30th March – 1st April 2026

We are delighted to be supporting the second International Conference in AI Music Studies, which will take place in Nottingham from the 30th March through to the 1st of April 2026.

Building on the success of the First International Conference in AI Music Studies at Stockholm in 2024, this conference will continue the theme but with a tilt towards expanding the discourse from inside musicking (Small 1989). Because of this we are still interested in “AI music” (music generated by or with artificial intelligence technologies) and its incorporation in established music ecosystems. While only a few years ago such music was “on the fringe”, it is quickly becoming more present and moving into the mainstream due in large part to the commercial exploitability of the technology, what it produces for what it costs, and its growing public accessibility (complete with claims of “democratizing” music production and composition). The development and application of AI to music creation is attracting significant sums of money from private circles, not to mention considerable efforts in academic engineering circles; yet, perhaps with the exception of intellectual property (e.g., legal ownership) and ethics (e.g., responsible use), many topics of AI music remain by and large under-explored by critical examination and reflection in the humanities and social sciences. This motivates several key questions for critical analysis and reflection:

1. How do we communicate and discuss the insider knowledge that is generated through interacting, relating, and co-creating in/with/through/because of AI music ecosystems?

2. How can the AI music ecosystem and its components be formally studied, and what considerations must be made to make sense of it?

3. What challenges arise in the application of established disciplines, such as musicology or ethnomusicology?

4. What are the prospects and challenges for AI Music Studies for the Humanities and Social Sciences in general?

5. What is needed in terms of new methodologies for this area of study, and what interdisciplinary connections are required?

6. How are copyright, and intellectual property more generally, being challenged by the emergent music ecosystem being populated by AI music?

7. What are the implications of AI Music in terms of economic, environmental and sociocultural sustainability?

8. What are perspectives from music ecosystems other than the hegemonial popular music ecosystem of the Global North?

9. What are the positions of music cultures that so far remained largely outside of the digitalization of cultural data?

The Second International Conference in AI Music Studies explores the prospects,
challenges and new methodologies required for the study of AI music within the Humanities and Social Sciences with a focus on inside knowledge. It aims to bring into conversation scholars working in musicology, ethnomusicology, human-AI interaction, sound studies, science, music computing and technology studies, philosophy, ethics, economics, feminist and posthumanist studies to help define and develop, or even challenge the need for, a discipline of AI music studies. The three-day conference will feature papers, panels, workshops, a keynote address, and a concert.

We are seeking presentations, panels and workshops for the conference. Each presentation will be given 20 minutes in a session, and each session will conclude with a podium discussion of its presented works. Each panel will have 3-5 participants, and last at least 60 minutes with audience discussion. A workshop consists of two hours of directed work and discussion around a topic.

To submit a presentation, please write an extended abstract of 300-500 words about your work and how it relates to the core themes of the conference. For panels, please write a description of the topics to be discussed and composition of the panel. For workshops, please write a description of the topics to be worked with, a schedule, and information on the workshop leaders.

Important Dates:

– Presentation/Panel/Workshop Submission: November 28 2025
– Decision Notification: January 30 2026
– Early Conference Registration: January 5 2026
– Conference: 30 March – 1 April 2026

Submission:

Please use this online form for all submissions (presentation, panel, poster or workshop):