When songwriter Patrick Irwin moved to Nashville last year, he was entering a lottery. Each day hundreds of sessions take place where writers create a song demo to pitch to a publisher. Publishers then share those songs with labels and managers, who may share those songs with the artists. Even if a major country star records (“cuts”) the song, it still takes a stroke of luck for that song to become a No. 1 hit.
The odds of winning are extremely low. Recently, Irwin was in a room where his cowriters Sam Fink and Duane Deerweater tried something new. Instead of booking studio time or calling a “track guy” to produce a demo, one cowriter opened Suno, an AI music platform, uploaded a voice memo with just guitar and vocals, and typed in a prompt: “traditional country, male vocal, folk country, story telling, 90s country, rhythmic.” Thirty seconds later he had two fully produced demos complete with drums, electric guitars, bass, and backing harmonies. There were no studio musicians, no invoices.
“You tell it the genre and it totally does the whole thing, it’s insane,” says Irwin. He was as astonished as he was disturbed. This was not the Nashville, a city with a storied 200-year history of producing much of America’s greatest music, that he had imagined.
Irwin isn’t alone in this feeling. In the background, AI is taking over the city. At the start of 2024, few professionals had even tried these tools, but in the past six months, songwriters and producers have embraced them to work faster and cheaper — and for some, more resourcefully. No label, no major publisher, nor Suno would give comment for this story. But after speaking with musicians, writers, and a dozen anonymous insiders, it’s clear that Nashville has become an AI town.
Original recording of "Hold On To You" by Patrick Irwin, Sam Fink, and Duane Deerweater:
"Hold On To You" remixed by Suno with the prompt: "Traditional country / male vocal / Folk country / Story telling / 90s country / rhythmic"
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