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#11: Will AI Take Over the Music Industry?

#11: Will AI Take Over the Music Industry?

Adam Dash
March 31, 2025

Good morning! Welcome back to another edition of the SoundCentric newsletter!

Another week, another concert! This time, I got to see Smino perform for a 300-capacity crowd, and it was incredible. I love that man.

I also listened to a new mixtape called 10 Songs by Q, and ladies and gentlemen, we have a new album of the year. I can’t stress this enough—I need you to listen to it.

But what really grabbed my attention this week was AI. My timeline is flooded with new ChatGPT-generated pictures, but what does this mean for the future? Are AI-created works protected by copyright the same way human-made art is? Let’s find out.

You could be reading anything in the world right now, and you're here with me. So, I appreciate it.

Let’s get to it!

Deep Dive

Artificial Intelligence dun dun (say this with the Law and Order intro sound in your head).

At this point, we all know that artificial intelligence—also known by its Sixers-inspired nickname, AI—is the future. Not The Answer (which is also Allen Iverson’s nickname), but the future. There’s no way around it. The question now is: in what capacity? What are the ethical uses of AI? Will it replace creatives? How should it be used when it comes to artists? Is it watching me right now?

He who shall not be named—okay, for the sake of this article, I’ll name him—Kanye West, recently came out and said (amongst a lot of other awful things) that his upcoming album, Bully, may use AI for its vocals. I say may because he later backtracked, saying, “I ma resting cause I actually hate AI now.” But who knows with him?

A more surprising proponent of AI in art is world-famous producer Timbaland. In 2024, he became a strategic advisor for the company Suno, a major player in a massive lawsuit that year. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) announced, “the filing of two copyright infringement cases based on the mass infringement of copyrighted sound recordings copied and exploited without permission.”

This isn’t to say the music industry is completely against AI, but they do have a problem with platforms training their AI on copyrighted material. RIAA Chairman and CEO Mitch Glazier stated, “Unlicensed services like Suno and Udio that claim it’s ‘fair’ to copy an artist’s life’s work and exploit it for their own profit without consent or pay set back the promise of genuinely innovative AI for us all.”

Even more recently, Timbo said on The Inner Court podcast, “While we frequently discuss AI, I believe it’s the only entity that embodies a genuine soul right now. It allows for the expression of true feelings, resulting in it coming out beautiful.” That right there is a comment that will send shivers down the spine of any creative. Can a computer program really replicate the human emotion found in art?

And can AI-generated art even be protected by copyright? Luckily for us, no.

Computer scientist Dr. Stephen Thaler attempted to register his work, Creativity Machine—a piece made entirely by AI—with the U.S. Copyright Office. A key factor? He listed AI as the sole author. His application was denied, even after he took the case to federal court. In a unanimous decision, a three-judge panel ruled, “[We] affirm the denial of Dr. Thaler’s copyright application. The Creativity Machine cannot be the recognized author of a copyrighted work because the Copyright Act of 1976 requires all eligible work to be authored in the first instance by a human being.” A win for humans!

I also wanted to highlight a positive use of AI in music that I’ve seen recently. I had the pleasure of interviewing Ralph Tashjian, Chairman of Intercept Music, for my podcast (dropping April 9th). Intercept Music is a global distribution company for independent artists, and they use AI tools to assist artists with non-creative tasks—things like creating a release schedule for marketing campaigns, drafting social media captions, and writing press releases for new songs and albums. These are the kinds of tasks that some artists loathe spending time on. This, to me, is a positive use of AI—let it handle the mundane so artists can stay focused on being creative.

Will AI one day take over our world like in that Will Smith movie I, Robot? Maybe. I can’t say for sure. What I can say is that the next few years will be pivotal as lawyers rush to create legislation that protects creatives. A decade from now, will we look back at this moment the way my dad reminisces about building our house with telephone jacks in every room—just in case his kids might one day want their own landline. I’m excited for the future, and I’m eager to see how artists and others in the industry use AI for good.