Creativity meets machine
"Artificial intelligence is rapidly reshaping the music industry, but its impact goes far beyond faster production or lower costs. It is challenging a basic assumption: that music and art must be created by humans alone," says Li Xiaobing, professor and head of the department of music artificial intelligence and music information technology at the Central Conservatory of Music.
"For years, many believed machines could not create art because they lack emotion. But that view is now being questioned. We understand only a small part of the human brain," says Li. Advances in AI composition and voice synthesis have already produced music and singing that many listeners struggle to distinguish from human performances — and in some cases even find emotionally moving, he adds.
The impact is evident across the industry. AI can generate compositions in seconds that once took hours and reconstruct how musicians performed historical works through data analysis. Music education, performance and production are all being compressed into faster, more automated workflows.
But key questions remain unresolved — especially around copyright, originality, and ownership in a world where AI can generate vast amounts of music instantly, Li says.
AI is now embedded throughout the production process — from recording and arranging to demo creation — and is already replacing parts of traditional workflows, according to Guo Kun, deputy secretary-general of the China Audio-Video Copyright Association.
One of the biggest challenges, she says, is scale and transparency. Not all AI-generated music is identified as such, and some tracks are even presented as human-made. As a result, no precise figures exist, though industry estimates suggest platforms receive anywhere from 50,000 to 150,000 new AI-generated tracks every day, she points out.
Streaming services have developed their own settlement systems. While copyright issues remain unresolved, AI-generated music is already generating revenue. Some payments are treated as royalties, others as platform incentives. In many cases, the same rules apply whether AI is involved or not.
Industry observers note a clear divide between China and some overseas markets. "In many foreign markets, the attitude is more negative, and most AI music does not receive income or formal settlement," she says.
China's platform ecosystem, by contrast, is taking a more pragmatic approach. The key question is not whether AI was used, but whether the music attracts listeners and succeeds commercially. "If a piece of music sounds good and attracts listeners, it can generate income," she says.
Even so, industry data point to an important distinction. Fully AI-generated music rarely performs strongly on its own. Most commercially successful projects still involve human creators, shifting the debate from whether AI will replace musicians to how deeply it will become part of the creative process.
Regulation remains unsettled."There is still no final legal judgment in this area," Guo says, pointing to the absence of binding case law on AI-generated music and copyright.
