Call for Submissions for a Special Issue of Computer Music Journal, “Quantum Computer Music”

Guest Editors: Eduardo Reck Miranda
Publisher: MIT Press

Progress in computing technology and musical innovation has always gone hand in hand since the 1950s. Today, we are witnessing a pivotal moment in the music industry where artificial intelligence (AI) is making a profound impact.

As policymakers strive to craft ethical guidelines and regulations to harness the benefits of AI for the music industry while shielding it from bad actors, yet another transformative technology looms on the horizon: quantum computers.

AI is software, and software requires hardware to operate. AI still runs on a type of processor that has not changed fundamentally since the 1950s: it employs switches representing binary numbers, 0s and 1s. In contrast, quantum processors compute with qubits.

A qubit is to a quantum computer what a bit is to classical processors: it serves as a fundamental unit of information. Qubits exploit quantum mechanical properties such as entanglement and superposition, to which we have only recently gained access for computation. This represents a new type of hardware with the potential to enable novel forms of AI yet to be developed. Quantum computers facilitate the creation of new algorithms, some of which may operate more efficiently on quantum hardware than on traditional digital computers.

There is a global race to develop quantum computers, and substantial research is underway to determine their affordances and advantages. Regardless of whether and when any advantage will ever materialize, small-scale quantum computers are already available, and their size and sophistication are evolving rapidly. The time is ripe for the computer music community to engage with these developments.

Enhanced processing power and potential computational advantages are likely to benefit the computer music community in the future. However, quantum computing can already provide intriguing opportunities for music today. A doctoral thesis by Scott Oshiro proposed a framework for developing interactive music systems with quantum computing and Peter Thomas has just defended another doctoral thesis focusing on "Zen,” a live coding  quantum computer music system that encourages musical thinking through the lens of quantum logic. As another example, the guest editor’s composition "Qubism" (recently premiered by the London Sinfonietta) was created using materials generated by quantum cellular automata running on an IBM quantum computer, something that could not be accomplished on a high-end Apple Mac.

For this special issue of Computer Music Journal, we welcome submissions of papers reporting progress in the emerging field of Quantum Computer Music. We seek contributions on fundamental scientific and technical advancements but also papers discussing new approaches to musical practices afforded by quantum computing technology. We welcome contributions on, but not limited to:

• Generative Quantum Algorithms

• Quantum Audio

• Quantum AI

• Novel Interfaces

• Programming Tools and Systems

• Quantum Benefits and/or Advantage

• Circuit Bending, DIY, and Quantum Simulation

• Composition

Submissions should follow all CMJ author guidelines (https://direct.mit.edu/comj/pages/submission-guidelines) except that manuscripts should not be submitted online at cmjdb.com. Instead, submissions and queries should be emailed to the guest editor, eduardo.miranda [AT] plymouth.ac.uk, with the subject [CMJ | Quantum Computer Music].

Timeline:

Deadline for submissions: March 30, 2026

Deadline for peer reviews: May 29, 2026

Deadline for final version: June 22, 2026