AWS Discontinues DeepComposer: The AI Music-Making MIDI Keyboard

AWS Bids Farewell to DeepComposer, Its AI-Powered Keyboard Experiment

In a recent blog post, AWS announced that it will be discontinuing DeepComposer, its innovative AI-powered MIDI keyboard and music composition service, after five years of operation.

“After careful consideration, we have made the decision to end support for AWS DeepComposer,” stated Kanchan Jagannathan, AWS AI devices program manager. Users with data stored on the AWS DeepComposer console can continue using the service until September 17, 2025, when support will officially conclude.

Launched in 2019 during AWS's annual re:Invent conference, DeepComposer featured a 32-key, two-octave MIDI keyboard designed for AI-driven music creation. AWS hailed it as “the world’s first machine learning-enabled musical keyboard for developers,” enticing creators to explore generative music.

With DeepComposer, users could easily record melodies using either the physical keyboard or on-screen keys. They could then choose a genre-specific music-generating model, allowing the AI to compose full-length songs. Finished tracks could be played directly in the AWS console or exported for sharing on platforms like SoundCloud.

While DeepComposer initially targeted developers, it expanded to all AWS customers in 2020, with the MIDI keyboard retailing for $99. User feedback varied, with some praising its concept while others criticized its usability and the quality of its AI-generated music.

My colleague Frederic Lardinois found DeepComposer lacking when he reviewed it in 2019. However, he acknowledged that DeepComposer was intended more as an educational tool than as a means to produce mainstream hits. This aligns with AWS's history of releasing AI devices for learning purposes, such as the DeepLens camera and the DeepRacer AI car, both of which have also been retired in recent years (with DeepRacer now existing in a virtual format).