Why AI WON’T replace your songwriting
September 11, 2025
For all the doom and gloom about AI replacing songwriters, here is a different take on what is going on. Watch the video to find out why I think the future is bright.
→ If you’re interested in the evolving role of AI in sync licensing—and how it affects artists like you—check out these related blogs:
AI in Music Licensing: Tool or Threat?
How to Find Your Sound as an Artist
Leave a Reply
Hey! Give us a shout about anything really.
contact Sync Songwriter
Our goal is for you to start getting your music into TV & film.
Well said. AI is not going anywhere. Using it as another tool is the best way to approach. Bottom line is this. It’s still needs to be a great song. A terrible song with AI is nothing more than lipstick on pig. I am now goi g through my entire catalog and re cutting with use of AI. Get what you love, download into your DAWS and put your stamp on it. May wind up just using a cool drum track you would t have thought of. I equate it to cutting demos like we did here in the 90’s. Hiring studio players to get your track and then casting the right demo singer. Same thing in my mind and it’s already working for me!
This was very encouraging, thank you!
Great point about drummers and drum machines; there is absolutely a parallel there that I had not considered. There are still plenty of people like my husband who WANTS imperfect, human-sounding drums on a record (he’s also a drummer, but still!).
My day job is freelance writing, and as you might imagine, other people in my field have been having the same fear-based conversation there, and many have indeed lost jobs to AI. But it has been those lower-tier jobs, like you mentioned with music.
The cheap, bottom of the barrel companies/jobs will likely all go for AI, while the bigger, probably better companies/jobs will still want the human touch. I just hope it STAYS that way.
Hopefully people continue wanting people to make their music/content until the end of time. 🙂
Exactly!
Thank you Chris,
This is a meaningful insight into the topic of AI, especially since there is both hype and panic that can obscure this kind of nuanced thinking.
Being a person of a “certain age”, the one dynamic that currently is at play that was not back in the day when things like the MPC was introduced, was the rise of immense, near monopolistic tech industries that are in control of so much, including ever advancing encroachment into the creative arts. That is not to say that humanity will not eventually win the day, as i believe it will. But it seems within the realm of possibility that we will have to live through a pendulum swing to to return to our humanity being more valuable than the vast profits that some unbridled adherents to AI see in their reach.
Nevertheless, i am fully confident that art, created by humanity, will not only survive, but flourish. We just may need to live through another cycle of change.
Yes, change will happen, but I think there will be a happy coexistence in the music world.
Thanks for your perspective! As a lyrics-first singer/songwriter, I’ve been using AI to increase my output. Every single lyric is what I’ve written and then I work with ChatGPT on a prompt for Suno that will fulfill my vision for what genre/style I’d like the song set in. Not every song is great, but there have been some gems I’d like to record my own vocals with. It’s been igniting my creativity, as I don’t have to wait to have the money to go record in a studio. At some point I would love to add stems to what I’ve created with AI for a more human touch as well. I’m up to 48 days of writing a complete song every single day and this wouldn’t have been possible without AI!
Look at you go!
AI is a tool.
I am writing a musical at the moment, and I use a human producer in the States. I am in England, I write everything myself and use AI along the way to prompt me (to warm me up with lyrics). I write a chord structure, then I sing the melody. 1st Draft done.
The process moves on, and sometimes we need a male singer (I am female), so we change my voice in production to Male, but I would have already sung the song in the male key.
What I am saying is this: treat it as a tool when you need it.
👍
I agree with you, nothing can replace a live performance. I think “the herd” has already been swept up by the multitudes of AI generated songs online. I think your true music lovers, music fans will always look for something organic, and, afterall, isn’t that who we want showing up at our shows anyway?
Totally agree.
I love your idea that AI might create new kids of music, but it won’t replace the kind of music that’s already being made! From that perspective, AI is a new creative tool to be celebrated. 🙂
Yes!
I appreciate you sharing your perspective. It helps! Thank you.
Thanks Bridget.
Well said Chris!
Thanks!
Your perspective is comforting and your points are valid. However, abuse is and has been at an all time high in the music industry as you well know Chris. If there is any window open for abusing the power of AI within the music industry, it will be used for the betterment of the few not the “authentic” artists. Integrity and value for the craft of songwriting has been nearly eliminated as it stands today and without proper parameters established, I don’t think it’s as simple as you say, comforting yes but realistically, it’s much more complicated than what you’ve presented. Just my opinion.
I honestly wasn’t approaching this problem from an integrity point of view, it is a very weak metric with us humans unfortunately. I was equating it to historical facts to make a prediction which I am still putting my money on.
IMHO, AI is simply amazingly programmed software.
Having been involved with music production since the days of splicing tape with a razor blade, I’ve seen incredible advancements in the technology.
From the early drum machines to orchestral libraries to today’s amazing virtual ‘singers’ – these are tools for enhancing our music – not writing it. I’ve heard Suno’s music – it’s garbage.
They keep saying, “It’s gonna get better.”
But then . . . so are we.
Haha, yes, the only problem is AI can get better a lot faster than we can. That said, we can do whatever we want. If we don’t want to participate, we don’t have to.
Agree with your optimism that we will learn to live side by side with AI but also picked up on your comments that it might replace the lower end sync market. Sadly as someone hoping to break into that market it is the lower end I am probably looking at and so immediately I am affected by AI? As with Nick Pelligrino’s comments above I am now running my 40year old ‘dated and poorly recorded’ songs through AI with some fantastic results and in some cases am then pulling them into my DAW to add my vocals and other extras. So for me so far AI has bought some amazing new opportunities and is a positive thing but will no doubt change the road ahead for us all.
Great to hear, Derek.
Hi Chris,
Thank you for your wise words. I’ve been a Drummer, Pianist, and Film Composer for a long time, and you’ve made my day
! 🙂
Michael Rien
Great to hear, Michael!
The hell with Ai. If you love to make music and you are truly doing it for yourself, Ai is not a threat but a creative tool. Use it how you use other tools to create your music. That’s the bottom line. A machine CANNOT make music like me. It would be impossible unless U myself became the machine!!
Love it! Coexistence is the most likely scenario.
Chris, overall, I agree with your general statement. However, as someone who composes production music (I agree it’s the low hanging fruit but still requires composition/mixing talent & skill), if that revenue stream goes away, that’s not cool. I don’t have the figures, but I’m guessing tens of millions in royalties will disappear impacting thousands of composers. This simply means there will be less money available to composers and more composers fighting for less spots in an already crowded industry. Yes, this means only the cream will rise to the top…which is good. However, there is already a lot of talent being squeezed out over the last 20 years. If AI eventually eliminates, or drastically reduces, production libraries & composers, I’m guessing it will gradually move “up the food chain” into sync and other areas. Simply because major corporations only care about the bottom line, and AI is a great way to reduce/eliminate costs.
You will never replace humans – or certainly not in our lifetimes. There will always be a need for authentic music. I simply worry about the shrinking pool of opportunities that will be available and how many legitimately talented composers it will shut out. Spotify & YouTube have already killed off sales (generally speaking).
I agree AI can be a FANTASTIC tool when used properly. But, we’re already seeing people who write lyrics and have AI create melodies and chords and arrangements and mix… how is that fair when the general public can’t tell the difference? There’s a line between a creative tool and flat out “cheating”. Yes, the chords & arrangements will be generic & predictable, but I think it will take 10-20 years for the public to get tired of that sameness… or maybe never… the average person doesn’t listen to music like we do. Genesis/Phil Collins were the first to use drum machines…they received the very first ones from Roland in 1978. But Phil realized this doesn’t sound anything like a drummer and he embraced it (which is sort of your point in embracing technology…and I agree with 100%). The drum machine was simply a different sound source. They used it on the 1980 Genesis album “Duke”, and a year later Phil used it on “In The Air Tonight” because he knew a drummer couldn’t create that sonic atmosphere that a drum machine can, and a drum machine can’t recreate the real drum part. A perfect marriage. (Ironic how a prog band pioneered something that would become a bedrock of rap & hip-hop! LOL). That is the point I completely agree with you… it will create new creative things which we can’t totally envision at the moment. I look forward to that, but I have to admit, I’m leery of the potential downside to composers. It’s a numbers game, unfortunately. This is WAAAAY to wordy (apologies!), but having said all of that, I PRAY I’m completely wrong!!
I appreciate your long critique actually. Those are all good points but there will be change that we’ll all have to adapt to over time. We’ll have to see what happens.
Yes, I agree.
It’s one of the cycles of humanity.
We invent, and we adapt.
The printing press, the orchestra…
the accordion at one point it was feared would replace an entire orchestra. The 3-4pc rock band replaces the Big Band. But, of course, none of these things happened. There are still orchestras. There are still Big Bands.
I like your example of the drum machine vs the drummer.
No worries with regards to AI in music!
👍
Great summary Chris – thanks for posting it for us all to read. I certainly agree with your points. The drum machine analogy is one I have used elsewhere to explain how technology comes into play and the fact that it really doesn’t ever remove humans from creative activities. Tech really amplifies what we can do, accelerates it and becomes an essential tool over time. That’s what happened with drum machines, samples, sound libraries, DAWs, scoring software, auto tuners, etc. AI is just the latest. That said, AI also leverages a large corpus of work it learns from. It can help in so many ways – mixing, AI based auto tune, testing genres, etc. I do not use AI to write lyrics or melodies otherwise – if I did, there would certainly be potential copyright/ownership issues. In songwriting, as you know, I’ve used AI to sing vocals and so quickly create a production ready song (I also make sure the AI voice is not modeled on any particular human being so that I can license the master without any legal concerns). Would a human singing the vocals be better? Absolutely but I can move to a human vocalist once I have interest in the composition, if needed. You are correct that the easiest entry into Sync for AI-assisted songs/music is at the lowest levels – bumpers, transitions, background source that is mixed down behind dialog, trailers, advertising, etc. However, I can tell you from personal experience and my human reviewing group, that lead vocals are improving so fast that most people do not believe it is AI singing. Even with great tech at the command of musicians/composers, the key, as you said is ownership of the work – and holding copyright on it. People need to make sure that whatever AI tools they use, they own the output or at least the rights to license the output with their work (just like they do with the major sound libraries). Copyright is also critical – and to get it, the work must have a substantial component that was created by one or more human beings. Works entirely composed by AI(s) cannot hold a copyright – and that protects our future. I have done a lot of work with AI in music, and I do a lot of work with AI in the high-tech businesses I run (they pay for my addiction to music 😉). Lately, I have been advising a number of law firms and public officials on AI, how to use it/regulate it and profit from it. And to think I started way back in the age of half track tape recorders, a razor blade to make edits/loops and primitive analog synths – like one of the other people who posted here. It has been a long and fun ride over the decades …
Yes, agreed on all points but would add there will be a stigma attached to AI performances in some genres of music going forward. What works in dance pop, likely won’t in say, Americana. There will be some navigating to do because nobody knows exactly how it will play out.
Hi Chris!
Thank you for this!
So far, I’ve steered clear from AI-mostly bc of fear of having my music stolen or being disqualified from sync and supes.
There are so many pirates out there, and I’m wondering by using AI would I be widening the opportunities for scammers?
Well so far it appears AI doesn’t just regurgitate actual songs that have a copyright, but you never know. I don’t think there is a big risk of this vs not doing whatever you can to get your music out there, but do what is most comfortable for you.
Hey Chris,
The appeal of your video is in you walking and talking on the road in the woods with a hand held camera…
Real is good!
And of course, technology enables recording it and sharing it with us…
In a similar manner, hopefully AI technology will be, and can be, a tool for good for our music!
Thanks,
Alex
I like your outlook!
Hi Chris thanku for ur time we what I’m seeing here on a human level have we forgotten to think for our self when it comes to playing an instrument or writing lyrics .I sat in a podcast with Jody and Michael a year ago I see a song in its fu entirey made it didn’t meet up and if look up in the area of present day science it’s coming back at about 35% I read natures brief great read and probably the last thing it well never replace the human concenious and spirit in it’s programmed way as I’ve seen it’s what u feed it I understand ashumans we are here to evolve so AI next step in humanity walk but at what costs
Yes, at what cost, but you don’t have to pay it if you don’t want to.
I think you’re right.
You know, there is little that is actually artificial about AI; it’s genesis is human.
I believe that, yes, the day will come (maybe next week) when we will listen to a track and won’t be able to tell the difference (it will sound “flawlessly human”: breaths, tonal imperfections, a little fretboard buzz); but, it will never surpass human creativity; because, it is a part of collective human creativity. It can only imitate, not replace.
Though it is awe-inspiring (and for some, fear-inducing), though it is stunning and remarkable, I don’t know that it will ever be able to give a live performance.
If I’m worried about it taking work from me, I need to get better; just like if I’m envious of, and worried that some advanced musician, from Willie Nelson to Taylor Swift, or the genius of Jason Mraz is going to take work from me, I need to Stop It.
Just go to work and do what you do baby. Don’t hide it; register your work, and put it where someone can find it.
I, for one, am not worried; I say, go ahead and use it as a tool. It won’t create music; it will respond to a skillfully written prompt, a prompt written by a human.
Just like the best CNC programmers in a machine shop are machinists, because they know how things are built on the machine, and what is possible, the best music prompts will also likely still be written by musicians.
We should be excited, not worried.
I believe AI will take over but i believe we as Songwriter’s can work with AI. God has blessed me with over 65 Songs in Gospel/Christian Music and my Trade/Brand Name is “DOROTHY TAYLOR SONGWRITER” and HE has placed me almost everywhere:ROKU TV, IPHONE Mobile App, Most Platforms; I am on YOUR TOP SCREEN REVIEW!!! I believe Our MUSIC can be Enhanced by AI: Music Video Animation, Song Intensity in Music and Lyrics.