Will Generative AI Replace Human Artists in Music Industry?

At a time when rights holders earn between $0.003 and $0.005 per stream, and are competing with 120,000 songs uploaded to streaming platforms every day, sync licensing has become a precious source of revenue and discoverability for artists. That is perhaps all about to change with the advent of generative AI tools like Suno and Udio that allow users to generate entire songs for free in seconds. Let’s take a look at what hope there is for the future of sync licensing and the music industry at large.

What is sync licensing?

Music synchronization (or sync) refers to music that is used in a visual medium such as a film, TV show, advert or video game in order to elevate the work’s story and emotional impact. When a song is "synced" with visual media, rights holders often receive significant revenue from various forms of copyright such as mechanical rights, performance rights, sync rights and master rights. Where streaming is notorious for bringing in very little revenue, a single successful sync placement can be worth a few hundred to several hundred thousand dollars.

Beyond revenue, a successful sync placement also often leads to lots of exposure for the artist. Think Baby Queen who gained 1.5 million new listeners in 28 days after her song “Colours of You” was used in Netflix’s hit series “Heartstopper”.

But what happens when generative AI tools become more sophisticated, and advertising executives are able to generate a track in seconds, practically for free, instead of paying thousands of dollars for a traditional sync licensing deal? That is the dilemma the music industry is now having to face. As AI-generated music gets cheaper and more customizable, it threatens to undercut human musicians, fundamentally reshaping how music is created, used, and valued in commercial media.

The Rise of Generative AI Tools

Suno was first released in December of 2023, and blew its users away being one of the first generative AI tools available for generating music out of a simple prompt. A few months later Udio was released and the capabilities of these AI tools have only continued to improve.

These platforms use machine learning algorithms trained on vast libraries of music to generate original compositions that closely resemble the work of human creators. For advertisers, filmmakers, and content creators, this development is tempting: AI-generated music can be produced quickly, cheaply, and without the need for complex licensing agreements.

However, this rise in AI-generated music has not gone unnoticed by the major record labels. In June, it was reported that Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group’s label UMG Records and Warner Records were suing Suno and Udio, accusing them of using copyrighted music from their catalogs to train their AI models without authorization.

In response to this growing threat, certain new non-profits and tools have emerged. Fairly Trained is a non-profit that certifies when generative AI companies train on data provided with the consent of its creators. Ircam Amplify is a tool that detects and tags AI-generated tracks at scale, enabling music industry stakeholders to make the difference between human and artificial music.

Read also: Ex-Stability AI Executive Launches Fairly Trained to Address Unethical Training in Generative AI

Tools such as these will go a long way in building a new music industry based on trust and transparency, but they won’t prevent the possibility of generative AI taking sync opportunities from human creators.

So what can be done to help human artists find sync opportunities for their work in the age of artificial intelligence?

Introducing the power of descriptive AI

The truth is, we all want to be told human stories from other human beings. Because of this, there will always be a context in which human music is prioritized over AI generated music to amplify the emotional impact of certain stories in film, TV and even advertising. The issue is that these sync opportunities may become more competitive, and therefore the real pain point for artists will increasingly become: how to stand out and get discovered.

To address this pain point, Bridge.audio has developed its own descriptive AI technology, an AI music analyzer that can auto-tag tracks with incredible precision by genre, mood, instrumentation, vocal type, language, lyrical content and more. On Bridge Sync, Bridge’s commission-free sync marketplace, rights-holders can upload their music, have it instantly auto-tagged by Bridge’s AI music analyzer, and professionals in audiovisual industries can then use the platform’s AI search feature to find the perfect track for their project in seconds.

Essentially, this AI auto-tagging technology aims to cut the noise, and help creators and music buyers find each other, faster.

Unlike generative AI, this kind of technology (often referred to as descriptive AI) seeks to help artists find more opportunities for their music by boosting their discoverability, rather than trying to take anything away from them.

As of October 2024, less than a year after its launch, Bridge Sync has already brought together over 250 labels and publishers, including Allo Floride Publishing, Tôt ou Tard, Velvetica Publishing, and more, resulting in nearly 100,000 tracks present on the platform, and over 200 clients in music supervision and audiovisual sectors. This demonstrates a growing demand for AI tools that act in service of human creativity.

At the end of the day, the question is always the same: how do we embrace the potential of technological innovation without doing it at any cost. Generative AI tools provide fast, cheap music production that is appealing to audiovisual industries, where traditional sync licensing can quickly become very expensive. Yet, this efficiency threatens to devalue human creativity, and saturate the music industry to a point where artists will have an even harder time getting discovered for the sync deals their livelihood depends on. Thankfully, there are descriptive AI tools like the one developed by Bridge.audio that are growing in popularity, and that use the power of AI to boost music discoverability, ensuring that technology serves human creativity, rather than replacing it.

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