So we’re just gonna let machines flood the same playlists where actual artists are scraping by for pennies? That’s the real question here. I get the appeal—AI can crank out infinite variations, and yes, some of it might sound catchy. But streaming platforms are already a mess of algorithms and cheap content. If we open the floodgates to AI-generated songs, real musicians get buried under an endless wave of synthetic tracks that cost nothing to make and can be pumped out 24/7. That’s not innovation, that’s just drowning out human creativity in a race to the bottom. And let’s not pretend it’s harmless. Playlists are built on streams, and AI songs can be optimized to game those systems, which means less room for someone’s actual blood, sweat, and tears. I’m not saying ban the tech everywhere, but on streaming platforms, where discovery and fairness already feel broken, the last thing we need is more noise.

You mentioned homework, but that’s not the same thing. Math answers don’t take away anyone’s livelihood. Music does. And we already have a real-world example: remember that "Fake Drake" track that blew up on streaming? It got millions of plays before it was pulled. The label didn’t even authorize it, but the platforms couldn’t tell the difference. That’s the problem. If AI songs are allowed to stay, they’ll clutter discovery with infinite variations that sound close enough to real artists, and the actual musicians who need those streams to pay rent will get lost in the noise. I’m not saying AI can’t be a fun tool for humans to play with. But letting them occupy the same space as human-made music, without any distinction or filter, just rewards the cheapest, fastest content. That’s not progress, that’s just flooding the market.

Spotify already had to pull millions of AI-generated tracks from one startup called Boomy last year because they were being used for fake streams. That’s not a trend that died down, that’s just the preview of what happens when you let machines flood the market. You say people learned their lesson and things went back to normal, but that’s wishful thinking. The only reason it cooled off is because platforms stepped in. Without rules, the cost of making a song drops to zero, and zero-cost content always wins. And homework is a bad comparison — nobody loses their career because a student used AI on an essay. But when a real artist’s track gets buried under thousands of synthetic songs, that’s their actual income getting buried. You’re not creating a learning moment, you’re creating a gold rush for the platforms and leaving the humans behind. Keep AI in the toolbox, not on the radio.