The AI revolution is coming for music and sound – will you play along or be drowned out?
The Drum’s Gordon Young reflects on how the latest announcement from Nvidia will impact those in the advertising space and beyond.
The AI revolution is not just knocking at the door of the creative industry – it’s storming through it. The latest disruptor? NVIDIA’s Fugatto, a generative audio tool that takes sound design to places we’ve never imagined. Think saxophones meowing, thunder morphing into birdsong, or accents flipping from calm to angry on command. This is not your standard AI gimmick; Fugatto represents a seismic shift in how we produce, manipulate, and imagine sound.
For years, the creative sector has tiptoed around AI, dabbling in automation and data-driven insights. But Fugatto is a wake-up call – a Swiss Army knife for sound that could make traditional methods feel like chiseling stone tablets. It can take a text prompt like “electronic music with barking dogs” and deliver exactly that. Want to swap the piano for an opera singer? No problem. How about a thunderstorm evolving into a symphony of chirping birds? Done. Fugatto doesn’t just execute commands – it unlocks entirely new dimensions of creativity.
This is both thrilling and terrifying.
Thrilling because tools like this could redefine industries.
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Music producers can test out styles, instruments, and effects in real-time. Ad agencies can hyper-localize campaigns with voiceovers tailored to accents, tones, or emotions. Video game developers can generate dynamic soundscapes on the fly. The possibilities are endless.
Terrifying, though, because this kind of innovation is a red line for creatives who don’t adapt.
For decades, we’ve told ourselves that creativity is immune to automation – a uniquely human trait. But Fugatto challenges that assumption. It doesn’t just mimic; it creates. That’s the crux of the debate: in a world where AI can generate sounds no one has ever heard, does the human touch still hold value? The truth is, it does – but only if we evolve.
The pace of the AI revolution isn’t just accelerating; it’s exponential. This year’s innovation renders last year’s obsolete. Fugatto is yet another example of the divide forming between those who embrace AI and those who bury their heads in the sand. In the near future, the creative world will split into two camps: those who work with AI and those who don’t work at all.
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The transition won’t be easy. AI in digital production raises legitimate concerns about copyright, ethics, and job displacement. Major record labels are already waging war against AI startups for training models on copyrighted material. But these battles won’t stop the march of progress. They may shape it, regulate it, or even delay it, but they won’t halt it.
The creative sector has two choices: harness AI as a partner or watch it become your competition. As NVIDIA’s Fugatto shows, AI isn’t just a tool – it’s an entire creative collaborator waiting to redefine the rules. Whether you’re in music, marketing, or film, it’s time to stop viewing AI as a threat and start seeing it as an opportunity. The future belongs to those who embrace the inevitable.
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The question is: will you be one of them?