10
Loading video...
By Randy Dominguez
Executive Producer
0
Share
Newsweek is a Trust Project member
See more of our trusted coverage when you search.Prefer Newsweek on Googleto see more of our trusted coverage when you search.
Music has always changed alongside technology. What feels different about generative AI is the speed at which it can produce something that once required far more time, equipment, and technical knowledge.
In June 2026, fully AI-generated tracks accounted for more than 50 percent of new daily uploads to Deezer at peak, and the platform also reported a monthly average of roughly 90,000 such tracks a day.
That number reflects one streaming service rather than the entire music industry, but I think it raises a much more interesting question than whether AI can make a good song. If music becomes dramatically easier to create, what becomes harder to find?
Read More on Leadership Insights
For me, the answer is the human experience around it.
I do not think of music simply as a finished recording. I think about the musician who spent years finding a sound, the club that gave an unknown artist a stage, the promoter who took a chance, and the audience that kept coming back. A song can exist without any of those things. A music scene cannot.
...
There is some research behind that distinction. A 2026 study indexed by the National Library of Medicine examined four studies that found the connection people experienced at live music events was associated with greater meaning and enjoyment during the event, as well as continued happiness afterward.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has also identified social connection as important to individual and community well-being.
That resonates with what I have seen around music. Artists do not develop in perfectly controlled conditions. They play small rooms, make mistakes, change direction, meet other musicians, and gradually discover what works for them. I believe those experiences become part of the music because they become part of the person making it.
It is one reason I am not surprised when younger listeners discover artists whose biggest records were made decades before they were born. They are not necessarily connected only with a melody. They may also be discovering the personalities, histories, struggles, and cultural moments behind the music. The context becomes part of what they value.
That could matter even more as AI-generated music improves. In a global survey of more than 43,000 music fans across 26 countries, IFPI found that 79 percent considered human creativity essential to music creation. That does not tell us that listeners will reject AI. I do not expect them to. It does suggest that knowing there is a human story behind music can still matter.
I also do not see AI as an enemy of musicians. Used well, these tools can give people new ways to experiment with melodies, arrangements, lyrics, and production. Someone without access to expensive equipment may be able to explore an idea that previously remained in their head. That is worth recognizing.
What concerns me is what happens if convenience becomes the main measure of progress.
If we focus almost entirely on streams, followers, and how much content can be produced, we risk overlooking the places where artists actually grow and where listeners become participants rather than numbers on a dashboard. A small club or local music night may never compete with a digital platform on scale.
...
That does not make it less valuable.
I would like to see the music industry treat those communities as something worth deliberately protecting.
Streaming platforms can do more to connect listeners with nearby performances and emerging local artists. Labels, promoters, and sponsors can continue putting resources behind smaller live opportunities where artists can develop in front of audiences.
Cities can also consider what local music spaces contribute when making decisions about planning, licensing, and neighborhood development.
If we get that balance right, AI does not have to diminish music. It could expand who gets to create while making genuine human connection even more important. AI may eventually become remarkably good at making songs.
But when I think about the music that stays with me, I rarely remember the sound. I remember where I was, who I was with, and what that music came to mean. That is the part I would not want us to lose.
Randy Dominguez is executive producer of The Jersey Sound, a 2024 documentary exploring New Jersey’s musical history and the communities surrounding it.
The views expressed in this article are his own.
View 0 Comments
Submit Correction
View Editorial & AI Guidelines