Generative AI Has No Place in the EDM Scene

Using generative AI is the antithesis of creativity, self-expression, and authenticity, all values the EDM community stands for.

---

Artificial intelligence used to be a far-fetched villain warned about in old science fiction stories. Today, it’s embedded in technology to the point that it’s inescapable. Customer service is offloaded to chatbots, human-written articles are buried below Google’s AI overview, apps are overrun with AI features, and social media is inundated with AI-generated art.

In music, generative AI may be used as a tool for many things, from simply brainstorming ideas to fully creating the vocals, lyrics, and melodies in songs. More broadly, it can generate album art, promotional flyers, press releases, or visuals for performances.

It may be convenient and cheap. But the data centers running these programs are burning through our water supply, causing noise pollution in surrounding communities, and causing an over-reliance on AI that poses detrimental cognitive effects and consequences for the job market.

As AI becomes more commonplace in every area of life, questions are arising over what is acceptable usage of generative AI in creative spaces. In the EDM scene, the answer is simple: nothing.

Photo Credit: Techivation

The music industry is oversaturated as is, and someone using generative AI as a shortcut doesn’t deserve a spot over someone putting in the effort.

Making electronic music didn’t used to be so accessible. Before computers, it required recording studio equipment and a comprehensive understanding of audio engineering.

Now, anyone can learn the craft out of their bedroom with a used laptop and a copy of FL Studio or Ableton Live. There are endless YouTube channels with people offering their knowledge for free so beginners can grasp the fundamentals.

While anyone can record a song and release it onto streaming services nowadays, the low barrier to entry means more music is being released than ever before, making it harder for any individual artist to stand out. Some people argue that AI further levels the playing field between experts and amateurs, or naturals versus strugglers, by helping them overcome creative mental blocks and shaving hours off tedious tasks.

But production isn’t supposed to be easy. It’s a messy learning process that can take years to master, but the best music is crafted by musicians who are in it for the love of the game and are willing to put in the work.

Frankly, I believe that someone who outsources the creative process to generative AI lacks the discipline and creativity that define great musicians. Therefore, they don’t deserve to make a career out of music.

In an industry already overflowing with aspiring artists, those who take creative shortcuts instead of honing their craft shouldn’t expect the same opportunities and recognition as artists who earned them through developing their artistry. And if we reward those who use generative AI, it devalues the music that resulted from hard work.

No matter how advanced AI gets, music made by people will always be better because it possesses the human spark that makes it special.

Music isn’t entirely about the final product. It’s about the inspiration, story, and creative process behind it. Artists like Avicii, Martin Garrix, or Illenium are so popular because of their ability to make music that is filled with emotion and introspection. Their songs resonate so strongly because they capture deeply human moments of vulnerability, triumph, heartbreak, and euphoria. These are all qualities that an AI model simply cannot emulate because it lacks lived experiences to draw from in its work.

Listeners connect with artists through their music, but that connection doesn’t end when the song does. They travel to see their favorite artists at festivals, watch their interviews, interact with their Instagram Reels, buy their merch, and get their lyrics tattooed on their skin. There’s no connecting with artificial intelligence, at least not in an authentic way. There may be a person who wrote the prompt behind the AI-generated song, but there’s a significant degree of separation between the artist and the listener.

And what is a musician doing making music if they don’t simply love to make music? While it can be delightful to revel in the final creation, so much of the joy comes from actually creating. How can someone call themselves a musician if they’re letting a machine make the music for them?

Photo Credit Erwi

The EDM scene was built from the underground, a space that deeply values originality, yet nothing made by AI is truly original.

Let me be clear that I am not against all forms of artificial intelligence. For years, artists have used AI-powered tools to assist with things like audio separation or mixing and mastering, well before generative AI became well known to the public in 2022. These tools often require substantially less computing power because they are used to enhance existing audio rather than generating entirely new content. Meanwhile, generative AI is beginning to look less like a tool used to assist artists and more like a machine built to replace them.

Another big issue with generative AI is that nothing it creates is truly original. These models are trained on vast collections of human-created text, images, music, and other media to generate new content at the behest of a user’s prompt.

Many times, a musician’s discography is used to train these models without their consent. Major music labels Universal Music Group and Sony Music have filed lawsuits against Suno in the past, alleging that the popular AI-music generator used millions of their copyrighted tracks to train its model without permission. The law firm Hagens Berman started representing independent artists in a class action lawsuit against the same company more recently.

While these complaints are centered around copyright infringement, some people, including me, believe using generative AI to create something and passing it off as your own is a form of plagiarism. Others contest this, saying it’s no different than humans deriving inspiration from existing work, our lived experiences, and history.

Plagiarism is deeply frowned upon everywhere, but so many people are ironically embracing AI. It doesn’t matter if AI is responding to a prompt from a human. An artist fully generating a song using AI and then saying it’s their own is the equivalent of a student paying someone to do their homework, then turning it in to the teacher with their name on the top of it.

Photo Credit: Escape Artiste

Some in the industry are already making moves against AI.

As AI is rapidly being pushed into workplaces across industries, many music professionals are working to curb its use in the scene or pushing for greater transparency around AI-generated music.

The online music store Bandcamp banned heavily AI-generated music on its platform, and Traxsource has forbidden any fully AI-generated music from its site. Meanwhile, the music streaming app Tidal has stopped paying royalties for fully AI-generated tracks.

Other platforms like Apple Music and Deezer have taken a different approach. Rather than banning AI-generated music outright, they require songs created with AI assistance to be labeled accordingly, providing greater transparency for listeners. However, labels have to self-disclose on Apple Music, while Deezer ironically uses AI to detect AI music.

While there’s always the risk of real music being falsely flagged, or fake music slipping through the cracks, these policies are a step in the right direction and indicative of people pushing back against AI permeating the music scene.

As AI floods the creative market, supporting artists and their work is important now more than ever.

EDM has evolved alongside technology because the scene has always celebrated innovation. Because of this, one common pro-AI argument is that people need to get on board with it or risk getting left behind. Another is that AI is the inevitable future, and we just need to accept it. Diplo, one of the biggest adamantly pro-AI artists, made a controversial post on X saying creatives needed to “adapt or just like give up” back in April.

But raving has also always been about resistance. When the looming, ever-growing presence of AI threatens the livelihoods of the musicians we love, our fellow ravers, and the sustainability of the planet we dance on, nothing is more PLUR than resisting it.

Doing this is simple. If you’re an artist or promoter, don’t use it. Pay graphic designers, visual artists, and vocalists. Do the work even if it’s time-consuming or difficult. There will always be a strong demand for genuine art.

If you’re a raver, don’t consume AI-generated media. Call out artists who use it and express your discontent in their comment sections. More importantly, actively support artists who don’t use AI over those who do.

Technology has always shaped EDM, but the tools have never been the essence of the scene. It has always been the artists who pour their heart and soul into bringing their ideas to life, and the ravers who embrace them.

AI may be unavoidable, but whether you use or support it is a choice. If we want a future where EDM is still about authenticity, creativity, and human expression, then we must make a conscious effort to prevent AI from encroaching on it.

The post Generative AI Has No Place in the EDM Scene appeared first on EDM Identity.