What's Going On with Music and AI in 2025?
- Lauren DiGiovanni
- 46 minutes ago
- 3 min read
We’ve seen AI technology creep into our everyday life more and more as time goes on. For musicians, and creatives as a whole, we need to look at how AI is impacting our work and our industry to not only combat its bad side effects but also work alongside its good ones. The most concerning AI prospect for musicians is AI music generation, with both lyric writing and music production. The US courts have made some recent strides in protecting human generated art, which I’ll discuss in a bit. Yet, we’ve seen some positive consequences of AI in the music industry, with certain algorithms utilized by many music-focused companies to better improve the fan and artist experience.
Let’s not avoid the big concern on everyone’s minds - yes, AI has been used to generate music. Programs like Suno AI and Udio are available to easily generate lyrics, instrumentals, or both with a simple text input. AI music generators are not only cheaping and devaluing the hard work of all of those involved in the music creation process, but the sourcing of data is what’s concerning. These programs aren’t creating music out of thin air - it’s generated from millions of songs; those that have all been created by humans. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) sued Suno and Udio on behalf of Sony Music Entertainment, UMG Recordings of Universal Music Group, and Warner Records Inc. because the services, “[train] on the expressive features of these copyrighted sound recordings for the ultimate purpose of poaching the listeners, fans, and potential licensees of the sound recordings it copied”. They’re not the only ones who have sued those services - country singer Tony Justice sued them for copyright infringement as well. The suit states, “rather than simply license these copyrighted songs like every other tech-based business does, Suno/Udio elected to simply steal the songs and generate AI-soundalike music at virtually no cost to Suno/Udio”. Some generative AI companies cite that fair use makes their services legal, as in some circumstances you can use copyrighted material in the creation of new material.
Although these lawsuits are still ongoing, the US Court of Appeals issued a landmark ruling that denies copyright protection for works created by AI. The ruling firmly asserts that works that are fully created by AI cannot be protected under US copyright laws. The ruling was in response to a lawsuit by Stephen Thaler, who unsuccessfully tried to register a picture created by his AI platform through the Copyright Office. Since Thaler cited that his platform was the sole “author” of the picture, the Copyright Office would not grant the copyright. The three-judge panel in this decision ruled that a non-human machine cannot be an author under the Copyright Act of 1976, the US’s current set of copyright laws.
AI has already infiltrated the way we listen to music. Major music platforms like Spotify use AI to tailor the user experience (you can read about it in my article here). Since then, Spotify has developed its own AI playlist generator, where a simple text prompt can generate you a custom playlist. Apple Music’s AutoMix feature, which seamlessly transitions between two songs as if there was a DJ mixing it for you, is powered by AI. Advertisements on these platforms also use AI to best identify what content would be best for you to consume.
There’s no telling what AI can do for the music industry, and it can be good or bad. AI can be used to inform A&R representatives on who to sign, create interactive concert experiences, and more. However, there are very dangerous risks that AI poses to the music industry. Impersonation, deep fakes, and the overall undermining of real humans and their work pose a great threat to musicians and the music industry as a whole. But, approaching AI use with caution and transparency can help ensure that the technology is used in a safe and ethical way.
Written By Lauren DiGiovanni
*copyright not intended. Fair use act, section 107.