Will AI 'terminate' songwriters?

AI is all the rage and its effects on music are already being felt everywhere.
Is it time to submit to the AI overlords or is there still time left for songwriters?
This is my take on it...
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Hey, it's Chris, and today I wanted to talk about AI, the rage, right? Everybody's talking about this.
It's supposed to change everything. It's going to have a huge impact on music and writers and recording and everything like that. Okay?

So, I just wanted to take this with a little bit of a grain of salt.

Now, if you look back historically at different things that changed when the internet came along. For example, there was this massive dot com bubble that happened because everybody got way over optimistic about the change internet was going bring everybody. Did that change happen? Yes, it did, but it took almost 20 more years from the time in the nineties when they were talking about. All these things that are going to happen. Everybody invested in it - and of course they overinvested in it, created a bubble and a lot of people went broke because of that.

When color printers came out in the eighties, everybody thought they were a graphic designer. It's like, you just get a color printer and look what you can do.

Digital audio workstations, right? They can do anything. Now you can get one laptop sitting on a boat even. And you can produce stuff that sounds like anything on the radio if you know what you're doing. But it's all there, right? So, people think, “Ah, I just have to buy the latest thing and I'm going to sound like the greatest stars,” right?

There are all these examples of human over optimism about so many different things, and I really believe it's the same with AI right now.

Now, will all those changes come, will potentially songwriters become obsolete? Will music supervisors become obsolete? Will all these things have such an earth-shaking change to the music industry and so on?

I believe it will. I believe AI can do that, certainly.

But just like that line in Maverick with Tom Cruise, and the guy says to him, “Hey, you know you're going to be replaced (by essentially robot robotic planes and stuff like that), and your time is your dinosaur.” And Tom Cruise looks up as character and says, “Well, not today, sir.”
That's the point of this message right now.

Not today. Things are not going to go crazy.

Now you can jump on to ChatGPT, and you can type in ideas for lyrics. And there are people who are actually producing music with AI, with mixed results and so on. So it's cool. There is a great tool to go out there and do that.

Should you be afraid of it or should you worse, worse, think that it's going to solve all your problems and that you can just simply jump onto ChatGPT and become a rockstar?

The other element of that is what happens when technology moves forward, or say social change happens or something like that? It is fresh, novel, sometimes frightening at the beginning.

What happens is that people's expectations meet the change. So, what that means is that you get used to hearing the new change or seeing the new change. So, if we're talking about music, if AI is able to do certain things as humans, we just start to expect that.

The most important part of all of this is remembering that to connect with humans, especially with art, and especially with music, it needs a human - at least right now.

People talk about building content online, like getting it to write them emails or things like that, or writing essays in school and so on. Yes, it's a great starting block. It's a new version of the word magnets on your fridge, and it's way, way better than that. It can do those things.

But you can also tell when it's been written by AI, at least right now. So remember, we are not replaceable, okay?

So, I'm betting a bunch of years where we're just going to keep going through this thing, and things will change and so on.

But I am not jumping on the bandwagon here with everybody (well, at least a lot of people saying that “The time is nigh and you’d better adapt or get out” kind of thing.

So, I think we have more time.

#syncsongwriter #sync #chrissd #licensing #synclicensing #AI #ChatGPT

[petrajordanmusic]

I love writing with Chat GPT! And no, it's not like a Coca Cola machine where you throw in a coin, i.e. give it a prompt to "write lyrics in the style of..." and get a perfect song out of it, just like a perfect can of soda. It's more like using it as a co-writer who churns out ideas and I am the one who choses what I keep and what goes out of the window. I think it still comes down to CHOICE and TASTE - those are mine, and no AI can take those away from me. And even in 20 years, when AI has evolved far beyond how we know it today, the PROCESS of creating art - music, lyrics, visual art etc. is what makes us humans tick. In other words, I don't care if there's a machine that can do a better job than me creating something, I will still enjoy the process of creation because it's a gift given to me as a human. I get to choose what I like, what I dislike, and what input I want to put into my work. So no, I don't feel threatened.

[chancegreenisdead]

Was actually gonna ask you about this! Its been driving me crazy wondering. 😵‍💫

Great take! I agree, but also think adapt or die still applies. Either learn to work it or outwork it! 🎸

[SAmourMusic]

GREAT TOPIC!!! As you stated towards the end of your video, human connection is important. Here’s my theory, what comes from the heart touches the heart. 💛 We as songwriters have the ability to connect with others because we write from our hearts. AI maybe a tool, however it can never replace the human touch. That’s the beauty of the Arts. 💛☺️

[midiwhale]

Chris, I think the point about AI adoption is the comparison with history. Where it took Netflix 3.5 years, and Spotify 5 months, to get to a level of adoption (of 1 million users), it took chatgpt "5 DAYS".
But A.I what?
As a tool - for song ideas, for music research, for album covers - I do this already. But you get out what you put in! And as I detail in my A.I. podcast, it's not 1 click for anything useful. Not till gpt5 probably (we're on gpt4 now). Like most things creative, it's an "iterative" PROCESS. To do song lyrics "properly" it's more like 120 prompts - just like you would with your brain. So why? Because you'll write a song you woudn't have thought of on your own. But it still has to be your song!
The 1 button stuff is like a 6yo kids version.
THE DANGER is in the greed of humans, to make money with A.I. We're probably only a few months away from AI being able to 1 button click BACKING MUSIC, as used in unfeatured background scene music. Right now, it's still a little cheesy. But I'm sad to say that MUSICIANS are programming he new A.I. and they know how music and emotions work.
As for the simulated voice Drake songs and formulaic EDM - it's happening. The industry is resisting (spotify removed it LOL) but it's going to be BETTER NOISE than most 20 y.o. kids make with splice loops or Output Arcade. More variations. More changes. More musical development, with today's A.I.
SO I see the bottom end of music libraries being replaced with AI generate custom libraries in the next 9 months. The $30 musak libraries promoted by PRS/BMI are going to suffer. And honestly GOOD! The PRO's should not be playing with direct music sales at a bucket price anyway.
For the moment CUSTOM music, music for brands that want an artist tie in, we are safe, for this year.
How do we compete with million dollar tech companies like Black Rock who are ONLY in it for the money?
We do what ARTISTS do! Not what musicians do. We market better. We build relationships with our fans. And we put our prices UP! Yes UP!
We make sure the line between cheese and caviar is highly distinctive.
Humans are the end user, not other machines. We need to appeal to them.

Peter

[stevejacobson-thespreading]

I agree that we're safe from that for now and likely for the foreseeable near and maybe mid, future. However, I think it is probably pragmatic to pay attention to (to the extent possible, which is really challenging and to some degree definitely impossible), wondering how soon it will be before more of our human input will be able to be replaced in a technologically advanced enough manner, to where we as musicians might get more impacted than we would like to believe think would become possible. Just like taxi companies and blockbuster video rental companies and other industries that have disappeared over the years due to technological advances. I'm sure, however, that as some doors close to us, new doors will open as long as we stay aware and are willing to embrace instead of fight against the changes that will become inevitable.

[williamturner]

The internet was not a new species.
A new form of life. . .
weather we like it or not. .
Buckel up everybody!

[UnlockYourRockStar]

Hi Chris! AI will no doubt take over many aspects in our lives and music too in the future, I strongly believe songwriters can take this to our advantage and use it and always we will be way ahead as no AI can transmit feelings, that is unique to humans, how much ever AI tries it will never show true emotions. I also believe in the future songwriters using this human tool will be incredibly in demand!

[erikaelliot]

I agree with you. It will be another tool to make music. I believe that people will always want to have a human experience and they will keep on going to concerts where humans will sing songs they or other humans have written. Just like auto tune, AI in songwriting will be sth that you can use but if you’re singing live it’ll show if you can really sing. Same with writing songs: anyone can use AI to write a song but if you’ve written a great song for yourself or other artists that’s way cooler. So: no, I’m not afraid of AI in songwriting as I am not frightened by robots replacing singers on stage.

[klaatuklaatu]

In the beginning it’s a novelty and cool but people Always prefer the real thing.. would you rather have a sample guitar or REAL guitar player? Drum machine or REAL drummer? I hate drum machines and have never and never ever use one.. Real drummer always wins… Have you ever heard about what size computer would be the equivalent of the human brain? It’s like so huge, no computer has ever been built like the brain and never will..