In addition to traditional tasks such as prediction, classification and translation, deep learning is receiving growing attention as an approach for music generation, as witnessed by recent research groups such as Magenta at Google and CTRL (Creator Technology Research Lab) at Spotify. The motivation is in using the capacity of deep learning architectures and training techniques to automatically learn musical styles from arbitrary musical corpora and then to generate samples from the estimated distribution. However, a direct application of deep learning to generate content rapidly reaches limits as the generated content tends to mimic the training set without exhibiting true creativity. Moreover, deep learning architectures do not offer direct ways for controlling generation (e.g., imposing some tonality or other arbitrary constraints). Furthermore, deep learning architectures alone are autistic automata which generate music autonomously without human user interaction, far from the objective of interactively assisting musicians to compose and refine music. Issues such as control, structure, creativity and interactivity are the focus of our analysis. In this paper, we select some limitations of a direct application of deep learning to music generation and analyze why the issues are not fulfilled and how to address them by possible approaches. Various examples of recent systems are cited as examples of promising directions.
 Algorithmic composition is the partial or total automation of the process of music composition by using computers. Since the 1950s, different computational techniques related to Artificial Intelligence have been used for algorithmic composition, including grammatical representations, probabilistic methods, neural networks, symbolic rule-based systems, constraint programming and evolutionary algorithms. This survey aims to be a comprehensive account of research on algorithmic composition, presenting a thorough view of the field for researchers in Artificial Intelligence. Machine learning is the capacity of a computational system to learn structures from datasets in order to make prediction in front of newly seen datasets. Such approach offers a significant advantage in music scenarios in which musicians can teach the system to learn an idiosyncratic style, or can break the rules to explore the system capacity in unexpected ways. In this chapter we draw on music, machine learning, and human-computer interaction to elucidate an understanding of machine learning algorithms as creative tools for music and the sonic arts. We motivate a new understanding of learning algorithms as human-computer interfaces. We show that, like other interfaces, learning algorithms can be characterised by the ways their affordances intersect with goals of human users. We also argue that the nature of interaction between users and algorithms impacts the usability and usefulness of those algorithms in profound ways. This human-centred view of machine learning motivates our concluding discussion of what it means to employ machine learning as a creative tool. This paper shows how Long Short-term Memory recurrent neural networks can be used to generate complex sequences with long-range structure, simply by predicting one data point at a time. The approach is demonstrated for text (where the data are discrete) and online handwriting (where the data are real-valued). It is then extended to handwriting synthesis by allowing the network to condition its predictions on a text sequence. The resulting system is able to generate highly realistic cursive handwriting in a wide variety of styles. Algorithmic composition composing by means of formalizable methods has a century old tradition not only in occidental music history. This is the first book to provide a detailed overview of prominent procedures of algorithmic composition in a pragmatic way rather than by treating formalizable aspects in single works. In addition to an historic overview, each chapter presents a specific class of algorithm in a compositional context by providing a general introduction to its development and theoretical basis and describes different musical applications. Each chapter outlines the strengths, weaknesses and possible aesthetical implications resulting from the application of the treated approaches. Topics covered are: markov models, generative grammars, transition networks, chaos and self-similarity, genetic algorithms, cellular automata, neural networks and artificial intelligence are covered. The comprehensive bibliography makes this work ideal for the musician and the researcher alike. Digital advances have transformed the face of automatic music generation since its beginnings at the dawn of computing. Despite the many breakthroughs, issues such as the musical tasks targeted by different machines and the degree to which they succeed remain open questions. We present a functional taxonomy for music generation systems with reference to existing systems. The taxonomy organizes systems according to the purposes for which they were designed. It also reveals the inter-relatedness amongst the systems. This design-centered approach contrasts with predominant methods-based surveys and facilitates the identification of grand challenges to set the stage for new breakthroughs. 