The Cogito Brief

Good morning,

What happens when anyone can create a song?

That question is becoming more important as AI continues to move into the music industry. Most people think about AI helping with writing, images, coding, or research, but music is quickly becoming one of the most interesting areas to watch because you probably have a personal connection to the music you listen to.

You may not care how AI impacts a spreadsheet, but you probably care how it impacts your favorite songs, artists, playlists, and concerts. Whether you realize it or not, AI is already influencing what you hear.

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Many artists and producers are using AI as a creative tool. Instead of staring at a blank page, they can use AI to generate lyrics, melodies, instrumentals, or song ideas in seconds. The artist still decides what makes the final cut, but AI is speeding up the creative process.

Think of it like having a songwriting partner available 24 hours a day. This doesn’t mean musicians are automatically being replaced. In many cases, it simply means they can experiment with more ideas, test different sounds, and spend less time getting stuck.

We’ve already seen AI-generated songs imitate famous artists, including a viral Drake and Weeknd example (click here to listen). My question to you is this: who owns a voice, a sound, or a style?

The second impact is one you may not even notice. Streaming platforms (like Apple Music and Spotify) use AI to determine which songs appear in your recommendations, playlists, and discovery feeds. Every song you skip, replay, save, or search for becomes data.

AI analyzes those patterns and tries to predict what you will want to hear next. That means AI is also helping decide which music reaches you in the first place.

In some ways, this may have a bigger impact on your listening habits than the artists themselves because it shapes what gets placed in front of you. One of my current favorite musicians (MGK) was recommended to me by Apple Music about four years ago.

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As AI makes music easier to create, the amount of music available is going to explode. If anyone can generate songs, lyrics, vocals, and instrumentals with a few prompts, there will be far more content competing for your attention than ever before.

That creates a new problem: trust. You may not know who created a song, whether it was heavily generated by AI, or whether the artist behind it is even real. But concerts are different.

A live performance proves there is a real person behind the music. It gives you something AI cannot fully replicate (yet): a shared experience. You can stream a song a thousand times, but you cannot recreate the feeling of hearing it live with thousands of other people in the same arena. It makes a concert feel more like proof that an artist actually exists.

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As AI makes music easier to create, live performances will become one of the most important ways artists build loyal fans and separate themselves from the endless amount of content online. The music itself may become easier to generate, but the human connection behind it will become more valuable.

That’s probably the biggest thing you should take away from this email. AI may change how songs are made, discovered, and promoted, but it will also make authenticity more important. The artists who build real communities, tell real stories, and create real experiences will stand out more than ever.

So here’s my question for you:

If you found out one of your favorite songs was created with AI assistance, would it change how you feel about it?

Reply back and let me know. I’m curious what you think.

Zack Wright