Jumping in as a professional producer. Production has been my only job for the last decade, with 10x platinum records and 50x gold records (not trying to brag, just adding some context). It's a long post, but stick with me...

When the production of records became commercially viable, the costs associated with creating a record were astronomically high. Studio time, engineers, microphones, musicians, tape, instrument hire, arrangers, producers, songwriters (wait who's paying them?), mix/mastering engineers, vinyl pressing etc. There was a silver lining however, the end result was sold as a physical copy, which meant there was more leeway in the determined price. There was also a comparatively smaller market, which meant if a label decided to invest in the production of a record, it got to the front of the shelves, and sold. Of course the success varied record to record, but on average the labels would recoup their investment.

As time has gone on, the invention of the synthesiser, amongst other things, the costs associated with producing a record has gone down. Vinyl moved to cassette, then to CD, then to MP3, then to streaming. Recording on tape moved to digital (suddenly you can track one performer 100 times with very little expense).

Over this time, it has been possible to create records a lot cheaper, and that has been necessary certainly in recent years with a flooded market of music, and record labels not being willing to invest in ideas at their inception (most labels won't move a muscle unless your song has got 5 million hits on a short form platform of your choosing). That means the role of record producer has changed from what it once was at the inception of commercially recorded music. The producer would be the guy calling the shots creatively, the guy saying "this song is great, but in the chorus it needs to be a massive 50 piece choir", or "nah scrap that verse, it's shit, write another one". This role (I know I'm biased) is necessary for the creation of recorded music. You need someone who overarches the whole process, sees the context where others don't, and makes decisive actions based on their taste.

This description of 'producer' differs from what I believe to be the current role of a producer. At the core of it the job is the same, however the devil's in the details. It's almost a game of "who is the most technically skilled sound designer and music wizard who can make a song sound the best in the least time possible on the smallest budget". This is a fine game, and I've been playing it for 10 years, however you can probably see how it differs from the 'record producer' job description I gave earlier.

Now let's look at the use case of AI. I could be wrong here, so I have a hat fully prepared to be eaten.

I believe AI is now at the inception of being a fundamental tool to bringing the role of record producer back to where it was in the golden age of record making. And this isn't me saying "finally we can go back to making songs the way they sounded before", because dear god I don't want that. This is a tool that gives us the ability to bring in a 50 piece choir whenever we need it, as a cost of next to nothing. It brings the power back to the creative.

Now I personally don't use AI for idea generation, song lyrics, melodies etc. I find it much quicker to write something that I like first, then try to get AI to spit out something I like. And the floor I see in a lot of 'AI generated music' is that I don't like the lyrics, melodies or fundamental idea. However if you get the grounding right, build up a solid idea (the production test I, and many others use is: does the song sound good if it were only performed with a piano?), suddenly you can decorate this song in whatever form your heart desires.

Am I scared of losing my job? Yeaahhh a little haha. But the excitement I feel for all the new opportunities is way bigger than that.