As AI Floods the Studio, Live Music Is Having a Renaissance Fueled by Human Energy

The pie is getting smaller for creatives, especially on the recorded side. You might not be able to fight that loss in sync licensing, but you can adapt. The smart move is to lean harder into live shows, where artists can actually grow their income instead of watching it disappear.Daniel Melnick - Owner and CEO | Sonicbids

No algorithm can replicate the goosebumps of a live show. As AI floods studios and streaming platforms, it’s unintentionally reminding everyone where the real magic happens: in the sweat, the sound, and the shared energy of a crowd. Rather than replacing human artistry, the rise of synthetic music is reigniting it, proving that nothing matches the thrill of real musicians creating moments no machine could ever come close to.

We spoke with Daniel Melnick, an entrepreneur and executive whose career is shaped by his work at the intersection of music, technology, and live events. As the current Owner and CEO of the artist booking platform Sonicbids and Professor at NYU Steinhardt's Department of Music and Performing Arts Professions, his perspective is informed by decades of real-world experience. Far from an anti-AI alarmist, Melnick actively uses the tech and encourages his students and employees to do the same, which makes his perspective on the future of live music all the more grounded.

Melnick frames the issue with what he calls his "worst nightmare": a future where his child's favorite artist is "DJ ChatGPT." He’s quick to clarify that he doesn’t believe this will actually happen. But, he points out, the "meteoric rise" of EDM culture was driven by powerful business incentives that could establish a concerning precedent.

• The DJ discount: "The live industry loves DJs due to lower overhead. When you're paying out a band, you have a lot of mouths to feed and you need a much larger production crew. With a premastered track, it's easy to project that sound onto the masses. That's why I see the rise of EDM as the first step towards my nightmare 'DJ ChatGPT' scenario," says Melnick.

  

  The live industry loves DJs due to lower overhead. When you're paying out a band, you have a lot of mouths to feed and you need a much larger production crew. With a premastered track, it's easy to project that sound onto the masses. That's why I see the rise of EDM as the first step towards my nightmare 'DJ ChatGPT' scenario.Daniel Melnick - Owner and CEO | Sonicbids

  But as Melnick points out, no business incentive can compete with the audience’s craving for real human connection. He identifies a moat around live performance that he believes AI cannot cross, pointing to the market's clear lack of appetite for virtual concerts as compelling evidence. The boom-and-bust cycle of livestreamed concerts during the COVID-19 pandemic and the inability of metaverse events to retain an audience, he says, suggests that audiences are reluctant to embrace a digital substitute for the genuine connection of a live show.

• One and done: "I ask this question every semester, and the results never change. About half the room raises their hands when I ask who’s streamed a concert. But when I follow up and ask who’s done it more than once, almost every hand drops. People don’t want to watch a concert from their couch. They want to feel it in the room."

• All tech, no traction: Melnick points to a smaller but telling example of tech missing the mark: an AI hologram guitarist performing in an airport terminal while travelers walked by without a glance. "Everyone was buzzing about the technology behind that hologram guitarist, but the photos told the real story. There was nobody watching it. Sure, the tech worked and people poured money into it, but in the end, it was just another flop."

For artists, Melnick says the way forward starts with a dose of reality. AI is flooding the market with background tracks and commercial jingles, and according to him, that slice of the pie isn’t coming back. Rather than try to fight it, the smarter move is to pivot, and to double down on what machines can’t do.

• Take to the stage: "The pie is getting smaller for creatives, especially on the recorded side. You might not be able to fight that loss in sync licensing, but you can adapt. The smart move is to lean harder into live shows, where artists can actually grow their income instead of watching it disappear."

Melnick's ultimate takeaway is more philosophical. The "chaos" of live music lies in its unpredictability, its shared energy, and its potential for unique, irreplicable moments. That chaos, he believes, is its greatest strength. It is the one space where the messy, inefficient, and beautiful reality of human connection provides a value that no algorithm can optimize or replace.

"The fundamental need for community, for people wanting to be together to share an experience, is something that I don't think AI will ever be able to replace," Melnick concludes.