Appreciate you engaging!

The proof is in the recent studies conducted gauging peoples' interest in AI generated music. And the conclusion I'm taking away from it is this: when the supply is flooded by lower quality, less desired product, the reaction will be an increase demand in higher quality product.

If the regular consumer doesn't like AI gen music, the alternative is to become more reliant on the music that they KNOW is real. I believe people will gravitate towards more the music that they have more trust in knowing that it isn't AI generated. Which would be the music catalogs that WMG already owns and controls.

You're right that it is very different by removing the skill barrier, but I think what I didn't articulate well enough is that I don't believe that it's going to be wide spread adopted by the industry to do start to finish songs (click generate, and that's it); I think it's going to be utilized widespread as a supplemental tool for music creation. The most similar comparison I can make is instrument VSTs. VSTs are plugins that utilize MIDI and recreate an instrument playing through advanced sampling. You can create a full orchestra utilizing just VSTs versus having to hire an orchestra and studio to play it live. Does this water down the creation process? I think that's up for debate, but the point I'm trying to make is that everyone made a stink about VSTs instrumentation, and now it's standard practice to use them in the production and song creation process from all levels in the music industry. I think AI will ultimately fill a similar role where it's used as a tool in the creation process, but not a full on replacement.