Not all AI tools are built from scratch, such as Google’s MusicFX, Suno, and Udio, which use independent creators like Hatcher; There are also tools for extracting roots, mixing and mastering, and brainstorming lyrics, all of which are finding user bases among hobbyists and professional producers. Sam Hollander, a pop hit maker who has worked with Panic! at the disco and flavaflavcompares AI to the explosion of drum machines in the ’80s, and how session drummers had to adapt and learn to program if they wanted to continue working.
Giving a typical example of where AI fits into his and his colleagues’ workflow, Hollander recalls how a UK grime producer he worked with was using Suno and Udio to generate funk and soul samples; once the tool repeated one it liked, it used another AI tool to extract the stem and use it, manually, on a track.
“There will be two paths,” Hollander predicts. “A completely organic industry opposing it” versus “people adapting (AI) to what they do.” Last week, thousands of musicians and other creatives aligned themselves with the former group, signing a letter stating that AI training was an “unfair threat to the livelihoods of the people behind those works.”
For his part, Hollander dabbles in artificial intelligence tools to generate ideas, as well as search and generate samples, but, like Hatcher, he always uses his original lyrics. “I don’t think AI does humor exceptionally well yet,” says Hatcher; human input is still necessary, and even necessary, if AI-created music is to avoid the dangers of being totally boring and bad.
“(Artificial music) has a shock factor or is music as a background element,” Hu notes. Shocking comedy is part of the appeal of successful AI projects, like the viral spongebob rap from producer Glorb, or ObscurestVinyl, a collection of tracks from “lost” albums like the Ronettes style “My arms are fucking stuck like this.” The original concepts and hand-crafted lettering mean that AI’s production avoids looking generic and makes it good and interesting enough that a major producer might pick it up, in Hatcher’s case, as a showcase on merit alone.
The other side of that coin is the realm of AI-generated ambient/chill music, which Hu identifies as a growing domain, citing YouTube channels such as alone at home and what is ? as examples. With millions of views and their discreet use of AI, these channels also show that what started as experimentation in the early days of these tools (literally, last year) is now becoming widespread in an almost hidden way. as AI output becomes indistinguishable from human-created samples and compositions.