AI and the future state of music creation

[Mr. Torture]

Is anyone else worried about this new AI that can create songs within minutes? There are some really really good songs out there created entirely by AI. They are fully mixed fully mastered and performed way better than I could ever do. It makes me wonder what is the point of even continuing on, when by the simple push of a button I can have a perfect song created without any work at all. Thoughts? 

Edited September 23 by Mr. Torture
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[Gswitz]

I never enjoyed perfect songs. 

[Mr. Torture]

1 hour ago, Gswitz said:

I never enjoyed perfect songs. 

Neither do I, but the songs being created are nearly impossible to tell the difference between real and AI. Plus. Most non musician music lovers really don’t seem to care.

[Gswitz]

I guess I'm not really scared. For a long time, photography could have replaced painting, but it hasn't. 

That said, I don't expect to make money. 

[Starship Krupa]

2 hours ago, Gswitz said:

I guess I'm not really scared. For a long time, photography could have replaced painting, but it hasn't. 

That is an excellent analogy.

6 hours ago, Gswitz said:

I never enjoyed perfect songs.

If my music can be equaled or bested by algorithms, then I have no reason for doing them. My goal is always to create something with the stamp of my own personality/taste/creativity.

I listen to some genres that to most people, all the songs sound alike. Ambient drone, for instance. And I understand why that is. However, I can be listening to Drone Zone and then suddenly sit up and have to make a note of the artist and song. It just has something.

That something is more difficult for an algorithm to do.

[SuperFreq]

2 hours ago, Starship Krupa said:

That is an excellent analogy.

If my music can be equaled or bested by algorithms, then I have no reason for doing them. My goal is always to create something with the stamp of my own personality/taste/creativity.

I listen to some genres that to most people, all the songs sound alike. Ambient drone, for instance. And I understand why that is. However, I can be listening to Drone Zone and then suddenly sit up and have to make a note of the artist and song. It just has something.

That something is more difficult for an algorithm to do.

 

Totally man. Yes, AI can crank out some good stuff. But that just forces us real humans to up the game.

I consider it a worthy challenge. Now I have to do even better, if I'm worth my salt.

If it gets to the point that AI is creating something better than I can imagine or produce, well then I'm not a good musician and I should go back to being the doorman at the Oasis Hotel.

[craigb]

19 hours ago, Gswitz said:

I never enjoyed perfect songs. 

There's only one perfect song!  John Cage's 4'33".  😁

[Notes_Norton]

Mozart supposedly threw dice to get ideas to write songs. So many songs have had pieces of those before included. I suspect AI is just the latest in the road to a new song.

I'm not a very good songwriter, since I often don't pay attention to the lyrics, and when I do, it's usually after every nuance of the musical performance has been noticed and analyzed. Thus, every attempt at writing lyrics by me just sounds dumb.

No matter how a song is written, if I like it, it doesn't matter to me.  And if it's appropriate, I'll learn it and play it on a gig.

As the future comes racing towards me, I just try to adapt to the changes the best I can. If I were a songwriter, I'd be embracing AI, and using it as Mozart used the dice.

[Amberwolf]

12 hours ago, Notes_Norton said:

Mozart supposedly threw dice to get ideas to write songs

I do something similar someitmes, dropping bits I want to experiment with into my template's tracks, not in any particular place or time.     Listen to it, move things, arrange, trim, cut, add, play/record/draw new stuff, edit, add, edit, etc.   

Sometimes I get a really good track that way, like Drywater, Mars.

[Shane_B.]

I predicted here a while ago that there would come a time when we could make our voices sound like famous entertainers within our daw with an ai type vst.

We don't have that yet, but I've heard a lot of new so gs by Elvis recently done by AI. So it's here. Just a matter of time. 

There's a time and a place for that kind of thing, but real musicians will always be here. We'll start seeing "human" remakes of AI generated songs before long. I'm sure we already have heard that already actually. All this pop music that sounds all the same is probably ai generated and someone fleshes them out. 

[Notes_Norton]

When we were working for Motown, back in the day, Berry Gordy gave us the same advice he gave others. Don't write anything new, write what's already out there.

That's pretty much what AI is supposed to be doing, at least if I understand what I've read about it.

As far as making my voice sound like someone else? That could be an improvement, depending on who gets chosen. 

But I'm a believer that expression is more important than voice. If voice were more important than expression, Doctor John, Stevie Nicks, John Lennon, Bob Dylan, Bjork, and so many others wouldn't have sold many records. 

[audioschmaudio]

Suno is much better at making music than I am. But so is almost everybody who's published music on Spotify. So, not much has changed for me 😅

[craigb]

Ok, this was a HOLY F***ING S**T moment for me!

Steve - Sonus Lucis (usually a modular musician who has a Discord channel that I'm a moderator on) decided to have some fun with Suno.  Here's what he posted:

Quote

Underneath this one is a track called Holoheadron by The Ozric Tentacles. As an experiment, I loaded it into Suno.ai and asked it to come up with vocals about the thrill of driving.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1316155762694684744/1432047908672508014/Holohedron_Highway_of_Light_Suno_v5_Prog_Cover_v1.mp3?ex=69004acb&is=68fef94b&hm=9599b7d4a95935d035c76dc97db7161c5b275218d6875f7f8e55892a703d70b4&

 

I've already listened three times!  Totally blown away!  🤯

 

(Let me know if that link doesn't work!)

[Shane_B.]

7 hours ago, craigb said:

Ok, this was a HOLY F***ING S**T moment for me!

Steve - Sonus Lucis (usually a modular musician who has a Discord channel that I'm a moderator on) decided to have some fun with Suno.  Here's what he posted:

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1316155762694684744/1432047908672508014/Holohedron_Highway_of_Light_Suno_v5_Prog_Cover_v1.mp3?ex=69004acb&is=68fef94b&hm=9599b7d4a95935d035c76dc97db7161c5b275218d6875f7f8e55892a703d70b4&

 

I've already listened three times!  Totally blown away!  🤯

 

(Let me know if that link doesn't work!)

I just listened to it. I have a dumb question. Is that an AI generated voice, or is that a real person singing lyrics that AI wrote?

If that's AI singing, then honestly, music is over. There's no need to bother anymore except as a hobby you enjoy.

It's incredible, frightening, and depressing, all at the same time.

That said, I have an instrumental song I wrote and recorded I'd love to run through that to see what it comes up with. But I don't have a clue where to start.

[Brian Walton]

On 9/23/2025 at 8:02 AM, Mr. Torture said:

Is anyone else worried about this new AI that can create songs within minutes? There are some really really good songs out there created entirely by AI. They are fully mixed fully mastered and performed way better than I could ever do. It makes me wonder what is the point of even continuing on, when by the simple push of a button I can have a perfect song created without any work at all. Thoughts? 

I'm thankful that making hit sounding tracks for money was never my intent of picking up an instrument.  

For those who's income is dependent on pumping out release ready tracks that sound like the top 200, I'd be terrified.  

[Amberwolf]

At the moment, there's no worry about the suno site taking away money; their agreement expressly forbids it's usage for that:

 

Quote

Commercial Use: Subject to the Content Section below, unless otherwise expressly authorized herein or in the Service, you agree not to display, distribute, license, perform, publish, reproduce, duplicate, copy, create derivative works from, modify, sell, resell, grant access to, transfer, or otherwise use or exploit any portion of the Service, and any Output, for any commercial purposes.

Quote

If you are a user of the free or Basic tier of the Service then, you covenant and agree that you will only use Outputs generated from Submissions made by you through the Service solely for your lawful, internal, personal and non-commercial purposes, provided that you give attribution credit to Suno in each case.

they don't say if that's true of the other tiers or not; they are not expressly called out in that agreement in this way. 

 

they also repeat this more than once:

Quote

Due to the nature of artificial intelligence and machine learning, your Output may not be unique and the Service may generate the same or similar output for a third party. Other users may provide similar input to the Service and receive the same or similar output from the Service. An input that is submitted by other users is not your Submission, and an output that is requested by and generated for other users is not your Output.

 

 

However, their site does not allow you to create your own independent account there, unless you use your phone number.  To create an account without a phone number, you must use one of your existing accounts with some other service, linking these things together.   Anyone that doesn't want to do this, or does not have one of these other services, can't use suno.  

[Amberwolf]

Wierd, the above is "Hidden - This content must be approved before it can be edited."   I don't even have any links in it?

This forum is so wierd (it doesn't even have a "roll eyes" emoticon)

 

[craigb]

4 hours ago, Shane_B. said:

I just listened to it. I have a dumb question. Is that an AI generated voice, or is that a real person singing lyrics that AI wrote?

If that's AI singing, then honestly, music is over. There's no need to bother anymore except as a hobby you enjoy.

It's incredible, frightening, and depressing, all at the same time.

That said, I have an instrumental song I wrote and recorded I'd love to run through that to see what it comes up with. But I don't have a clue where to start.

AI generated!  (I asked the same question!)

[Mark Morgon-Shaw]

7 hours ago, Shane_B. said:

I just listened to it. I have a dumb question. Is that an AI generated voice, or is that a real person singing lyrics that AI wrote?

Suno can generate great souding singers, A friend of mine is using it to sing all his never released songs.  There is a "cover" feature so you can upload a song you made and have it do a cover version in any style you want. I gotta say in many respects it sounds really good and was a big step up from his oringal demos but with the same chords, melody and lyrics that he wrote many years before Generative AI existed.

2 hours ago, craigb said:

It's incredible, frightening, and depressing, all at the same time

 I can agree with the first two but I wouldn't say it's depressing , he's hugely enjoyed hearing his old songs sounding slick and professional, on the flip side nobody in my industry would touch them with a 10ft pole and I know they have AI detection software at the production music libraries I write for.  

I don't agree with prompting songs though , that's super low effort slop.