One week ago, YouTube and other online players said that AI technology would not replace human creativity… or human labor within the music industry. However, major music industry insiders are already sounding the alarm that we are on the verge of a game changer, without a doubt. Shawn Everett, the Grammy-winning engineer and producer behind albums by Kacey Musgraves, the War on Drugs, and Alvvays, compares the advent of AI in music to the advent of the electric guitar or sampling.
In short, with the advancement of AI technology, soon it is very possible that the world’s most famous musicians will all be replaced. This is not a joke.
“As far as songwriting and production goes, we’re on the cusp of a wave of something that I don’t think we’ve really seen, maybe ever,” he says.
What’s coming next, Everett predicts, will be AI tools that can quickly combine ideas for melody, chords, and rhythm, similar to how programs like Midjourney and Dall-E, which generate images from natural language prompts, have shaken up visual art.
Within the next twelve to twenty-four, he speculates, the thousands of plugins in digital audio workstations like Pro Tools could merge into a single plugin that seamlessly carries out the user’s verbal requests.
ChatGPT is already able to write lyrics in the style of anyone you ask it to replicate.
Universal and YouTube Announce AI Music Principles; Claim AI Will Never Replace Bands Like MÖTLEY CRÜE
As an engineer, Mr. Everett wonders if he will ask the AI to set the EQ for a particular drum style—say, Metallica’s—or if the tech will eventually be able to spit out a replicated Lars Ulrich drum performance that sounds better than any drums he (or anyone else, for that matter) could have mic’d. “Obviously that’s a horrifying scenario for a lot of people, but it’s probably gonna happen,” Everett says.
Musicians Are Already Using AI More Often Than We Think | Pitchfork
The World’s First Album Composed and Produced by an AI Has Been Unveiled (futurism.com)
Rick Beato, a YouTube music personality and veteran producer, echoes his peers’ concerns about cuts to recording studio personnel. “Mastering engineers will be the first to go, and then mixing engineers,” he says, predicting an AI mixing/mastering tool that can mimic anyone’s style. There are already robotic microphone stands being used by engineers via an app—these could be controlled by an AI instead, eliminating more work.
The Crue’s ousted 72 year old guitarist Mick Mars launched a lawsuit against the band he helped to create, citing fraud among the other members, who the guitar player claims are faking their live concert performances with the help of “backing tracks”.
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