Well said Billy!

I've long had a wee side-dream of being a successful singer-songwriter. "Successful" meaning making a living at it or maybe even making a fortune! But I've never managed to realize more than a few thousand $ a year.

And to be fair, I was never willing to take the big risks, put it all on the line, bet the farm to achieve that success. So I chose another hobby, computer programming and web design, and turned that into a mighty lucrative career that more than pays the bills and also supports my music hobby!

I still sometimes dream of one of my songs getting the attention of someone "big" but I am realizing the chances of that keep getting smaller and smaller. The democratization of music tools with stuff like BIAB, VST3i, DAWs, etc. have meant the competition is more fierce than ever before. And it was already fierce before!

And now that AI has arrived I'm guessing everything is going to change. The big corporations that control the music industry will certainly embrace AI if they can convince their customers to embrace it. I would imagine they are already thinking about how to shed those disruptive musicians and songwriters and replace them with a stable stable of AI writers, singers and musicians!

But will music customers embrace or even accept such a transition? Well they already accepted pre-fab "bands", lip-synced "live" performances, autotuned vox and similar compromises. So, yeah, I'm pretty sure enough people will accept one more step, AI, in this music experience.

I guess there may still be live music opportunities but I could see how they could get downgraded as well. I recall 20 years ago seeing a Beatles cover band that was pretty dang good. During the first 3rd of their act (early Beatles) I started wondering how the 4 musician/actors on stage would be able to replicate the strings of Eleanor Rigby or the sitar, tambura, dilruba and tabla of Within You Without You. Then I noticed the 5th "Beatle" upstage right, almost in the dark, with his synthesizer and playback equipment. I still enjoyed the show.

So maybe, just maybe, the dystopian music future has started? Music and lyrics will be generated by AI and performed "live" on stage by low-paid actors.

And maybe the AI will mean the complete democratization of music creation and production?

Now everyone can create songs that no one will listen to!

Or, as local synth vocal expert dcuny says,

"Now everyone can have AI create songs that no one will listen to!"

Last edited by JohnJohnJohn; 12/12/24 01:16 PM. Reason: to add dcuny fix!