Why AI Music Won’t Win

In the not so distant future, AI will be able to write melodies and improvise solos that are better than anything humans can do.

But what we love about music is more than the notes, chords, lyrics, and solos. That's the what.

We also care deeply about the who.

Who wrote the song. Who took the solo.

We’re not just connecting with sound. We’re connecting with a story. And that story is rooted in the people with the instruments and microphones in their hands.

That story reinforces identity and shapes how we see ourselves.

It’s no different from choosing what clothes to wear.

Clothing isn’t just about staying warm or covering our bits. We pick specific clothes because they help us feel like the version of ourselves we want to grow into. Music works the same way.

Swifties aren’t Swifties because of the music and lyrics. They don’t drop a month’s rent on a concert just to sing along. They’re there for Taylor.

Because if all we cared about was the sound of music, we’d stay home, curled up on the couch with noise-canceling headphones instead of spending an entire night standing on a sticky floor getting bumped by strangers.

But we go anyway.

Because it’s about the experience. It’s about the connection with real, live humans on stage.

Allison and I went to see the band Couch in Brooklyn last week. The band was tight as hell. Tema Siegel, the lead singer, sounded just as good as she does on the record. Maybe even better.

But my favorite part of the show happened when she briefly forgot the lyrics to one of the songs. It was funny. It was imperfect. It was human.

We’re drawn to humans. Not machines.

Now, sure. There will be an endless supply of AI music in elevators, in car commercials, on TikTok, and anywhere else music functions as a commodity. In those contexts, the music is secondary.

But when music is in the driver’s seat, when it’s the main event, people don’t want to cheer for robots. Can you imagine clapping for a wall full of Wall-Es?

Maybe I’m wrong. A generation raised on AI music might not care who or what made it. Most people don’t think about where their food or clothes come from. Why should music be different? I can even imagine an AI song going viral, hitting number one, and becoming a wedding classic.

If I stop the story there, it would feel depressing.

But then I remember how vinyl made a comeback right in the middle of the streaming era.

Why?

Because music is more than music. Because what you listen to says something about you. Because of scenes like that moment in 500 Days of Summer when Zooey Deschanel sings The Smiths in the elevator and Joseph Gordon-Levitt instantly falls in love with her.

It wasn’t the song. It was the band. And what liking that band says about a person.

In the end, we’ll have to wait and see. The market will do what the market will do. Maybe someday we’ll be sitting on a porch in rocking chairs saying remember when.

I hope not.

I hope we’re still standing on sticky, beer-soaked floors, cheering for real musicians up on a real stage.

Because we don’t just show up for the notes. We show up for the humans who play them.