The death of the musician
That artificial intelligence is gaining ground day by day is no news, it is something already normalized, but what happens when this gets into the world of art and human creativity, what happens when that which is unique to our species, is no longer, in this case, the composition of a piece of music, unique and unrepeatable, which reflects, for sure, knowledge, experiences, training and perseverance, not only in music, but in the life of the composer, that when composing, all these attributes, if or if, are poured into his song.
The ease and low cost of music composition with AI could discourage investment in human talent, the consequences are inevitable in the life of the musician. Are websites like suno.ia and udio.com dangerous? The answer is simple: Yes, they are. Especially for composers, beatmakers, lyricists, etc., who market their compositions or beats.
If we think about it for a moment, which singer or rapper, in a short time, will pay to acquire the rights of a beat, if for the same price he can write a prompt to an AI and in seconds he will have the ideal musical base for his lyrics, and if it is not what he is looking for, he will generate another and another until he gets the song he had in mind. And this question also arises, how many beatmakers are already using songwriting and production AIs to fill their bats with licensable beats?
And if we enter the world of production, it seems more difficult to maintain humanity in a mix, for example. Although today there are resources based on AI, as compressors or EQ, even websites like mastering.studio that master a track without a minimum of knowledge on the part of the “producer“, in the end it is always the human ear that defines, especially psychoacoustics, but from what we see on the horizon, this will change sooner rather than later.
For the major record companies, art takes a back seat. What really matters is profitability. The success of AI in music composition will depend largely on its ability to generate profits. The companies developing this type of software are positioned as the main beneficiaries, regardless of the impact on musicians.
Likewise, one cannot totally disagree with the application of technology in music, while using software to produce… The key is to find a balance between technological tools and human creativity.
AI can be an ally for composers, allowing them to explore new ideas and expand their creative possibilities, but as we know, the last word is that of the industry and the listener, and if they care little that a machine or a human has been the composer of a hit, as musicians, there is not much we can do about it.
