Published on June 2, 2025 6:50 PM GMT
The worries that AI will push artists out of business are widespread. If, after all, AI can generate a song in seconds — a task that would require from a human musician years of training, expensive instruments, co-players, and studio time — then why not? My son, aged eleven, has recently used AI to produce a very heartfelt rock ballad with lyrics based on MIT license.
But I haven't yet seen anyone seriously contemplate how a world with no human musicians would look like.
Imagine AI streaming songs generated on the fly directly to your headphones. You might say things like:
"That was an interesting sequence of chords! Use that more often!"
"Make it a bit more syncopated."
"I like the Lydian fourth."
And:
"Cut the backpipes."
AI would adjust the music to your wishes, creating a feedback loop between the listener and the AI. Over time, the songs would drift through the space of possible music, eventually evolving into something entirely unique, something unlike anything anyone else is listening to.
(Some might believe that most people are mediocre, and their music would end up bland and similar to each other’s — but if no one else is in the feedback loop, how could that even happen? And if it did, what would this neutral, universally human music look like? A folk song from Borneo? Classical music? Hip-hop?)
Imagine being on a date. Your partner shares their headphones with you for a moment. Suddenly, you hear music unlike anything you’ve ever heard before. What does that mean for human interaction?
Anyway, in such a world some people would probably evolve music that is much more interesting to the public. Some people are just gifted. But if so, others might sometimes want to listen to their stream instead of their own and perhaps even incorporate parts of that style into their own music.
But once that happens, we return to the classic model of the music industry. There are creators and listeners. Even some kind of economy is possible. The only difference is that composers and bands are replaced by human/AI combos, and what’s distributed is “style” (AI models) instead of specific songs.
The above, of course, could apply to any kind of intellectual endeavor, not just music.
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