If you’ve got a home studio setup, or you work in a more professional studio setting, you’re likely familiar with the vast number of virtual instruments available at your disposal. From guitars to strings and brass, you can virtually play any instrument you want with just the help of a keyboard controller and some basic musical know-how. Certainly, the evolution of virtual instruments and MIDI technology has allowed songwriters and producers to become more independent with respect to producing record-ready tracks in an efficient and affordable way.
For sure, many professional producers crank out broadcast quality tracks from their bedrooms like a song factory on steroids. Sync writers (songwriters for TV and Film), for example, can quickly respond to a brief from a music supervisor asking for a country-hip-hop fusion track in a minor key with violin leads. A seasoned writer/producer could create this track within a couple of days in their home studio with minimal need for collaboration.
Besides finding a couple of good vocalists who can work for cheap, all one needs is a computer, some software, a mic, and a MIDI controller. Mixing and mastering skills are a plus, of course, but your out-of-work buddy with an engineering degree will probably do it for a hundred bucks. And often times, the resulting track is good enough to be signed by a professional sync publisher or music library. I’ve done it, and I’m no Jack Antonoff.
This ability to independently write for publishers that aren’t record labels has been great news for songwriters and composers around the world. Afterall, it’s close to impossible to make a living through the cruel algorithms of Spotify and Tidal, especially when you’re literally only getting paid pennies for every track that’s played.
But with the advent of AI-created songs, things may start to change. And perhaps for the worst when it comes to the futures of commercial and film composers. Already there are a few start-up companies, like Suno and Udio, that can deliver a fully fleshed-out track, vocals and all, within less than a minute, simply by responding to prompts given by the user.
To get a gist of what AI could do, I tried them out by asking them to write songs in various genres about B&H Photo and Video. My prompts included instructions like: “Highlight our great customer service,” “Mention our content writers who educate customers,” “Make it a jazz song,” and more. Some of the results were silly and unusable, but many were pretty impressive. The most obvious problems were the vocals, which sometimes sounded slightly robotic or “autotuned,” and didn’t possess that clarity you’d expect from a professionally recorded track. However, several attempts did produce vocals with sufficiently natural and human-like inflections that made the performance convincing. That's not to say the AI-produced songs didn't have significant shortcomings (they absolutely did), but the results were promising, especially if they're indicative of where AI technology is head and what it will be capable of in the future.
But that doesn't mean AI is coming for your musical career. Recently, more than 200 artists, including megastars like Billie Eilish and Nicki Minaj, signed a letter calling out companies for using AI to emulate material originally created by human artists, sendign a strong signal that musicians would not stand idly by while computers plagiarized and repurposed their work. In a similar act of defiance, several companies, including Sony Music, Universal Music Group, and Warner Records, have sued Suno and Udio for copyright infringement they claim has been committed on an “almost unimaginable scale.”
Whether or not public denouncements and litigation will stop companies from using AI to emulate artists is yet to be seen, but regardless of the outcome of those endeavors, one thing remains true: Computers cannot emulate the human soul. No amount of pattern recognition will allow AI to experience and empathize with the heartbreak that has haunted Taylor Swift for years. No technological breakthrough will give an AI the life experience needed to pull off the expressive chutzpa of Lizzo. And what about The Beatles? Did AI meditate for months in India with a guru named Maharishi who would later turn into Sexy Sadie? The point is, true artistry is more than a great melody and emotive lyrics; it's more than ones and zeroes. True artists penetrate the hearts of their listeners with their humanity, vulnerability, and life experience. So, keep on hustling, my fellow songwriters. We’re painfully complicated and scarred human beings who know how to love. And no one can replace that.
