When listeners no longer care too much who is singing
AI music no longer only appears in experimental videos or curious content on social networks. This type is gradually entering everyday life, from personal playlists to music played in cafes, restaurants or on buses.
Sharing with Lao Dong Newspaper, musician Thai Nguyen said that there are many reasons why AI music is increasingly chosen. In spaces such as cafes, restaurants or in cars, music mainly plays a role in creating atmosphere. Listeners do not always need to know the singer, musician or even the name of the song.
They find the melody pleasant, the voice stable, and the arrangement suitable, so just listen," musician Thai Nguyen commented.
According to musician Thai Nguyen, when previous AI tools still created voices that are quite recognizable as machines, the public could come to them out of curiosity. However, as technology becomes more complete and AI voices become more natural, the "AI" element may no longer be a reason for audiences to continue listening.
What I listen to first is still sound. If the voice is good, the song is easy to listen to, and the arrangement is stable, many people just listen, sometimes after listening to the whole song, they know it's a real singer or AI, and they don't even care" - musician Thai Nguyen said.
According to cultural expert Tran Tung Hieu, this phenomenon shows that the way the public uses music is shifting. For a part of listeners, especially when music plays a background role in daily life, immediate values such as easy to listen to, suitable for mood, suitable for space can be put before the identity of the performer.
This partly explains why AI music can quickly penetrate passive listening spaces. A long playlist with a pleasant voice can meet the needs of cafes, restaurants or drivers without requiring them to actively search for each artist.
However, the fact that listeners do not care who is singing at a specific time does not mean that the artist's identity is worthless.
Musician Hoang Ngan believes that it is necessary to distinguish between "seeing a good song" and "loving an artist". In the first need, AI is completely competitive when technology can create beautiful voices and relatively complete products.
But an artist does not only exist by singing. They also have personality, stories, images, artistic views, stage performance ability, how to interact with the public and a career journey for the audience to follow.
The music market can therefore form two parallel ways of listening. One side is the need for immediate enjoyment, when listeners need a song that suits their emotions or space without paying too much attention to the performer. The other side is the need to connect with artists, when audiences wait for new products, follow activities, buy performance tickets and form long-term attachment.
When singing well is not necessarily enough
Another change appears when audiences are increasingly exposed to AI voices that are cleanly processed, have fewer errors, can easily reach high notes and can transform into many styles.
This raises the question of whether the public's listening standards are becoming higher and how real singers must compete with voices that are almost not limited by health, vocal range or fitness.
Musician Thai Nguyen said that this influence is there but it is not necessary to look in a negative direction.
The current level of vocal technique has been significantly improved. On social networks, many young singers and cover singers have the ability to perform difficult songs, conquer high notes or sections that require good technique. Therefore, the fact that AI can sing high and sing accurately does not mean that humans immediately fall into a weak position.
Conversely, the public's frequent exposure to increasingly complete products can raise the standard of listening to music. Singers have to practice more, producers focus more on sound quality, and musicians also have to constantly improve their level.
However, AI creates a noteworthy paradox. When singing correctly, singing cleanly, reaching high notes or possessing a "beautiful" voice becomes increasingly easy to create with technology, factors that were once considered outstanding advantages of performers may no longer be enough to make a difference.
If there are thousands of voices that sing very well in the future, just singing the right notes or reaching high notes is not necessarily enough for a singer to make an impression anymore" - musician Thai Nguyen analyzed.
At that time, voice color, pronunciation, how to handle a song, the ability to tell stories with music or the life experience of the performer can become more important factors.
Even in a market with too many "perfect" voices, human imperfection sometimes creates emotions. A singer does not necessarily have to sing the highest note or possess the most complex technique. The important thing is that after just a few sentences, the audience immediately recognizes who it is and wants to continue listening to them.
According to cultural expert Tran Tung Hieu, this is also the time when the role of artists is seen more broadly than their pure performance ability. When technology can reproduce more and more characteristics of a music product, personal value, creative imprint and the ability to connect with the public become increasingly irreplaceable factors.
Not only affecting vocals, AI also changes the scale of music production.
Previously, to complete a relatively neat piece of music, it usually required a lot of time, manpower and stages. Nowadays, AI can support from brainstorming ideas, creating harmony to vocals, significantly shortening the product formation process. This means that the amount of music appearing on the market can increase very quickly.
Musician Hoang Ngan said that this is one of the most notable challenges. "Music is no longer scarce, but the attention of listeners is scarce. Making a song will become easier and easier, but for people to stop to listen, remember that song and still want to listen again, it is difficult" - he said.
When the number of products increases rapidly, a song invested by an artist for many months still has to compete with a huge amount of content on the same platform and in the same limited time of the audience.
From this perspective, the AI challenge is not simply the question "can machines replace artists?" AI can make a song easier to create, a voice more perfect, and a richer music source. But it is this surplus that makes the ability to make a difference important.
Musician Thai Nguyen compares future valuable works to "a pearl in the middle of a lot of sand". The pearl is still valuable, but it will become increasingly difficult for listeners to find it when the number of products increases too quickly.
For artists, the pressure is therefore not only to sing better or produce more, but to create a reason for the audience to stop, remember and choose themselves among countless sounds.
As for listeners, AI can make the way of enjoying music more flexible. They can accept a voice that does not belong to real people if the product is good enough, but still seek artists when they need personality, story and connection.
AI can therefore strongly change the way music is created and listened to, but does not necessarily lose the role of the artist. As techniques are increasingly easily recreated by technology, very "human" values such as emotions, personality and personal imprints can become a decisive reason for the audience to remember a voice.
