Nashville's Country Music Industry Embraces AI Songwriting as Human Artists Voice Concerns

The Country Music Industry Has Discovered That AI Can Crank Out Hits Like Crazy

What do small towns, cold beer, and fast-talkin' algorithms have in common? For decades, the country music industry has billed itself as the rough-hewn, rural cousin to the effete sounds of the city. That appears to be going out the window, as more and more country producers embrace San Francisco's AI over Nashville's homespun troubadours. In a detailed reporting on changes in the country music industry, The Verge spoke to a number of professional song-writers, producers, and artists about the rise of AI in country music. Their responses point to a scene that's changing fast -- and leaving human artists in the dust. The songwriter Trannie Anderson, for example, called the tech "ubiquitous" throughout Nashville, the epicenter of the country music industry. Anderson, who's written for artists like Reba McEntire, said everyone's using it: "from entry-level songwriters to the top dogs." (Sources who talked to The Verge confirmed big wigs like Jelly Roll and Dustin Lynch are being sent song demos with their own voices digitally synthesized.) Eric Olson, a publisher interviewed by The Verge, encourages country song writers to use AI to come up with song samples, saying it saves tons of time in the work day. "If I can give Suno the last 20 percent and spend more time with my kids, that's huge," he said. While AI tools like Suno can generate just about everything a music producer needs -- lyrics, backup vocals, melodies -- they're mainly being used for demo production, according to reporting. When up-and-coming singer-songwriter Maggie Reaves got a contract from a "major artist" with a one-day turnaround, for example, she wrote the song on paper before throwing it into Suno, according to The Verge. Her publisher told her it was "perfect." "This is going straight to her," her publisher said. In the country music scene at least, demo recording is an important source of revenue for working musicians. Still, though it's an integral part of the country music ecosystem, it can be expensive. AI offers a cost efficient alternative. "I immediately saw this [AI] could replace that," Reaves told The Verge. Considering country music's history, it's a rather fitting turn for the industry. As folk music journalist Kim Ruehl observed, contemporary pop-country came to prominence as the commercial arm of American folk music. "The difference is the involvement of big business in the development of the careers of country stars," Ruehl wrote on the question of country's folk origins. That being the case, the drive for efficiency with AI -- cutting production costs and increasing profit -- is best understood as the next logical step for the industry, not a freak departure from the norm. There are numerous examples of "industrial advancements" throughout pop-country's lifespan. Consider the "Countrypolitan era" of the 1960s, in which producer Billy Sherrill refined the process of pumping out chart-topping pop ballads, or the "Hat Act" era of Garth Brooks and Alan Jackson, defined by thematic conformity and the massive consolidation of country radio. One of the prime examples of this -- and arguably commercial country's point of origin -- was the "Nashville sound," which came to replace bawdry, blue-collar honky tonk with mechanically-produced pop hits. Instead of AI, producers in this era turned to "the A Team," a stable of reliable session musicians in Nashville, to maximize studio time and streamline popular songwriting formulas. Together, the A Team has contributed to tens of thousands of tracks, laying the groundwork for country music as a commercial industry. So, while AI might be taking country music to a dark place, it's really par for the course for a business constantly striving for mass market appeal above all else. Just ask any honky tonk fan.

This Country Songwriter Says AI Songs Should Be Labeled

Breland on Why Nashville Accepted Post Malone But Not Beyoncé The use of AI in songwriting is marching forward, and that includes in Nashville, where human connection and the idea of "three chords and the truth" have always been part of the fabric of country songs. Breland, the songwriter and singer behind hits like "My Truck," says the technology has gotten out of hand. And he's adamant that listeners should be aware of exactly what they're listening to. "People should know whether what they're listening to is a human voice or not. You should be required to say that," Breland says in a new interview on Rolling Stone's Nashville Now podcast. He's worried that human artists are being erased by the technology, which uses vast environmental resources to operate. "AI is out of control. If you're trying to solve global crises and you're using AI to do that, I'm sure we could probably justify it. Anything else, we're just tearing the planet apart," he says. "When it comes to AI and music, to me, music is such an innately human experience... So, if we're going to take something that humans have been doing exclusively for tens of thousands of years, and is as integral as it is... how on earth would we be comfortable with that process being automated, and taking the humanity out of it?" But Breland isn't just criticizing AI usage. He's offering a way to use it responsibly. "My proposal is this: One, I think that AI songs should be labeled as such. And secondly, I think that the revenue from AI songs should go toward grants and scholarships for up-and-coming creatives," he says. "You're going to make money off of something that you didn't do? You're not a songwriter, so if you're not a songwriter, and you're not a producer and you're not an artist, then I don't think that you should be entitled to publishing on a song. "And if whoever it is that's putting that song out isn't human and can't actually make any of that money itself," he continues, "that money should be sprinkled to actual people who want to do something good with it." During his Nashville Now episode, Breland weighs in on other hot-button issues in country music, including diversity in Nashville and Keith Urban's decision to perform a private concert at Mar-a-Lago. Watch the full episode below. Download and subscribe to Rolling Stone's weekly country-music podcast, Nashville Now, hosted by senior music editor Joseph Hudak, on Apple Podcasts or Spotify (or wherever you get your podcasts). New episodes drop every Wednesday and feature interviews with artists and personalities like Lainey Wilson, Hardy, Charley Crockett, Kings of Leon, Gavin Adcock, Amanda Shires, Shooter Jennings, Margo Price, Ink, Halestorm, Dusty Slay, Lukas Nelson, Ashley Monroe, Old Crow Medicine Show's Ketch Secor, and Clever.