“AI will never be real music!”
In the past week, my feed has been flooded with musicians arguing about AI.
Many are horrified.
They fear being replaced. Buried beneath the avalanche.
That's understandable. We've been here before.
Skilled weavers feared powered looms. Painters feared cameras. When synthesizers arrived, many musicians dismissed them as fake. Player pianos. Gramophones. Digital recording...
We have a tendency to preserve the world that made us.
History, though, reveals another interesting pattern.
Whenever humans remove one scarcity, another scarcity soon takes its place.
Photography didn't end art.
Which photographs are worthy of our attention?
Synthesizers didn't end musicianship.
Which songs are worthy of our attention?
Recording didn't end live performance.
Which concerts are worthy of our attention?
Anyone can generate songs using AI. Most of those songs will be forgotten within minutes. Plenty of human musicians have written forgettable songs too.
The real question has always been which songs deserve to live?
That's a question of judgement, regardless of how the song was made.
The musician chooses the note that matters.
The listener chooses what to embrace. And what to let go.
The listener has never rewarded effort.
The listener rewards what moves them.