Ever since Neanderthals began making flutes out of bone about 60,000 years ago, technology has shaped how and why we make sounds for one another.
So much of the musical experience we take for granted today would have been unimaginable even 200 years ago: analog recording, electric amplification, digital distribution, and portable, streaming playback. Now, we have generative AI that can render text, still and moving images, and sounds from only a text prompt, whether that prompt comes from a skilled professional musician or a second grader.
New AI music generators combine a variety of extant technologies behind a text interface, promising to imbue casuals with the gift of musical creation and streamline the process for accomplished musicians. Whether these applications are transformative or a passing novelty, they create an unavoidable tension: AI-generated music can expand the potential of human creativity, but in doing so, it could choke off the livelihoods of the musicians who make it possible.
