Why I will still make music when AI gives it away for free
Why I will still make music when AI gives it away for free
One day, anybody can prompt an AI to make an amazing song or beat that is tailored just to their liking. The AI delivers it in seconds. Not happy with the result? Prompt again. To buy custom-made music by humans is very expensive, because it takes a lot of work and expertise. Consequently, the market value of human-made music will drop significantly in the presence of available AI alternatives (low-cost oversupply).
Where does this leave us? I don’t know about you, but I’m here to tell you about me.
Optimistic forecast
I believe in the future, humans will not have to work; they will choose to work. We’ll work not because of extrinsic factors, but because of an intrinsic search for fulfillment & self-realization. The exciting journey of mastering a craft will start out of curiosity and love (more often)!
I will still make music when AI can generate any song or beat instantly and for free! Yes, I do realize that makes me sound like I’m on heavy medication, but I promise I’m not. I believe this is ultimately inevitable because of two factors:
Digital superabundance
Everything that can be represented as information (every possible melody, arrangement, mix, mastering) will be producible instantly, in infinite quantity, perfectly personalized and at marginal cost due to AI.
Human labour not required
Everything analog stays resource-constrained (at least until large-scale space industry), but the production process itself no longer requires human work. AI-controlled robots will handle it. Ownership of raw materials and energy will remain relevant; the need to work for a living will disappear.
Result: basic needs are met for almost everyone, and creative output in the digital realm becomes economically worthless.
Paradigm shift
In the future, the main question will not be what you want to have and what you have to do to get it; it will be what you want to do and what you need to have to do it.
And yes, I know, right now, doing nothing and just being entertained sounds fun. But personal experience shows that this is not fulfilling. In order to live a fulfilled and happy life, it is very beneficial to self-develop, self-experience, self-express and to be proud of yourself. Mastering a craft that you love can fill a lifetime with work – but more importantly, it can fill life with meaning.
While the product itself loses economic value, the process gains meaning. Currently, we accept the process as a necessity in order to get a result. I believe the process itself will become more of a priority in the future, because it’s mainly the process that gives us (the producers) experiences, not the result. And where survival is finally a guarantee, living truly begins.
New role: Pioneers
For the foreseeable future, AI has no individual lived experience, no real-time sensory apparatus, no personal history, and (crucially) no actual intelligence or creativity. It can only imitate patterns derived from human data; it cannot originate something that was never felt or judged by a conscious, embodied mind. A human instantly recognizes a happy accident as meaningful because it resonates with their own senses and biography. AI can only compare it to prior human reactions. Where no precedent exists, it has little independent capacity to evaluate novelty or pleasure, because it doesn’t perceive it.
We will be able to focus on pioneering and bettering instead of producing the same things over and over again.
TL;DR
In a world where AI emulates results, the main remaining value of any type of production is no longer the product, but the process itself (and your relationship to and experience of it). When extrinsic reasons to make music disappear, the intrinsic ones (curiosity, mastery, self-realization) remain. For many of us, that will be sufficient and those who do will shape the future and enable development.