East London’s First AI Rave Replaced DJ Sets With An App

The Glove That Fits’ club-goers danced in front of an empty DJ booth on robot beats as the venue hosted East London’s first AI rave. Powered by AI music generator Mubert, the “Algorhythm” rave tested whether artificial intelligence can match a live DJ’s vibe. 

In the experimental party, the Mubert app used a library of human-made music samples and loops to generate new tracks. Music creators get royalties when their sounds are sampled. 

Created by Ukrainian and Russian developers, Mubert can adapt to the users’ music taste similar to Spotify’s AI DJ feature. 

The event’s description assured ravers that “no track will have ever been played before or will be played again.” 

Algorhythm’s promoter, George Pinnegar, billed the event East London’s AI rave “the first party of its kind.” “If we can have AI make beautiful music and we can play that to each other, I think that’s probably why it’s there. That’s why it’s a gift,” Pinnegar told Reuters. 

But the AI rave received mixed reviews. In a Context article, Adam Smith described a dead vibe where there were “15 of us, for a dancefloor capacity of 80.” While one party-goer described Mubert’s mix as “background music,” another called it a “generic bop.” 

Anna-Laura, an Imperial College London AI researcher, told Smith that a rave’s mood depends on the man behind the decks. 

“When you’re having a really good night at a rave, it’s because the DJ is guiding you through a journey. You’re a part of a unique consciousness, but with an AI you do not see that happening.”

Mubert’s CEO, Paul Zgordan, sees the app as a way to “democratise music, to lower the barrier.” 

“With this AI-generated content hype, a lot of musicians are stressed… so we want to give musicians an ethical way to work with AI.”