SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (Dakota News Now) – Music has evolved alongside technology for decades, from records and CDs to streaming platforms and now artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n
For Sioux Falls artist and musician Zac Davis, AI is opening another door.<\/p>\n
Davis uses AI to help create what he calls \u201cconviction rap,\u201d a style of Christian music centered on his faith and personal beliefs.<\/p>\n
\u201cI use AI to help make my Christian content music. It\u2019s like a kind of a new style of Christian conviction rap. It\u2019s really personal,\u201d Davis said.<\/p>\n
Davis said AI helps him develop music while keeping his work aligned with his Christian values.<\/p>\n
\u201cI use the AI to help make sure I stay biblically in line with the Christian values,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I\u2019m trying to make music for people to identify with to help bring them back to God.\u201d <\/p>\n
For Davis, the technology is less about replacing musicians and more about giving people another way to create.<\/p>\n
He compares AI\u2019s impact on music to the introduction of photography.<\/p>\n
\u201cI see it more as a benefit,\u201d Davis said. \u201cJust like the time when cameras came out, and painters thought that their jobs were over, that it was done, but it just opened up a new avenue.\u201d<\/p>\n
But at Popplers Music, General Manager Paul Schlif sees an important part of music that AI can\u2019t replicate: the experience of actually learning to play.<\/p>\n
\u201cAI can create it so you can hear it. AI can create music so that you can see it, but AI can\u2019t create that learning experience, that interaction you have with that instrument,\u201d Schlif said.<\/p>\n
Schlif has spent decades teaching students of all ages. For him, some of the most meaningful moments happen before a student ever becomes a polished musician.<\/p>\n
\u201cEarly, early on in my career I was a fifth grade beginning band director, and I personally got no greater thrill teaching than to hear that student make that first sound on that flute, clarinet, oboe, whatever it happened to be, just because it\u2019s so exciting for them,\u201d he said. \u201cYou\u2019re not going to get that with AI.\u201d<\/p>\n
That doesn\u2019t mean Schlif believes AI has no place in music.<\/p>\n
He said the technology can be useful for creating songs, producing music and other applications.<\/p>\n
But he questions whether it can replicate the experience of live music.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think AI is great for making some music, producing some songs, printing some things out, but prove to me that it\u2019s going to be engaging on the stage or with an audience,\u201d Schlif said.<\/p>\n
For both perspectives, the future of music doesn\u2019t necessarily have to be a choice between technology and traditional instruments.<\/p>\n
AI can give artists like Davis another tool for creating and sharing their work for free, while musicians like Schlif believe the human element will continue to give music its meaning.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have expression, we have souls, we are passionate about things, and all those things can be expressed through music,\u201d Schlif said.<\/p>\n
He doesn\u2019t think AI will make traditional music disappear. But he believes audiences and musicians will have to learn where to draw the line for the future of music and artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not going to go away, but we need to know where to separate live from computer-generated,\u201d Schlif said.<\/p>\n
As AI continues to change how music is created, the technology may make producing a song easier, but local musicians say the reasons people make music in the first place remain deeply human.<\/p>\n
Zac Davis\u2019 AI-created music can be found on Spotify here,<\/a> and the music videos can be found on YouTube here.<\/a><\/p>\n