Ljova’s Hot Takes on AI Music

AI is all the rage — from homework to art, to vacation planning, meeting scheduling, shopping, to the new features of your smartphone — what’s not to like?  Out with the old ..

People have asked me — as a composer and musician — what do I think about AI music?

And though I have no sage knowledge and can only offer hot takes, I believe it will be a major success, and that most of the music we hear as background at low volume – in stores, at the doctor’s office, or on social media – will be AI generated. I am near-certain that, in the not-too-distant future, I will be playing for a patient in a hospital as part of my outreach work, and their request will be some AI-generated piece they heard. Why not? If the algo controls what you see, then the algo controls the music you’re exposed to – and if it’s cheaper to show you royalty-free AI music, why wouldn’t it?

AI music will likely pillage the market for music production libraries, and disrupt the collaborative student filmmaker <–> composer relationship that was so formative in my early years. Maybe one day soon there’ll be competitions, maybe even a Grammy award for the “best AI generated song”, awarded to the person who created AI the winning prompts. (Or to the company that created it? You decide.)

Will AI disrupt the concert music sphere? In some way — I’m sure that some composers will come to AI to generate their musical material, to try out orchestration ideas, to suggest titles to their works, and to draft extensive grant proposals. (The latter you can well do already.) Maybe, at an upcoming family-oriented symphony concert, a kid will have the opportunity to provide a prompt for an AI-generated piece, which will then be orchestrated by another person, or — eventually – AI will generate publication-ready score and parts for an immediate performance by a human orchestra.

A few weeks ago, I was browsing at a souvenir shop and a customer brought to the register a cool looking piece of art. The cashier, before ringing up the order, notified the costumer that this art was AI generated. I asked the cashier about this later – they weren’t required to do notify the customer, but they felt personally responsible.

Last week, a friend linked to a song generated on Suno in a Whatsapp group I’m in – “did you know it’s AI generated?” I asked – “Yep”, he said. Things are moving fast.

For now, I’m not interested in doing any of this myself – my relationship with music composition just isn’t built this way. I enjoy the struggle of actually writing the music instead of crafting and refining the AI prompt. I enjoy scribbling with a pencil, playing with the bow. 

Am I worried about the future?

I’d like to say that I’m not. Writing music is a calling, a form of expression, and those who *need* to do it will continue to persist so long as there’s oxygen in the atmosphere by any means necessary.  AI music — at this point, anyway — is a utility for those who seek a shortcut to the finished product.   For many of us creatives, it’s not the end product we’re after — it’s the process, the struggle, the personal journey of it. Sure – you can have a journey with a prompt — but it’s a different kind of struggle.  

The other question is — where does this go?  If the AI music is already free, what’s the incentive for growing the technology? If 99% of the music we hear in public spaces and recommended to us online will be AI generated in five years, what is the growth model after that?

This is where I leave you…  Feel free to share your apocalyptic ideas below.. 🙂

Thanks for reading!

-Ljova