Will Suno AI change music forever?
15th June 2024
The generative AI application is making waves across the music industry, but why?
Suno AI recently announced that it has raised $125 million in funding ‘to build a future where anyone can make music’.
For music lovers who aren’t musically gifted, this sounds like a lot of fun. But, for professional musicians, what will it mean?
How does Suno work?
In Suno’s words; ‘No instrument is needed, just imagination. From your mind to music.’
In other words, the software doesn’t need instruments, a music diploma or technical skill. Like ChatGPT, users just need to create an account and enter a prompt to generate a song in any style of music genre they want, from Rock to EDM.
For instance, this could be ‘create an upbeat pop song about a birthday party.’
Or ‘make a sad R&B song about two friends with an up-tempo chorus’ with the software generating a choice of two custom-built songs in different styles, to which you can add your own lyrics if you want to.
Based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the Suno team is composed of musicians and AI experts who have worked at the likes of Meta and Tkitok.
Having launched less than a year ago, the app is taking off.
Microsoft has announced that it has integrated Suno into its own AI platform, Copilot. And over 10 million people have already used the platform to make music and share a community.
With such rapid uptake, the company launched Summer of Suno, in which creators on the platform can share their music and win cash prizes, based on the popularity of their songs. It’s a sure fire way to attract many more new users to the platform in the coming months.
Is this the end for musicians?
It’s unlikely. Though, as with all generative AI applications, now widely used in industries from Art to coding, people worry that ‘we’ will be replaced and the ‘human touch’ will be lost. People also question issues surrounding intellectual property and copyright which will be an ongoing area of fierce debate.
However, we may need to look at AI from another perspective. It may be that it becomes another string to our bow and helps us to create more quickly whilst automating more arduous tasks in the business. Some musicians are embracing this. For instance, The Beatles recently used AI to release a ‘new’ version of an existing song featuring John Lennon, in which AI was used to clarify his existing vocals.
And, for applications like Suno, it may encourage a new genre of digital artist and give those not necessarily musically trained the ability to create. There’s space for everyone and with the generative AI industry set to grow to over $200 billion by 2030, Suno is now one of the music AI apps that will be sought out by many.
Ultimately, artificially generated brilliance, while brilliant, cannot replicate humans, especially when that comes to artistry in which humans bring irreplaceable qualities.
However, AI will generate efficiencies and give more people an opportunity to be creative. And that’s exciting. But there are still many grey areas and unknowns in its development.
How we manage our relationship with AI and its growing capabilities moving forward, in music and elsewhere, remains to be seen.
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