--- title: "AI That Generates Music from Prompts Should Probably Scare Musicians" description: "AI-powered music generators are here — and it looks like they're gunning for a strong position in the content-creation economy." date: "2022-10-20" modified: "2022-10-20" authors: - name: "Maggie Harrison Dupré" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/mharrison" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/ai-music-text-prompts" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" tags: - "ai" - "artificial intelligence" - "music" - "the digest" --- # AI That Generates Music from Prompts Should Probably Scare Musicians ![AI-powered music generators are here — and it looks like they're gunning for a strong position in the content-creation economy.]() *\Image: Getty Images/Futurism\* ## Royalty-Free Musicians, we have some bad news. AI-powered music generators are here — and it looks like they're gunning for a strong position in the content-creation industry. "From streamers to filmmakers to app builders," [claims music generating app Mubert AI]()**,** which can transform limited text inputs into a believable-sounding composition, "we've made it easier than ever for content creators of all kinds to license custom, high-quality, royalty-free music." Of course, computer-generated music has been around for quite some time, making use of [various forms of artificial intelligence]() to come up with results that can sound [equally manmade and alien](). But this new generation of music-generators, led by Mubert AI as well as [Google's Audio LM](), feel like a different beast. They're less like creative integrations for the music-making process, and more like creative replacements for musicians themselves — eliminating the need to pay for human labor or pesky royalties altogether. ## Mubert vs. Google While both of these platforms are impressively good at generating music that sounds like it was created by a human, they work in surprisingly different ways. Mubert AI, on one hand, generates music that sounds like something you'd hear in an elevator. According to their site, their AI is trained on "over one million \[music\] samples" made by "over 4,000 creators." To make a track, a user selects a [combination of genre and mood signifiers](), and boom — a forgettable, lyric-less background tune for your Reel or TikTok is born. Google's Audio LM, which has been around since TK, is a bit more involved, particularly because Google's working on perfecting lyrics and vocal patterns. The user feeds Audio LM one or more audio clips – such as a few notes from a piano score — and the machine picks up where the user left off. ## Content Industrial Complex If there's any consolation, Mubert AI's argument for its existence hinges on the fact that actual musicians and producers are part of its process, who stand to earn some cash from whatever samples they create for the platform. Google, however, makes no such claims. Look, we get it. It's a content-driven world, and synthetic content creation makes it easier for a lot of creators to keep up. But as we move into a new, AI-driven world, it's always worth wondering what, if anything, gets lost in the process. **More on AI:** *[Rent Too Damn High? Blame YieldStar, a Secret Algorithm from Housing Hell]()* ## Author At Futurism, I've reported extensively on the rise of AI as a cultural and business force shaping the media industry, and more broadly how those dynamics are changing how we all consume and share information and relate to one another. I'm also fascinated by public health policy and ethics, the role of emerging tech in politics and governance — and the powerful people and forces at those intersections — climate change, and the environment. My investigation on Sports Illustrated's use of AI-generated authors with fictional biographies won a 2024 Mirror Award for "Best Story on Media Coverage of Artificial Intelligence in Journalism and the Media" from Syracuse University's SI Newhouse School, I contributed to Niemen Lab's 2025 Predictions for Journalism series, and I've discussed my work for Futurism during appearances on NPR, CNN, the BBC, the CBC, and more. I grew up in rural Pennsylvania and attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where I played Division I field hockey for the Minutewomen as a midfielder. Since then, I've lived in New Orleans, Louisiana and Manhattan, New York. I spend my free time running, reading, perusing archival fashion, and searching for the world’s best negroni. I also have a debonair tuxedo cat, Westley, who's named after "The Princess Bride." ### Author social links [Bluesky]()