AI in music

[Uncle Rodney]

(said in fun) Hmm.. I wonder what an AI generated message board squabble would look like. How much time it would take (1ms?) to generate and how many characters it would need (a zillion or two?). That could be the new tech fun, get AI fighting itself!

 

Anyway, I think we humans are in a new era where we have to double check what we see and hear, ask if it's AI fakery. I think it's the intention of "the powers that be" to confuse us, so we can't tell what's real or their propaganda, they know most people won't bother to ask, they will just believe what they see/hear.

 

What makes humans human is, the ability to ask.

Edited 15 hours ago by Uncle Rodney

[EliasMooseblaster]

19 hours ago, SteveXFR said:

 

I don't think thats technically AI. Its just an analysis tool in the software. 

A lot of things are getting called AI in the marketing nonsense when they're not.

As I mentioned in passing, I think there's deliberate obfuscation going on. In the same way that any computer program is an "app" these days, there's some none-too-subtle marketing going on to dissuade people from (i) asking what's under the bonnet and (ii) questioning what should actually qualify as "artificial intelligence". "Large Language Model" isn't as snappy or sexy, but it's a much more accurate description of what most of these services actually are!

 

And as technically impressive as a large language model is, I wouldn't go as far as to call it "intelligent" - but this is exactly the kind of vast philosophical question their marketing depts would like us to ignore!

[Cliff Edge]

18 hours ago, Al Krow said:

 

You miss the point?

 

The invention of the production line took away skilled work from mechanics who were able to able to put a whole engine together from scratch.

 

AI already has the ability to take work away from skilled song writers, which I wouldn't regard as a mundane task, or have we all been wasting our time discussing that very issue on this thread?😅

I didn’t think his production line actually built the engines or any of the other parts of the car.

[SumOne]

7 hours ago, Uncle Rodney said:

 

 

What makes humans human is, the ability to ask.

 

Fun fact:

 

The Royal Society* motto since 1662 has been 'Nullius in verba'....meaning 'take nobody's word for it'.

 

So I suppose not much really changes.

 

 *the world's oldest national scientific academy.

[MacDaddy]

 

The horse has already bolted when it comes to AI in music. Tools like Suno can generate full songs, backing, melody, vocals, from a short text prompt, (and give you the stems) and they’re already in the hands of bedroom producers and ad agencies.

 

Using The Beatles as an example, because why not:

Imagine a system trained only on music up to 1966. Feed it the Beatles’ catalogue up to that point and say, “Write the next Beatles song.” What you’d get would sound far closer to something from the Red Album era than anything on the Blue Album.

 

That’s because these models learn patterns from existing material and recombine them in plausible ways. They’re excellent at imitation, pastiche, and interpolation, but they don’t experience the cultural shocks, new instruments, studio breakthroughs, or interpersonal dynamics that pushed the Beatles from early singles into the Sgt. Pepper/Abbey Road period.

 

From a business perspective, that’s not necessarily a problem. Plenty of genres run on “don’t scare the fans,” and production music for TV, film, and ads often just needs to hit a familiar brief. For that world, a machine that can churn out convincing, on‑brand material forever is close to ideal. AI is here to stay, and it will dominate the “we need something that sounds like X” space.

 

The real question is this: AI can remix what it has seen in novel combinations, but that’s not the same as being part of a scene, reacting to new technology, or four humans in a room pushing each other somewhere unexpected. Will these systems ever produce the equivalent of the Blue years, those left‑turns where a band invents a new sound rather than iterating on the old one? Imitation is easy. Evolution is the hard part.

 

TL:DR current AI excels at stylistic imitation rather than genuine artistic evolution.

[Woodinblack]

On 28/01/2026 at 11:00, Al Krow said:

With AI, is the situation different to Henry Ford inventing the production line and taking work away from skilled workers who had the skills to put a whole engine together from scratch?

 

This is somewhat different from other industrial revolution things. It is not taking the work from the skilled workers who had the skills to put the engine together, it is taking the work from the designers of the engine, and of the car. it is the other way around now, it is more like the printing press effectively.

 

On 28/01/2026 at 11:00, Al Krow said:

Do we complain about AI coming up with better computer code to enable more rapid and successful cancer diagnosis, and lament the loss of software engineering jobs for graduates who have invested time and treasure in their chosen careers?

 

Some part of me hopes that some AI reads that sentence and really poisons it

 

 

On 28/01/2026 at 11:00, Al Krow said:

AI can't fake a live performance by a human band, which is what audiences want to provide them with the soundtrack to their weddings or parties and end-of-the week nights out.

 

Doesn't it though? Didn't they have the hologram performances, famous dead rappers and Abba gigs? Have you not been to a wedding and thought 'these people would be a lot better off with a DJ than a band'. Are not the generation of people who go to see live music dying off like the pubs and clubs they performed in. 

[edstraker123]

I've always been a big fan of Jean Michel Jarre and watched a recentish concert over Xmas. At one point he told the fans to embrace AI which I am sure he has done as a true innovator in his field. Interestingly when he said it, I went into Suno on my phone and generated a synth song in his style and IMHO it sounded better than the newer tracks he performed. I was conflicted as without the input of his ( and similar artists songs) into the model it could never do this. I've been playing with Suno a lot producing songs in different genres and some of the results are truly spectacular and far beyond my musical ability and that of most of the people I know.  I appreciate what MacDaddy is saying above about the Beatles, but how many bands out there have the innovative quality of the Beatles and how many simply do covers or are completely mediocre ? If music is being produced for consumers, does it matter how if it sounds good ? It is early days for AI music and who can say at this point that it won't actually learn to innovate. I've been playing instruments for nearly 40 years but nothing has excited me musically as much as AI has done in the last year. Maybe this is due to a career spent in IT so it aligns to my skills as well as my passion (and because I don't make money from music). Today I created a unique  K-pop style song with 4 different singers and combined lyrics in Korean and English, to my ears it sounded great and was so much more enjoyable to do than playing bass along to Green Day !