Music in the Age of AI

I think we don’t want to admit how good AI is going to get at making music.

First, they’ll dominate the mindless party anthem market, for which there will always be demand.

Then as AI gets more sophisticated, it will be able to mimic the imperfections of the human voice. It will mimic the vulnerability of humans and create deep, heartfelt lyrics. 

One AI model will generate 1,000 songs a day and chances are at least one of them will be a banger. 

AI will flood the market with cheap, satisfying music. 

And at that point, humans will seek out music that’s in line with why we invented music in the first place: for humans to communicate with other humans.

Trying to compete with AI on song quality or output is a fool’s errand.

Let’s do what AI can’t do and focus on the human experience of making and performing music. 

Let’s share the story of how the song was made, who made it and why. 

There’s no reason to care about an AI song. There’s no story behind it. An engineer prompted it to create something derivative. 

If we start sharing the story behind music created by humans, people will have more of a reason to choose it over AI music. 

It’s not just about the music itself; it’s about the human experience behind it. 

Musicians at Incubator have had their hearts broken and written songs about it. They’ve made friends here, lost friends, grown as people and made songs about it.

I’ve always thought if the general public could observe what I’ve been able to observe, they would fall in love with the people and music coming out of Incubator. 

I only want to listen to Incubator music because it’s the only music that matters to me. It matters to me because I know the people who made it, how they made it and why. And now so will you.