The Impact of AI in the Music Industry

As artificial intelligence has been changing industries across the globe, I have begun to wonder how the music scene will be affected. In a recent Wall Street Journal Tech News Briefing interview, Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. shared his perspective on how AI may shape the future of music for better and worse.

Mason points to three major risks: AI models trained on copyrighted songs without permission, unauthorized cloning of artists’ voices, and the flood of AI-generated tracks that could overwhelm listeners and bury human-made music. These threats raise urgent questions about ownership, creativity, and authenticity.

However, Mason also acknowledges the opportunities. AI tools could help musicians overcome creative blocks, generate variations on melodies, translate songs into new languages, and give non-musicians the chance to flesh out ideas without needing a full band. I love the idea that AI could help break through writer’s block or allow a songwriter without production skills to hear their melodies come to life.

Still, Mason insists that human artistry carries something irreplaceable: authentic emotion and lived experience. Whether audiences will continue to value this human connection in an era of endless AI music remains to be seen. As Mason puts it, the future of music depends on whether technology enhances creativity or dilutes it.

This podcast raised a few questions for me. If we can’t tell whether a song is made by a person or a program, do we lose part of what makes it special? I also wonder if audiences will actively seek out authenticity, as Mason suggested, or if convenience and novelty will win.