The Unsettling Future of Music in an AI World
Standing in my home studio, gazing at the collection of instruments I’ve gathered over the years, I find myself wrestling with some deeply unsettling thoughts about the future of music. The recent comments from a Berklee professor about AI music being better than 80% of his students have hit particularly close to home.
My old Yamaha keyboard sits silent these days, collecting dust next to the digital audio workstation I invested in last year. The irony isn’t lost on me - I spent thousands on equipment to make music, while today’s AI can produce surprisingly competent tunes with just a text prompt.
What’s truly concerning isn’t just that AI can create decent music - it’s the speed of improvement. Just over a year ago, AI-generated music was mostly a novelty. Now it’s outperforming music students at one of the world’s premier music institutions. The trajectory is clear, and it’s frankly terrifying.
Looking through various online discussions about this topic, I notice a recurring theme: “It’s fine, AI will only replace the mediocre stuff.” But that’s precisely what worries me. When we say something will only impact the “bottom 80%”, we’re talking about the vast majority of working musicians. These aren’t failed artists - they’re the backbone of our music industry, creating soundtracks for indie games, writing jingles for local businesses, and performing at small venues.
The implications extend far beyond music. We’re seeing this pattern across creative industries - AI tools that can match or exceed the capabilities of most professionals, leaving only the exceptional few at the top of their game. The Brunswick Street music scene I grew up with was built on the backs of musicians who might not have been world-class, but who created authentic, meaningful experiences for their audiences.
Sure, we’ll still have our Paul Kellys and Courtney Barnetts, but what about the countless musicians who make a modest living creating production music or teaching piano lessons? When AI can generate perfect background music for corporate videos or provide instant music lessons, where does that leave them?
The optimists argue that AI will democratize music creation, making it accessible to everyone. That’s true, but it also fundamentally changes what it means to be a musician. The journey of learning, struggling, and gradually improving might become obsolete when anyone can generate professional-quality music with a few prompts.
Yet despite these concerns, I refuse to believe that human-created music will become irrelevant. There’s something deeply personal about music created by humans for humans - an authenticity that comes from shared experiences and emotions. Maybe that’s what we need to focus on: not competing with AI on technical perfection, but doubling down on the uniquely human aspects of musical expression.
This might be the wake-up call we need to reimagine how we value and support human creativity in an AI-dominated world. Perhaps instead of measuring success by technical proficiency alone, we need to celebrate the imperfect, emotional, and distinctly human elements that make music truly meaningful.