Artificial Intelligence-is it just another tool?

I’m making a new album. This requires a lot of different tools:

• I used instruments plus microphones
• I used a click track
• I used a computer and DAW and audio interface to record and master the music
• I used a camera as a tool to photograph the images for the cover and back.
• I used a font to write the text so someone could read it.

But I didn’t use artificial intelligence for my music. I could. But that seems wrong. I didn’t use AI for the lyrics either. Wrong.

But why? Isn’t it just another tool? Like a spell checker? Something to give me ideas of where I might go? Why does it seem like it’s over the line?

The American Songwriter had an article (2024-08), where they interviewed a famous musician via email. I don’t know if the questions were made with AI, but the answers were definitely AI generated. They were awful, and if I was the musician or the magazine, I’d be embarrassed to publish that. Big stupid nebulous words that don’t actually say anything but give longer sentences with less clarity. This is a good example of what not to do with AI, but there are plenty of ways you can use AI successfully, but should I? Should you?

The reason it’s over the line is because the technology pushes us out of the equation! AI can make songs and make lyrics and help you distribute the songs and can even pretend to listen to your songs for you. It won’t be long before radio stations are stuffing out AI songs all day long and even use AI DJs like spotify is doing.

“Content”, as Spotify puts it, will be free to those that are using AI, and it will be the large businesses that will use AI to suck the life out of music…and put it back as pretend life created by the computer.

Already, drums are automatically re-aligned to be perfectly on the beat, vocals are re-tuned, guitars are re-sounded. We do this because a perfect song sounds better, but we are doing too much. I don’t know where the line is crossed, but I know with AI, it has been.