THE MACHINE IS IN THE ROOM: AI IN MUSIC, MAY 2025
—An editorial by Unmixed
Like it or not, the machine is already in the room. It’s humming behind your DAW, whispering through plugins, and remixing your stems faster than your intern ever could. It can sound like you. Sometimes better than you. And it’s not going away.
As of May 2025, artificial intelligence has officially set up shop in nearly every corner of music—composition, mixing, mastering, marketing, playlisting. What began as curiosity has become workflow. What once felt like novelty is now industry standard.
We at Unmixed are not here to romanticize the past or blindly worship the future. We are here to look closely.
THE PROS: ACCESS, SPEED, POSSIBILITY
Let’s start with what’s real:
AI tools have unlocked access. Artists who couldn’t afford studio time can now generate near-pro mixes. Lyricists can get unstuck. Sound designers can iterate ideas in seconds. The democratization of production is, in many ways, accelerating. For independent artists, especially those outside the privileged hubs of LA, Berlin, or London, this tech offers creative mobility that was once impossible.
Collaboration has also expanded. You can now "jam" with models trained on jazz solos or ambient noise. Some artists are using AI not to replace themselves, but to provoke new sonic directions—uncomfortable ones, sometimes—that stretch the limits of their identity. That can be exciting. Even radical.
THE CONS: MEDIOCRITY AT SCALE
But let's not get high on our own code.
AI also makes it easier to make more music-like objects that sound fine, but say nothing. It enables aesthetic mimicry without emotional insight. And it has flooded the ecosystem with forgettable content engineered for background listening, playlist fodder, or cheap sync.
The result? A race to the middle. Music that’s technically passable but spiritually bankrupt.
If you’ve scrolled through TikTok this month, you’ve probably already heard the same AI-generated voice recite vaguely “inspirational” lyrics over a lo-fi beat made by someone who never touched an instrument. It’s the Canva-fication of sound—safe, polished, template-ready. Art reduced to output.
THE ETHICAL MESS
Let’s also be honest about the ethics. Major labels are feeding AI models with artist catalogs—sometimes without consent. Vocal cloning is already being used to scam fans, ghostwrite tracks, and impersonate artists. Entire “AI DJs” are being pushed by tech companies that never paid a venue fee or risked a bad night.
Meanwhile, the artists who built the culture—the sample heads, crate diggers, analog freaks—are watching as their labor becomes training data. Unpaid. Uncredited. Unprotected.
This isn’t innovation. It’s extraction.
WHAT NOW?
We’re not anti-AI. But we are pro-accountability. Pro-humans. Pro-craft.
AI is a tool. Like a sampler. Like a synth. Like a turntable. The question isn’t should we use it. The question is how—and why. Are we using it to cut corners? Or to cut deeper into something we couldn’t reach on our own?
At Unmixed, we believe the future of music must be shaped by those who actually make it—not just those who engineer it.
Artistry isn’t just what ends up on the timeline. It’s how and why you get there.
So yes, the machine is in the room. But if we’re lucky—and if we fight for it—the soul still is too.
