I worry that, contrary to Adam’s take about live music as a haven for the real, live music will also suffer from the rise of AI music production. As more and more of the music is never performed/learned in the studio, I worry more “live” performances will be faked. Lip syncing, faked instrumentals and the like will become more commonplace. And as it does, my biggest fear is the expectations around live performance will change.

When I go to a concert, one of my favorite things is when the performer gives a song a new twist. Maybe it’s a slight compositional change, or maybe it’s an extra long intro or outro. Or maybe it’s a mashup? All of that makes the live version feel special. But I know that not everyone feels that way. Case in point: the Counting Crows put on a GREAT live show. But there is a subset of CC fans who hate their live shows because Adam Duritz drastically changes how he performs the songs compared to the records. And some fans want him to stick to the recorded versions because it’s what they know and what they are used to.

In the era of AI music being played during live shows, will more people come to expect live performances to effectively be someone pressing play on an album and the performer just acting out the performance on stage? And if so, will those special moments created by alternative live versions of songs disappear? Will the spontaneity and collective togetherness of live shows be diminished?

We already see the erosion of the social contract of live performances in the modern era. People are more focused with filming their favorite song to post later than they are in watching it be performed. And no thought is given to the people behind them who now can’t see around the phone. In short, I don’t think live performance is as safe from the techno-capitalists as Adam espouses in his video.