computing from Stanford University.

Mr. Mitchell AI songwriting software has become much cheaper these days, thanks to advancements in technology. Boomy can offer its basic membership package for free. Other songwriting apps such as Melobytes and Audoir’s SAM are also free.

While AI composition is inevitably becoming popular because of its novelty, new tech is constantly changing many other aspects of the music industry.

How the Pandemic Has Affected the Music Industry

When San Francisco imposed lockdowns in 2020, Matthew Shilvock said that keeping an opera company going would be extremely challenging. Mr. Shilvock is the general director of the San Francisco Opera. Having two singers or a singer and pianist in the same room is no longer possible because of the pandemic. 

Traditional video conferencing did not work during their online rehearsals. Due to delays in audio and video, the performers were out of sync. So, Mr. Shilvock tried a platform called Aloha, designed by Swedish music tech start-up Elk. The software used algorithms to lessen latencies.

But when he tried running rehearsals with his performers online, “traditional video conference platforms didn’t work” because of the latency or delays in the audio and video. They were out of sync.

So, Mr. Shilvock turned to a platform called Aloha that has been developed by Swedish music tech start-up Elk. It uses algorithms to reduce latencies. Elk spokesman Björn Ehler said that traditional video platforms have a latency of approximately 500-600 milliseconds. But Elk has reduced it to 20 milliseconds.

Going back to Boomy, Mr. Mitchell is himself a violinist. He said that the firm’s users are now continuously increasing everywhere. He shared that even Uber drivers create albums and play them in their cars. Surprisingly, the Boomy website has a lot of traffic from Turkey, even if they don’t have a Turkish version. The users grew into thousands because of the Youtuber who created a video about Boomy.