AI & Music Tech In 2026 - survey analysis

[Forum Admin]

Interested to get your feedback on this SOS article from our current [February 2026] editions.

Did the survey results surprise any of you?

www.soundonsound.com/music-business/ai-music-tech-2026

[MaestroMikeT]

Sadly no, no surprise there. The thing that strikes me the most is that this is not very far from those who put the fox guarding the hen...
And even though most of the responses came from working professionals, I believe there's a massively different approach whether you're producing EDM or singer-songwriter, so we don't get the full picture.
I'm, among other things, a pro producer with more than 10 years of experience and enough credits under my belt; if I felt I had to resort to AI for "creative inspiration" I would rather go do other stuff. It undermines the very essence of our craft. Like those dreaded MIDI chord pads - whenever I get that ad I feel the urge to slap somebody...

[Drew Stephenson]

Reading back over the article I don't see any real surprises in there. In a world where production and recording budgets are being constantly squeezed it's probably to be expected that people will use any efficiency tools available, especially for 'grunt work'.
One thing that did leap out at me was the suggestion that the music technology education side of things may be lagging behind the curve. I think that's often been the case with emerging technologies but I suspect this might get quite pronounced unless institutions take a much more proactive stance.

[Drew Stephenson]

Just been pointed to this video from Adam Neely that is interesting so far (it's long and I'm only 20 minutes in) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8dcFhF0Dlk&t=8s

[Sam Spoons]

I quite like Adam Neely in so much as I like any 'content creators' but much less engaged with the Suno bloke. It's difficult to find consistent figures but the global games market in 2025 was somewhere between $200 and 300bn while music was a little over $100bn so gaming is 2-3 times bigger than music rather than the 50 times he claims. That's pretty much where I stop wanting to listen to him (I suppose it helps that I have no interest in games whatsoever...).

[Drew Stephenson]

Considering the Suno bloke appears to have a strategically-placed instrument in every shot, you'd think he'd have a slightly better idea about why people actually choose to make music.

[Folderol]

The whole thing goes over my head at about 20,000ft!
Music is something I make on inspiration. If nothing inspires me I don''t make any, and I'm quite OK with that.

[Rich Hanson]

Considering the Suno bloke appears to have a strategically-placed instrument in every shot, you'd think he'd have a slightly better idea about why people actually choose to make music.

He's the same bloke that tried to claim that musicians don't really enjoy making music and he was freeing them from that burden. Not his exact words, but that was the gist of it. He got a bit of a backlash.

[Sam Spoons]

I sort of get his analogy between games and music but his motivation is nowt to do with allowing 'non-musicians' to create music and everything to do with making himself richer.