A future chart-topping song may soon come from an algorithm. Sony Computer Science Laboratory (CSL) in Paris is developing a system of algorithms which can create songs that cater to the user's taste, based on styles adapted from existing music. The starting point of the song creation is a database of sheet music of more than 13,000 existing songs, from which the user can choose any number of titles with a sound or feel they would like the new song to incorporate. The algorithm analyses the songs' characteristics, and statistical properties related to rhythm, pitch and harmony. It will learn, for instance, which notes "go well" with a given chord, what chord is probable after a given chord, or which notes usually follow after a given note.

Scientists at SONY CSL Research Laboratory have created the first-ever entire songs composed by Artificial Intelligence: "Daddy's Car" and "Mister Shadow". The researchers have developed FlowMachines, a system that learns music styles from a huge database of songs. "Mister Shadow" is composed in the style of American songwriters such as Irving Berlin, Duke Ellington, George Gershwin and Cole Porter. French composer Benoît Carré arranged and produced the songs, and wrote the lyrics. The two songs are excerpts of albums composed by Artificial Intelligence to be released in 2017.