A discussion on the role of artificial intelligence in the music industry took place at the International Forum of United Cultures in St. Petersburg. Producers, representatives of record companies and specialists in machine learning spoke about how neural networks are affecting creativity and the earnings of artists.
According to Alexander Gagiev, executive director of Sberbank's department for the development of artificial intelligence, around 30% of works in music charts have already been created with the participation of neural networks. He believes that artists with a distinctive individuality will remain in demand, while machines will take on routine tasks. In his view, artificial intelligence can serve musicians as a kind of coach and a stimulus for development.
Borislav Volodin, head of the "ArtMasters" championship of creative competencies, spoke in favor of restricting the use of neural networks. He believes that artificial intelligence strengthens those who have their own ideas, but may lead to the degradation of people without education. Volodin cited a study by the French platform Deezer, in which up to 90% of the nine thousand respondents were unable to distinguish music written by a human from music generated by a machine. He proposed introducing licensing for the use of such technologies, available only to people with specialized education, in order to preserve the quality of creative products.
Alexander Trushin, marketing director of the Black Star label, holds a different view. He sees neural networks as a tool that narrows the gap between artists of large companies and musicians with home studios. Trushin noted that with the development of technology, the demand for poets has grown, since artificial intelligence creates music well but still fails at poetry.
At the same time, he pointed to the problem of market oversaturation: if around 300 million musical works have been created throughout history, then 40 million new ones appeared in 2025 alone. As a result, by his account, only 0.2% of published music reaches the listener. "It is important that Generation Z artists can be in charge of their own careers themselves, rather than handing this over to AI," said Trushin.
Anton Kozak, executive director of the Velvet Music label, called not to fight technology but to use it. He considers artificial intelligence a useful tool that helps save time and money in music production. Ilya Bachurin, general director of Moskontsert, spoke about the Musicontent PFKI competition of the Presidential Foundation for Cultural Initiatives, to which participants submit demo recordings made with the help of neural networks; if the experts select their application, the song is then made by hand.
As an example of the use of the technology, the recent Beatles song "Now and Then" was cited. With the help of artificial intelligence, it was possible to isolate John Lennon's voice from an old, poor-quality demo recording. To it were added a guitar part by George Harrison, recorded in 1995, and parts by Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, played in recent times.
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