Musical agents: A typology and state of the art towards Musical Metacreation

Abstract

Musical agents are artificial agents that tackle musical creative tasks, partially or completely. This review of musical agents combines the terminology of Generative Arts (artistic practice) and the scientific literature of Computational Creativity, Multi-Agent Systems (MAS), and Artificial Intelligence. We define Musical Metacreation as a field that studies the partial or complete automation of musical tasks. We survey seventy-eight musical agent systems, and present a typology of musical agents. After examining the evaluation methodologies of musical agents, we propose possible future steps while mentioning ongoing discussions in the field.