We’ve recently started to see a lot of new content around AI, and I started to wonder whether this will be applied to music and be able to generate a full song, essentially replacing us. A couple of thoughts on that…
4 THOUGHTS FROM ME
1. Instead of fighting against it, use AI as much as you can to help you build better tracks. AI is here to stay, whether you like it or not, so you might just take advantage of it. Soon we’ll likely have AI generating midis, samples, loops, and even full songs, but you should not panic. My belief is that, like with any new technology, the faster that you keep up with it, and learn how to use it to create new and interesting ideas, the better off you’ll be when others realize it’s here to stay, and need to catch up to you. For example, you can start generating lyrics for your songs using ChatGPT, or even full chord progressions. Instead of trying to fight it and reject it, how can you use it to make your song more unpredictable? Or, for example, how can you use it to make better chord progressions, or get better at sound design? Soon, you’ll be able to do even more, but actively try to incorporate it into your workflow so you’re not left behind when it really comes.
2. Focus on the journey and on why you’re producing music. You’re a producer today because you want to express yourself creatively, and not, or not only, because you want to tour the world with your music. Up until now, you might have perceived that the journey is quite drastic and demanding, but the process of making music is what is valued by us, not only the finished result. We want to make our songs, even if it’s worse than what you could get buying a ghost-produced song since the focus is not only to release good music, but also to be able to look back to the process and proudly say “I made this”. Nothing in that sense will change with AI and even with the worst scenario possible, you’ll still be able to produce your music and have fun with it. Therefore, as I’ve said in the past, remember that your focus is the journey, and not only the finished result, and AI can never replace that in you.
3. Keep up on everything AI-related when it comes to music to avoid being left out. AI is growing fast, and it will probably start to grow even faster in the future, so staying in touch with what is happening in the AI world is really important to stay ahead of the curve. For example, ChatGPT just released their newer model, which is supposedly a lot better and more accurate. The last version of the model was quite ‘wonky’ to write lyrics, but I’ve seen some comments that it is a lot better in this newer version. The same applies to image tools like Midjourney, which got a huge development boost and is now making more realistic images. And, the same will happen with AI music. We’re still at the starting point of it, and it will develop into greater things that will eventually be able to make full amazing songs, melodies, chords, drum patterns, etc. Staying in touch with the AI world is a way to keep yourself ahead of the curve and be able to start using these tools as soon as they are available. For example, if you want to develop drums with AI, a really cool tool I’ve been using is called Emergent Drums, and the quality of the samples they develop is amazing, and it will only get better with the new functionality they will add, that will be able to regenerate samples based on other samples. Don’t wait until it’s too late and start researching right now.
4. Be so good AI can’t replace you! In addition to AI being a long way out until it reaches high-quality standards of generating music, AI will never be able to take the decisions that you will take because it’s simply not you. It will reach someday the capacity to think and create like an artist, but that will not be the same as your artistry. However, that will all depend on if you’re making music that you think is somehow different from what others are making. As A&Rs state in this post about what labels are actually looking for in songs, what makes your music unique will be even more crucial to really make you stand out from the crowd, something I’ve written about in this post. Therefore, start to develop something that will make your music unique and always ahead of AI and you’ll likely be harder to replace by the AI as it will take an even longer time for AI to start thinking ahead of yourself while keeping your uniqueness the same. Lastly, start to develop a sense of experimentation that will always add a new spin to your uniqueness, which will make it even harder to replace you.
1 QUESTION FOR YOU
What are some AI tools that you start using right now?
1. ChatGPT is a text-based AI prompt that interacts with you based on your commands to it. You can ask for lyrics of songs, speeches or even powerful words that you can later generate using tools like Play.Ht.
2. Emergent Drums, as mentioned before, is a Drum synthesizer that can generate several types of Drums samples like Kicks, Claps, Snares, Hats, Percs, and many others. You can then use UVI Percussion Factory or Audiomodern Playbeat to generate the rhythms for you!
3. Plugins like Scaler 2 or Audiocipher or Hookpad are really nice chord generators that can help you generate better chords. Even though not generated solely with AI, they already help you generate chords based on common music patterns that can help you speed up your writing process
