Automation puts people out of jobs, from ATMs to washing machines to supermarket cashiers.

But those have always been pretty menial tasks.

Now, the machines are coming for the creative classes.

robot playing piano

Possessed Photography / Unsplash

And music artists are getting pretty excited about it.

I don’t think it will result in fewer artists any more than drum machines result in fewer drummers.

You pick a genre, make a few choices, and go.

old brown piano with white and black keys

Michał Franczak / Unsplash

Repeat until you find something you like.

“I trained as an illustrator and years ago, did a fair amount of book work.

And while it sounds like a nice way to make a living, it really wasn’t.

The biggest problem with AI, creativity-wise anyway, is that it’s a legal swamp.

AIs like Dall-E andMidJourneyare trained on existing images, many of which are copyrighted works.

Who knows where this will go when AI-generated images and music really take off.

MichaA Franczak / Unsplash

And ironically, Soundful itself seems very aware of the issues.

“Soundful may be an excellent tool for generating ideas and inspiration.

Things are going to get a lot more complicated, and maybe they’ll never be simple.

But AI-generated music and images will have a huge impact commercially, artistically, and politically.