How do people react when you show them your Suno songs? Specially if you are already a musician.
(originally this started a comment to another post, but I'd really like to ask this as a question to all)
Before all the negative that follows, I'll say that I am so happy to be here and now.
As a musician using AI, I've experienced a wide range of reactions, but almost all are negative.
The rare positive reactions are about the technology itself, not its use, which is seen as having as much merit as winning a scratch card.
Other reactions :
- Disbelief quickly turning to disgust: the technology is so advanced it surpasses many amateur musicians, but this prowess is immediately perceived as theft and predation on human artistic legacy.
- Contempt and anger: "you just found a tool that does it for you" perfectly illustrates how AI masks incompetence with flashy tools. When people try it themselves, they realize that exceptional "production" is now within anyone's reach - which is precisely the problem. If you weren't able to create interesting work without AI, it's not the lack of tools but a matter of horrible taste - a fundamental lack of soul, talent, or dedication.
I actually remember muting friends on Instagram when they started flooding their feeds with their DALL-E 'creations', kidding themselves that putting their DESIRE to create into prompts somehow transferred any merit to them.
- Suspicion and revulsion: "who are you trying to deceive?" We're seen as musical scammers - Milli Vanilli 2.0. The kind of reaction one might have towards an unappealing person who chooses sex tourism in a foreign country because they can only obtain what they want through money or manipulation (in this case, through an almost free AI).
- Genuine outrage: particularly from professional musicians who see their art form being casually appropriated and specific skills and entire genres - ones I'm admittedly incompetent in - being impersonated through AI. It's not just about competition - it's about the appalling banality of AI-generated "art" deprecating the value of human effort and experience.
- Environmental concern: there's a severe ecological impact being ignored by people who have found their new addictive toy. The ease of generation leads to an addiction to lowest common denominator content.
- Indifference: perhaps most telling - what excites us about our AI productions often touches no one else.
I've been unfriended, ghosted, or simply ignored since coming out as making AI music, even as a hobby.
Yet, I'm convinced that AI will eventually find its place in major original works, just as electric guitars, effects, synthesizers, sampling, DJs, and autotune have before it. Unlike passing trends such as mashups or flashmobs singalongs. I just hope that we have not poisoned the well in the meantime.