Artificial intelligence (AI) taking people’s jobs and disrupting entire industries is a hot topic. No industry seems untouched by major AI advancements in recent years, including the music industry. AI can create impressive music in a specific style or combination of styles with a single prompt from a person. It has also been used to recreate the voices of well-known artists like Drake and to isolate John Lennon’s voice to release a new song from The Beatles in 2023, more than forty years after the band split up and Lennon’s passing.
These capabilities lead many to wonder whether this rapidly evolving technology will eventually replace musicians and music producers altogether. The odds of this happening are unlikely, though the technology will dramatically change the music industry. In fact, it’s already starting to.
What Can AI Do in the Music Industry?
AI is being used to support a range of music production needs and is helping to make music production accessible to more people. These are a few of AI’s key capabilities in the music industry:
Music & Soundscape Generation
AI-based music tools like Soundful and Stable Audio can help artists create music by allowing them to compose and produce tracks with simple input or prompts. Tools like these also provide the ability to generate a wide variety of sounds, like drum lines, choirs, and other instruments, allowing a single person to generate a full orchestra arrangement with a single piece of equipment. Different artists and genres of music can also be mimicked, recreated, or combined, allowing creativity to be explored in ways that may not have otherwise been possible. These capabilities are often seen as ways for musicians to explore their creative vision more effectively and to spark new ideas.
Entirely AI-produced music is often said to be generic or to lack depth, but in the case of background music, catchy jingles, or other audio content where the composition doesn’t need to be as rich and developed, this isn’t a problem. These simple composition capabilities allow companies to add these elements to their products or ads rather than turning to musicians or composers, saving them money and time. For instance, ads for casino welcome offers or background music for a casual game can be crafted with catchy audio using an AI music generation tool at a low cost to maximize profits.
Mastering & Mixing
Musical AI capabilities excel in the mastering and mixing of songs and albums. This area of music production is essential for crafting a professional, high-quality sound. AI tools make it easier for professional producers and hobbyists to carry out this work. One of the most exciting elements is AI’s ability to discern different elements of a song or composition. It can break them into separate parts and pieces, known in the industry as stems. Each part of a song can be perfected by isolating stems to create a cohesive sound, and AI can make isolating stems far easier without compromising high quality. (If you were wondering, this was how AI was used to release The Beatles song in 2023.)
Reducing Production Costs & Times
Since AI tools can quickly handle complex tasks, they make the different phases of music production more cost- and time-efficient. The availability of these tools also makes music production more accessible to people by reducing the cost and time barriers. It creates more opportunities for new artists to explore their creativity and produce music comparable to that of professionally produced artists.
What Are the Limitations of AI in the Music Industry?
While AI is opening up many doors and taking on many tasks within the music industry, it still has some limitations that make it unlikely to replace musicians and producers.
Copyright
The use and production of AI music are fraught with copyright issues, not just from the output AI software generates. Copyright issues also exist in the source materials that AI references to find patterns and trends to create musical output. There is significant debate in the industry about what qualifies as fair use for AI to mine, and even more debate about the copyright ethics of its output, especially when it mimics the style or voice of an artist.
Creative Decision-Making
AI is undoubtedly an impressive technology; it can learn and predict many elements of human tasks. However, understanding creative decision-making is not within its capabilities, and it is impossible to train or teach software to do so. Since the creative decision-making process in humans isn’t fully understood, how can a machine, no matter how robust and capable, act in the same way as a creative person? Though we don’t fully understand creative decision-making, we know that it’s an integral part of making music.
Human Emotions & Connection
Music is, at its core, an emotional medium that connects people in nuanced ways. For many, it’s not just the feelings that a song or album fosters or helps them process—it’s also about the connection with the artist or artists who created this music, who pulled from their life experiences and turned it into a work of art they can connect to. This emotional and human connection cannot be replaced, ensuring the future and continued importance of musicians.
Conclusion: AI Won’t Replace Musicians or Music Producers, But It Will Support Them
The essential human elements of music, stemming from the creative decisions and emotional work of producers and musicians, make it hard for AI to replace these roles. However, AI tools can support the music industry’s many technical aspects, leading to a supportive relationship in which AI makes it easier to complete projects and experiment with new ideas.
