If AI replaces musicians, does the entire plugin industry die with them?

[DrGonzo]

What do you find most enjoyable?
Pressing a button to generate some music or make the effort to create something by yourself?

[jancivil]

I'ver used Neutron 4 quite a lot. I always adjust what it gives me in that kind of case just as though I have some idea of the task.

[Grizzellda]

Again, I am going to lean on this idea of a central Father Source figure, creator, some might call "God"...but it does not really matter what you call it.

This must mean something, or nothing. I say..."something"!!!

[jancivil]

You're high AF, aren't you

[Seafire Mk2]

What do you find most enjoyable?
Pressing a button to generate some music or make the effort to create something by yourself?

The ON button?

[DCrown]

If you want to be a NBA basketball player you have to qualify, lots of training and experience needed.
Using AI is just like being an unskilled basketball player who wants to be a NBA player with an assistant whose task is to shoot a basket.
The audience would not accept it, the game would turn into complete nonsense.
That's why there are professional, Amateur and hobby leagues.
Music needs professional, amateur, hobby and ai leagues/plattforms, too. Thanks to ai there will be millions of uploads on the same plattforms every day, complete nonsense, completely worthless.

[DrGonzo]

What do you find most enjoyable?
Pressing a button to generate some music or make the effort to create something by yourself?

The ON button?

Nothing is more intriguing than the On button.

[DrGonzo]

Thanks to ai there will be millions of uploads on the same plattforms every day, complete nonsense, completely worthless.

But that's a good thing, no? Flooding the platforms with mediocre generic music will eventually lead to artists being more creative.

[Grizzellda]

You're high AF, aren't you

Maybe a little, sure.

Have you, jancivil, not dropped acid, or smoked something,

and then thought about God and the universe?

[enroe]

Let me go back to the initial question:

Are any developers already noticing changes in sales, user behavior, or demand because of AI tools? Or is this still mostly theoretical right now? Noise?!

The AI ​​hype is only just getting started: all commercial plugin developers are
trying quickly and almost frantically to integrate AI into one of their new, trendy
tools. It's about automatic equalizers, automatically analyzing compressors,
AI-powered automatic transient designers, and so on. Real mastering and
mixing engineers don't need this kind of thing, but newcomers and those
interested in AI are already eagerly looking for it.

If AI really does replace a large part of music creation, who is actually going to buy plugins anymore?

In the longer term, that is, if we look several years into the future, a completely
different picture emerges: Since all compositions will be handled by AI, there
will no longer be any demand for plugins of any kind in this large area. Plugin
developers as we know them today will soon no longer exist. One can, of
course, close one's eyes to this, but that is the direction things are heading.

What will remain are the home and bedroom producers, who are now getting
old and will die out, who will remain loyal to the plugin scene – and continue to
use DAWs, buy plugins, and even produce songs themselves. But this scene
will become a niche scene – like the vinyl scene or the analog film photography
scene. And they, too, will now become grandfathers and die out.

[Grizzellda]

So...What will become of us all???

We are doomed, it is like a video game scenario, could be scary

Very, very scary, but see...this is when I just kinda "get close to God"...

Can not currently explain it better than that...

[OverBrightBlueLED]

AI cannot replace your capacity to invent, create and enjoy. Neither can it use or employ analogue. Analogue is not matched yet. People are still going to make and enjoy producing music because of its infinite depth.

I did see a 8pct of coupon from a major INTL music equipment retailer which does suggest a slow down of sales.

It will be tough for software companies and hardware sellers as most people have everything they need now to make music.

The 4 millionth analogue emulation that still does not sound precisely analogue, irrelevant of surrounding hype is no longer going to work.

Make high quality music push yourself like you have never pushed yourself before, ensure the end result is top quality, make less and higher quality product.

I will never stop enjoying making music, it is too wonderful, the feeling of satisfaction and awe of something bigger than yourself, that feeling that you did it but that extra wonder that is creation and music itself. No prompt will ever deliver that. That is the special something that you cannot put your finger on which a prompter will never experience.

[Zeisner]

The AI ​​hype is only just getting started:

Are you sure about that?

https://futurism.com/scientists-worried-ai-pleateau

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/13/busi ... -lags.html

It's like the blockchain hype but with a lot more money spent. A dangerous amount of money.

[Zeisner]

And then there's this as well...

https://www.theregister.com/2026/01/11/ ... to_poison/

...which accelerates model collapse.

[ghettosynth]

The AI ​​hype is only just getting started:

Are you sure about that?

https://futurism.com/scientists-worried-ai-pleateau

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/13/busi ... -lags.html

It's like the blockchain hype but with a lot more money spent. A dangerous amount of money.

I think that he was talking about the long tail of integration into other tools. That said, I think that peak hype was early spring of 25 and that we are on the downslope of the Gartner hype cycle.

I am not negative on AI overall, it's extremely helpful for me and has made some aspects of my work fun again. If you aren't using it you might not see where it's getting better and the ways in which it seems in some contexts to be getting worse, but, those changes are driven by industry changes, e.g., increased need for safety.

Where I think that this forum just doesn't get it is that people like to play with shit. That's not going away and the teet that so many of you are hoping to suckle from, big labels, aren't going to care that AI is driving that as long as they get theirs. We are at the place where improvements aren't dramatic like they were and the focus is on incremental growth. I'm not saying anything about the money, in fact, I'd love a correction, as well as a glut of GPUs on the used market, but, I'm not holding my breath.

Think about it now. The big players are going to get some royalties from all of those people making bs AI works. How much are they getting from "real musicians"? They are salivating at those deals with the big AI song makers. Every stupid rap gets them a penny or two of that sweet subscription money.