I get it - AI is replacing people, not just in the music industry. However, any progress regardless of the source will replace people. It was the same when keyboards could play just about any instrument and the more sophisticated they became the more realistic the sounds. Hell, when I played in the band I had a Yamaha FX console that could make my guitar sound like just about any instrument. Or when the motor industry production lines were automated.
If companies are stealing other people's work for samples to use them as they did, then that's crap. But if it's just an instrument being sampled, such as a guitar playing a chord, or a trumpet, or whatever instrument. That's just the sound it makes, not a track or a musical sequence. You can't copyright notes, but you can copyright music you create as a composition. A lot of legit AI DAW's such as the one I use has a copyright filter built into it and if you even attempt to upload a sample of someone else's work, or even reference and artist's name it kicks it right out and refuses to use it.
As for people wanting to play an instrument, I get the costs involved are steep - hell my Gibson Flying V MkII back in the late 80's was £600.00 (but worth it). It's not enough to want to play an instrument, you need to find someone else to share it with and play with; that's where the whole system fails now. And yes, instrument shops are closing down, not because of AI, but because people either are not interested or can't afford it.
I remember back in the day I knew people who were born naturals at playing guitar, keyboards or drums - but they weren't interested, they couldn't care less about playing, even though they were of an exceptional calibre.
I am having a lot of fun being creative again, I'm writing new lyrics almost daily now that the creative juices are flowing again, and I get to experiment with styles and genres that were out my scope. The other factors I have to think about when using AI would be the 'actual' production costs involved. Session musicians, orchestras, vocalists, backing vocals, studio costs, engineer costs - it would literally cost many thousands just to produce one song.
The music industry has been in decline for years, mainly because all the music companies are just interested in is profit and they don't care how it's generated. If an artist or band doesn't make them money they're dumped; it's a ruthless industry. I don't even listen to the radio these days because it's full of crap, made by people who are only interested in the end result - profit. I'm also aware of a lot of named bands coming out of retirement to make good music again, because no one is replacing them.
@zappaDPJ called it right - lots of big names still playing live gigs, but nothing up and coming. I remember going to see Judas Priest and the support band were playing, a complete unknown, turns out it was Iron Maiden. This doesn't happen now - if there is a support it's a lesser known who is still out there wanting to make it on a bigger scale, but rarely an up and coming unknown.
Sign of the times!
