Can It Write a Symphony? Pros and Cons of GenAI in Music Creation

In this column, I usually explore the intersection of business and technology, but this issue is a little different. Music has always been a deep personal passion of mine, and for the first time, I’m writing about a topic that blends my two worlds: business and technology with music. It is about what happens when human artistry (in the form of music) meets machine intelligence (in the form of technology).

GenAI is now composing music. Not just elevator tunes or producing background noise, but actual, compelling tracks. Whether it's ambient sounds, pop songs, or classical-style compositions, tools like Suno, Udio, and others are enabling anyone — yes, anyone — to generate music with just a text prompt. For instance, just now I “composed” my first tune with Suno, in the text prompt I wrote “energetic fusion jazz with some tango influence” and created a four-minute instrumental song. Not bad at all.

For business leaders and professionals watching GenAI transform everything from law to logistics, music might seem like an artistic sideshow. But the rise of GenAI in music creation offers a unique window into both the power and the pitfalls of this technology.

So, is GenAI composing the future of music, or just remixing noises learned by machines? Let’s look at the pros and cons.

The Pros: Why GenAI in Music is Striking a Chord

1. Lowering the barriers to entry: GenAI tools let anyone —without music knowledge nor instrumental skills — create reasonably polished music in seconds. This democratization opens up music creation to marketers, app developers, YouTubers, and music lovers in general.

2. Speed and scale for creative workflows: Professional musicians are increasingly using GenAI to accelerate their creations. Whether it is generating musical progressions, orchestration ideas, or producing entire demos, GenAI saves time at the ideation stage.

3. Genre-melding and musical Innovation: GenAI isn't bound by tradition. It can blend genres, eras, and cultures in ways human composers might not think to try — or dare to. What about a mix of country, classical, and heavy metal?

4. Hyper-personalization and interactivity: GenAI can create music tailored to a listener’s mood, preferences, or even biometrics, like a real-time song list.

The Cons: When the Beat Doesn’t Drop

1. Quality versus quantity dilemma: GenAI can churn out thousands of tracks, but many lack soul, originality, or lasting appeal. Are we going to get swamped with tons of tunes that sound the same? So, a lot more quantity but with variable — or unknown — quality.

2. The copyright and ethics question: If GenAI generates music in the style of Queen, Madonna, or Paganini, is it flattery, theft, or something in between?

3. Threat to human musicians: While pop stars might be safe (for now), studio musicians, jingle writers, and background music composers may be the first to be concerned with potentially losing their current sources of income.

4. Authenticity and audience perception: Some audiences may love a GenAI-produced track, others may find it hollow and boring. Music is deeply emotional — if people know it was made by a machine, will they still feel the same connection?

Voices From the Stage: What Musicians Really Think

To understand how this shift resonates beyond the music business, I had the opportunity to ask some of the world’s most iconic jazz and classical musicians for their thoughts on GenAI. Their responses revealed a fascinating blend of enthusiasm, concern, and philosophical insight:

Michel Camilo, the Grammy-winning pianist and composer, noted that “the brain is the most powerful computer, but there is a risk for humans to become lazy.” While he sees the potential for GenAI to help us discover new musical forms, he cautions against letting machines replace the essence of human creation.

Chucho Valdés, a pioneering force in Afro-Cuban jazz, embraces the future: “Humans will always evolve … we need to go farther and farther, so you need to adapt!” For him, resisting change is a historical reaction — one that we should outgrow.

Alexis Cárdenas, the virtuosic violinist known for fusing classical and Latin American traditions, celebrates the beauty of human expression. He supports new technologies but reminds us, “While GenAI can analyze the nine symphonies composed by Beethoven, it will never be able to compose the 10th.”

And then there’s Paquito D’Rivera, legendary saxophonist and clarinetist, who responded to the notion that GenAI might someday do it better than him with a casual shrug: “So what?” A short answer, but one that cuts to the core. Art is about expression, not competition.

But Can GenAI Perform Live? 

For all its capabilities, GenAI doesn’t take the stage. It doesn’t sweat, improvise, or make eye contact. Those of us who love live performances know there’s no substitute for the raw, unfiltered emotion of a human being pouring their heart into a violin solo, a piano improvisation, or a jazz riff that exists only in that fleeting moment – even if there is a small imperfection in a given performance. GenAI can simulate sound, but not the magic of shared experience between performer and audience.

GenAI is a New Instrument, Not a Replacement 

GenAI is not the death of music, it’s the arrival of a new tool. Much like the synthesizer or the drum machine years back, it will shift creative roles, not eliminate them. For musicians, it’s a co-pilot. For businesses, it’s an opportunity to innovate with sounds in smart ways. Used well, GenAI democratizes, accelerates, and inspires. Used poorly, it devalues and commodifies. As with all technology, its value depends on how thoughtfully we embrace it.

The Final Note

So yes, the machines are writing songs, but we still decide what’s worth listening to. We are the ones who smile, cry, sing, relax, sleep, or scream when listening to music. In the end, it is and will be a human emotion that will separate great from not-so-great music. We will likely listen to some GenAI-produced symphonies, but we will never be able to listen to Beethoven’s 10th, he never wrote it, and as much as we would like to guess what notes he would pick, we’ll never be able to do it as he did, so let’s enjoy life to the maximum with the nine symphonies we have!