Music is all around you, even when you may not know it. Behind every advertisement, theme park waiting line, movie trailers, video game announcements — catchy music has been composed to keep your brain engaged and entertained.
This type of short-form “stock” music (jingles, royalty-free tracks, incidental music, others) has historically been an important revenue stream for instrumental musicians. Playing in bands or as a studio musician doesn’t often pay the full bills, and being able to soundtrack various parts of everyday life has been vital. An entire industry of music licensing has been built around this, giving lesser known artists the ability to live their dream jobs while keeping a steady paycheck.
Sadly — this is a segment of the music industry that AI can, and likely will, almost entirely replace.
Don’t believe me? Listen to the following generations from the current top performing AI music generation platforms Udio and Suno:
Platform: Udio
Prompt: Orchestral score, cinematic chords, emotional, violin solo, swells
Output 1:
Output 2:
Platform: Suno
Prompt: Inspirational song for the background of a presentation
Output 1:
Output 2:
These songs aren’t perfect, but they are good enough to replace a large number of existing stock music sources.
The (big) problem
So why can’t human-made and AI-made stock music thrive in the marketplace together? It can for a short period of time, but as the music industry continues in its endless pursuit to shrink the bottom line, it may come to an upsetting conclusion:
AI gives corporate rightsholders the ability to cut artists out of the equation.
For a studio or label looking to find a suitable track for advertising, the AI-generated method offers an immediate and highly customizable solution. To compound the problem, these companies typically retain the consumer demand data. They know exactly what their consumers want at any given time.