Suno and creative AI, are we living in an immaterial world?

Has anyone else experienced Suno advertisements materialising in their social media feeds like errant blackheads? 

Suno transforms your ideas into fully produced songs. It’s not alone! You can also script, cast, shoot and soundtrack your own movie without cameras, actors or musicians from the comfort of your couch.

Do we rage against the machine, or is resistance futile?

I’m a composer, so my first reaction was a quiet mouth vomit, but I decided to resist judgmental temptation.

I belong to an online songwriting community. Some members use Suno. They write some words, craft a tune and then use this technology to bring their ideas to life.

After all, not everyone has a great voice and not everyone can play an instrument.

This technology produces concepts you can download as a final mix or as “stems” for each part, including the vocals! One of my friends uses the vocal stems as a demo track to train human singers and the instrumental stems as a starting point for their own arrangements.

After all, technology and creativity have had a long romance!

In the 1920’s, bands would stand around a single microphone to record. Then in 1951, Les Paul overdubbed his guitar 12 times and Mary Ford’s voice 12 times for the hit song “How High the Moon”. This inspired others to innovate.

The Beatles, producer George Martin and engineer Ken Townshend pioneered techniques such as double tracking, tape loops, sampling, reverse tape effects and multitrack recording to create a new sonic reality.

In 1979 the Fairlight computer combined a synthesiser and a sampler to create a digital audio workstation or “DAW”. DAWs are now used in every studio everywhere. 

These technologies weren’t just recording tools; they shaped ideas!

AI does bring something new to the mix. Up until now inspiration began in human brains. Now you can ask an algorithm for help. 

This technology forces me to consider “what is my art?”. Is my art the final song or is it something else?

Personally, I love the process of writing music. I enjoy the research, the conversations, the brainstorming and going down rabbit holes trying to find meaningful combinations of words and notes. If it was easy, I wouldn’t feel that same satisfaction. 

I love working with engineers, musicians and singers to record my creations. I love seeing people meet and mingle at the concerts I host. 

When I perform, I talk about the people, places and stories that inspire the music I write. It’s a shared experience.

That’s my art. It’s not just a song. It’s the story of how that song came to be. It is a connection with and among people.

Looking at the bigger picture, what really concerns me is not individuals using technology to realise dreams, it’s streaming giants quietly harvesting human brilliance to feed their AIs. There may be a day, not so very far in the future, when users just type in a prompt, and the platform spins songs straight from the digital void.

No more songwriters and no more copyright payments. Isn’t that the corporate fantasy?

When I hear an amazing song that moves me, I know I have something in common with the person who wrote that song. Although we’ll never meet, there is empathy.

My world would be sadder if that person disappeared.