The Real Problem Isn’t AI. It’s How Predictable We Have Become. (Part 1)

Copyright Instagram - Breaking Rust

AI Music Is Not the Threat. It Is the Audit.

The conversation around AI in the music business keeps heating up, and most of it is based on fear. I hear people worried about being replaced by a machine. I hear people insisting that AI will ruin creativity. In my day-to-day work at a tech company, I see something very different. AI is best when it handles the tasks that are perfect for an algorithm and gives humans more time to lean into the things only humans can do. That is the real shift. People should be less worried about losing their job to AI and more worried about losing their job to someone who knows how to use AI. Teams that use AI go faster. They produce more. The work week has already changed because technology allows us to work at a new pace.

This week, the industry is talking about an AI created song hitting number one on the Billboard digital sales chart. It feels unrelated to the workplace conversation, but it fits perfectly. AI is exposing something the music industry created long before AI even entered the picture.

AI is not breaking creativity. It is grading it.

My biggest criticism of the music industry is the way it falls into predictable cycles. We repeat what works. We repeat what feels safe. If you turn on the radio today, you will hear Morgan Wallen, followed by several artists shaped to sound like Morgan Wallen. This pattern is not new. The industry has always worked this way.

There was a time when every label tried to find the next Shania.

There was a wave when every male artist was styled to chase Luke Bryan.

There was a stretch when bro-country became the entire format.

There was a season when every new female artist was pitched as the next Faith Hill.

The industry responds to success by building templates. AI simply learned those templates and got very good at copying them. AI excels at explaining the past. Humans are supposed to excel at inventing the future. If AI can replicate what we call “original,” maybe what we are calling original has not truly been original for a long time.

The AI song is not surprising. It is expected.

The AI generated track by AI artist Breaking Rust sounds pretty good. Of course it does. It pulls from patterns that have dominated the format for years. Familiar chord progressions. Familiar melodies. Familiar vocal phrasing. It is pleasant and comfortable. That is exactly what labels have been rewarding. When you feed an algorithm a diet of same sounding work, it will feed you back a same sounding product.

AI did not lower the creative bar. AI just made the bar visible.

Labels did not cause AI to rise. Labels created an ecosystem where AI thrives.

Labels chase predictability because predictable outcomes are cheaper. Familiarity reduces marketing risk. Streaming algorithms reward repeatable sound patterns. Trend chasing increases velocity on playlists. All of this incentivizes the industry to repeat what already works instead of taking risks.

AI thrives in this type of environment. The more formulaic the system becomes, the more powerful AI looks.

If the industry wants AI to sound more original, the industry must first produce more original material. You cannot expect an algorithm trained only on safe, familiar content to suddenly create something bold and innovative. If you want different outputs, you need different inputs.

This same reality is hitting radio.

This part is uncomfortable, but it needs to be said. I can log into ElevenLabs today and create a radio break for a talent talking about a local event, and it will sound good. In many cases, it will sound better than most “live and local” breaks being done in the real world. The audience will not know it is synthetic. The audience will not care if it sounds authentic.

Listeners who are given a real song and an AI song cannot tell the difference ninety seven percent of the time. That is not a sign that AI is incredible. It is a sign that the baseline has become predictable.

Part of the reason AI voices sound strong is that the industry has stripped away the very things that make human talent irreplaceable. Air talent today has been pushed into short breaks. They are discouraged from telling stories. They are rushed through content. They are often told to avoid being too “personal.” The job has been reduced to a narrow set of tasks that can be done by a machine. When you turn humans into robots, robots will eventually outperform the humans.

If you work in radio, it is time to elevate your entire approach. You must use AI tools to remove the mechanical tasks from your day and give you more time to connect locally in ways AI never will. You need to rethink every habit you have built, because doing your job the same way you always have is not a survival strategy in this era.

AI is not the villain. AI is the mirror.

AI is reflecting back the creative choices we have rewarded for years. It is revealing the sameness. It is revealing the comfort zones. It is revealing the lack of risk taking. If we want better music, better radio, and better creative output across the board, we need better inputs. We need more originality. We need real artistic voices who are allowed to take risks. We need programmers and decision makers who value difference over duplication.

AI is not here to create art. AI is here to force the rest of us to become artists again.

If you want to beat AI, you have to stop sounding like AI.

That is the problem.

Here is the solution. Part 2.