Quantum computing technology is developing at a fast pace. The impact of quantum computing on the music industry is inevitable. The emerging field of Quantum Computer Music investigates and develops applications and methods to process music using quantum computing technology. This talk will discuss examples of approaches to leverage quantum computing to learn, process and generate music. The methods discussed range from rendering music using data from physical quantum mechanical systems and quantum mechanical simulations to computational quantum algorithms to generate music, including quantum AI. The ambition to develop techniques to encode audio quantumly for making sound synthesisers and audio signal processing systems is also discussed.

This talk focuses on audio-based music information retrieval (MIR) and reflects on the origins of the field, the different MIR eras, and the recent developments. I will first focus on the paradigm shift from knowledge-driven to data-driven algorithmic design, thanks to recent developments in machine learning. After that, I will discuss the current challenges that the MIR field addresses and the current and future research challenges, notably on the social and ethical impact of MIR algorithmic systems.