Artist, Songwriter, Producer… or AI Music Designer?

After decades of investing in human talent, does the music industry really want to replace talented songwriters, artists and producers with an AI music designer to save money and speed up production? UMG seems to be saying yes, writes Bobby Owsinski.

Artist, Songwriter, Producer… or AI Music Designer?

by Bobby Owsinski via Music 3.0

You have to wonder if being an artist, songwriter, or producer is being perceived in industry circles as so quaint and passé unless AI is somehow employed. That’s the message that’s being sent in a veiled way, as earlier this week Universal Music Group announced a new partnership to accelerate its AI music patents. It kinda makes you scratch your head that a company built on decades of humans creating music is so willing to spend so much time and effort on bots that will do the creating instead. 

But it gets worse – Hallwood Media announced that it signed a deal with Imoliver, “the top-streaming music designer on AI-powered platform Suno,” who also happens to be a real human creator. It’s calling him an AI “music designer.” 

Talk To The AI

Maybe it’s a good thing that there’s finally a word describing a person that prompts a music AI into creating AI slop. Maybe there will now be an upcoming generation of “creators” that no longer want to grow up to be influencers, but want to be Music Designers instead.

If this sounds harsh, I have to tell you that I’m of two minds on this term and AI music creation in general. Having played with these platforms a fair amount, I can say that it does take some time and skill to obtain the exact output (song) that you’re going for, so I can appreciate that it’s a step or two away from just inputing a mindless prompt.

It’s also true that someone with musical training will get a better result as they can guide the AI more specifically and technically. 

But regardless of the skill level involved in creating some bland drivel, it’s nothing like spending years learning an instrument and everything that goes into it.

For Good Or. . . Not So Good

And that’s where the other half of my brain goes. As a musician, I’m both in awe of AI’s capabilities, and at the same time repelled by it. Have I spent all those years playing in bands, touring, working in the studio, for nothing?

Well, no! AI is not going to replace the left turns that musical creators make that turn into hits and trends. It’s just not built that way. Let’s see it come up with something like the 7 bar verse in The Beatles “Yesterday.”

That said, AI can be genuinely helpful for a musician or songwriter that has no other way to get their ideas recorded. It can supply that drummer that’s not available, that vocalist that sounds like Taylor Swift for a demo, or the orchestration for your guitar/vocal scratch.

But the latest betrayal by an industry fueled by betrayals provides the potential of adopting AI music designer as a real job designation that takes work away from skilled artists, songwriters, producers and engineers.

The thing that gives me hope is that the general public has caught on to AI slop and, for the most part, rejects it. We’re seeing this in just about any creative area, from art to writing to graphic design, and yes, to music as well.

I have no doubt that before long we’re going to have an AI-driven hit created by a music designer, but I also have no doubt that it will come and go with the speed of any other 1 hit wonder.

Back To Universal

Back to Universal Music investing in music AI patents – AI is a dream come true to a label steeped in corporate-think. What’s the biggest expense to a label? Paying the artists and songwriters. Eliminate them and it’s all profit.

Since labels are already getting out of the new music game by heavily investing on catalog, that means they’re becoming IP management companies instead. AI and virtual artists fit perfectly into this framework.

Don’t get discouraged by all this. If companies don’t want to be in the real music business, more power to them. There’s a new industry coming, based on real people, that will leave them in the dust.

Bobby Owsinski is a producer/engineer, author, blogger, podcaster, and coach. He has authored 24 books on music production, music, the music business, music AI, and social media.