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Production Ethics and Song Development

Transparency on workflow, commercial licensing, and AI usage

"Can't I just create these songs myself for free?"

You can create educational songs to help with your study for free. And I think you should do that so you have songs customised to your own needs. However, if you're studying Textiles and Design in year 11 and 12, I honestly think you should use these songs. Let me tell you briefly why.

Commercial Licensing: Free tiers on generative music tools usually don't offer the same quality - depending on which tool you use there may be less options, time restrictions, reduced download quality or other limitations. They also strictly prohibit commercial use. The songs in this app are generated under a paid subscription that includes many benefits that give you better quality songs and also grants commercial licence.
Syllabus Connection: These tracks are structured around the NSW Stage 6 Textiles and Design Syllabus. If you hope to use a generative music tool to create the songs for you, you can't just put in a prompt. It is likely to cover irrelevant information, to leave out important information or terms and may even have errors. Before starting the process of generating songs, significant time has been used researching topics and assembling information. Using that research to develop the lyrics is a completely separate process - all before starting to work with the music tool.
Getting Good Songs: For every 6 song variations available in this app, many, many more have been generated - between 20 to 40 versions have been created, reviewed and discarded. I aim for variety so listeners can find a version that they enjoy listening to, but I also try them out to see if the words are clear and stick in my head. If I'm walking around singing the song to myself after listening to it, or if a chorus pops back into my head later, that song is probably in this app.

What is the Process Behind the Songs?

These songs have been created using a generative music tool (that is, an AI tool) for parts of the process. That doesn't mean I just type in a prompt and let AI do its thing. There are several steps involved in creating each song. I'll try to keep this brief!

1. Content Decisions and Research: The first step is breaking down topics and choosing what to cover in a song. The content is thoroughly researched, until there is a lot more information then needed, but this ensures accuracy. References are checked and only reliable research is used. Key words and processes that will need special focus are identified. The ways students might use the information they learn in a song, including practical applications as well as possible exam questions are considered.

2. Content Structure: Planning the structure involves deciding the best flow for the verses so the information is covered in a logical and memorable way, and using repeated hooks in a chorus for help memorising things like key terms or steps in a process. Often a bridge is also used to emphasis key information.

3. Developing Lyrics: An AI tool may be used to write a first draft of lyrics based on the structure and information provided. Then editing will involve many changes - correcting faulty rhymes, adding repetition or song sections to increase memorability, changing wording for clarity, ensuring the timing all works, etc. The content is also fact-checked again - sometimes AI tools stick to the information provided, but sometimes they just make stuff up because it sounds or fits better!

4. Creating Song Versions: Many variations of each set of lyrics are generated using many different prompts describing style, voice, clarity, focus, etc. Some topics or words may be matched with specific styles (such as matching the *Tech in Textiles* series — CAD, CAM, and Seamless — with bouncy, contemporary tempos) but often the different versions are just to provide variety and enhance memory. If there are 6 versions of a song that you can choose from in the app, they have probably been chosen from 20 to 40 songs that were generated with that same set of words.

5. Study Materials: A resource is then created for every song with a copy of the lyrics. Often it will also contain extra information - either an explanation for each verse, some other extra information on the topic or anything else useful. The song resource should help make the song more useful in your study.

6. Uploading: Filenames for the songs and resource sheets are set up carefully so that everything loads correctly in the app, then they're uploaded. Next time you open the app they should just appear - categorised and ready for your study.

Do AI-generated songs take jobs away from musicians?

This is a really important issue and something I've considered carefully.

AI generated music is a new technology, and concerns about its impact on creative work are valid. It is essential that we question what we use new technologies and tools for. We need to weigh up benefits and harm of including AI tools as part of the creation process.

The songs here are made to help students learn, not to compete with professional bands. There are no plans to create songs that cover the sort of content you might hear at a concert or in a regular music app. These are study songs – they’ll be created this way or not created at all – there wasn’t a band creating these songs that is no longer employed because someone made a decision to use a cheaper method of production.

So for these songs, the question isn't "should we use AI to create them or should we use people", it is "Do these songs help students learn? Do they make the content more accessible?" If we decide there is value in them, we need to come up with a way they can be created that makes them affordable for the people who will benefit from them.

Even with the benefit of AI to help create the songs, a lot of human work, creativity, understanding, guidance, and decision-making is also involved. Just like with other technological changes, AI changes the kind of work people do. It doesn’t remove the need for musicians, teachers, or other creative professionals; instead it empowers creators to build custom, useful learning resources that would otherwise never exist due to cost barriers.

Technology can change work, but people are still needed — it just means the kind of work evolves.

Those are my current thoughts on that issue. As the technology develops, changes and is used in various ways, these views may change. At this time in history we can only make careful decisions, try to keep informed, and stay aware, being open to changing our views and actions as technology changes.

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Production Ethics and Song Development

"Can't I just create these songs myself for free?"

What is the Process Behind the Songs?

Do AI-generated songs take jobs away from musicians?

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