CEO of Song-Generating AI App Says People "Don't Enjoy" Making Music With Instruments

Boomer take. I'm a musician of two decades, got my degree in music. Sampling is as much an art and practice as playing a "traditional" instrument—I do both.

Are there lazy samplists? Sure, just as there are lazy guitarists. But watch this and tell me this isn't musicianship. https://inv.nadeko.net/watch?v=sKMDP-vDsTU

No, he is wrong.

People of every age learn how to play music everyday.

Practicing is absolutely enjoyable.

Using samples and electronic instruments only prove that people who love making music will find creative ways to do it.

Just because you don't like a certain type of music (there are hundreds if not thousands of different types of music) it doesn't mean people making that music are lazy.

Having the money and space for each instrument is a task itself.

You a musician? I love playing around on instruments, it's an end of itself not just a means to achieve some pre defined sound.

I think that a more accurate statement is that some people don't enjoy using instruments. I mean, I don't, but I'm sure that there are people who do.

It’s a blanket generalization; those are almost always wrong.

Sure, there are SOME people that don’t want to learn how to play an instrument; just as there are some people who vehemently oppose the usage of any AI. I guess because there’s SOME people that vehemently oppose AI, everyone should learn how to play an instrument (see how blanket generalizations don’t work).

What???

People who use instruments or computers to make music get full control, which is good and bad. You get to do exactly what you want, but your skills and creativity put a limit to what that might be. Also, doing that takes time.

Using AI to generate images and music puts you into the shoes of a producer. Now, you’re trying to separate the wheat from the chaff, but you don’t really have very much control over what the AI generates. It can be really frustrating, since you may have a vision, but the AI just doesn’t follow orders very well.

I think you meant people flipping purchased loop packs, and even then I disagree.

J Dilla made his music with samples. His rhythms are so complex that there are literal PH.Ds writing books about them.

Aphex Twin and Burial are another two artists that prove that it takes incredible skill and talent to cook samples and transform them into something new.

You should go to a drum corps rehearsal or elite piano/violin recital. Shit or even an arcade hosting a bemani tournament. Like not one of the places where their parents are forcing them but somewhere where people are just doing it because they want to, even if it sucks sometimes to play for hours and hours and hours

I used to teach lessons and you do have a point, a lot of people want to be good without doing any work. That’s true of any endeavor that requires effort. A lot of people covet the reward without paying enough mind to the serious amount of effort that one undertakes to get to that point

But some people actually do want to achieve greatness, some people want a sense of accomplishment, some people want a deeper understanding of their instrument, etc

Even if you’re an electronic producer that only ever uses the piano roll you would still benefit from a better understanding of theory and improvisation. This doesn’t come from nothing; it comes from grinding. You don’t necessarily need to read theory books and practice piano of course, you will gain a sense of these from writing songs and getting feedback, but you still need to write and/or play a lot

The rise in electronic artists is arguably more to do with accessibility. literally everyone has a computing device and free music making software is relatively abundant, instruments are expensive and loud, practice space is hard to come by especially in urban environments. Additionally electronic music has a huge factor of cultural relevance in terms of trends from production styles being popular across genres.

AI music is a tool and it’s impressive but the results are mostly derivative, which makes sense given how it works. it would be really cool to see more resources invested into spaces for people who actually wanted to pursue the arts to be able to do so as this is likely the way music (and other art) truly moves forward and actually innovates instead of just hashing out the same tired shit

Honestly I kind of get his point.

I fooled around with some basic beat making software back in the day and was having a lot of fun, so I stepped up to entry level producing software and HOLY SHIT there was a learning cliff I had to climb. It sucked all the fun out of it and I got bored really fast.

People do still want to create and make music not learn how to use a piece of software.

I think people enjoy musical instruments. Digital music really hasn't caught on much. There are and always will be plenty of musicians playing traditional instruments of all kinds.

Electronic music is a different artform, but it's still fun and satisfying for the people who make it. Plus, I'd argue that most people who make electronic music do it because they like that type of music, not because they don't want to learn the violin or whatever.