Bandcamp not too long ago made headlines with a easy and clear coverage on AI: “Music and audio that’s generated wholly or in substantial half by AI is just not permitted on Bandcamp.”
This represents the primary main music distributor to implement such a ban, and it comes at a time when AI music firms are rising at breakneck velocity. Final November, Suno, the AI music creation platform, signed a new licensing deal with Warner Music Group and was valued at $2.54 billion, with “accessibility ” being the driving power behind this large quantity.
“Suno is the world’s #1 music creation app, making music accessible to everybody.” That quote is attributed to Amy Martin, a associate at Menlo Ventures, the enterprise capital agency that helped Suno elevate $250 million on its immense valuation.
Suno’s management didn’t use the phrase “accessible” of their assertion, however the gist was there:
“In simply two years, we’ve seen hundreds of thousands of individuals make their concepts a actuality by Suno, from first-time creators to high songwriters and producers integrating the instrument into their day by day workflows,” says Mikey Shulman, Co-Founder and CEO of Suno.
Additionally, in 2025, Shulman mentioned: “It’s probably not fulfilling to make music now […] It takes plenty of time, it takes plenty of follow, it’s worthwhile to get actually good at an instrument or actually good at a bit of manufacturing software program. I believe the vast majority of folks don’t take pleasure in the vast majority of the time they spend making music.”
Apparently, making the inventive course of as accessible as potential is how making music will likely be fulfilling once more.
Not solely is it ridiculous to suppose that artists don’t benefit from the time spent enhancing their craft, however accessibility is clearly simply an excuse to faucet into a bigger buyer base. The extra individuals who can entry one thing, the extra folks will pay for it. How else may an organization attain billions in worth, and who wouldn’t need to pay for the quick capacity to make music?
To make that course of accessible to everybody with the least effort potential is to dilute the exhausting work of artists who’re pouring all the pieces they’ve into their craft.
Spotify, the world’s hottest streaming service, supplied an identical degree of accessibility for releasing music. With the assistance of a distributor like DistroKid or CD Child, anybody can add their music to a streaming service. Arguably, this panorama is a optimistic for creators as a result of everyone seems to be equally searchable on Spotify. Any time somebody discovers a model new artist, they’ve the quick capacity to take heed to their music. These artists may ship direct hyperlinks to their music, and all these streams will result in royalties (if the music earned 1,000 streams within the earlier 12 months).
The draw back is that each one artists, labels, personal fairness corporations, or whoever owns the music will get the identical royalties again from Spotify. They may have invested 1000’s of hours and hundreds of thousands of {dollars} into the music on high of the years of their life it took to study their craft. Or they may have made the music in 5 minutes on Suno as a result of making music is simply that accessible now. Both manner, it’s at the moment the identical amount of cash earned per stream.
Music information platform Chartmetric tracks roughly 11 million artists, and 80% of them have fewer than 1,000 Spotify month-to-month listeners. So, actually, the results of this excessive accessibility is that hundreds of thousands of hobbyists are actually capable of share their music. This crowds the panorama for the artists who’re giving it their all, and plagues them to earn virtually nothing from the medium that most individuals use to take heed to music in 2026.
This dynamic portends what is going to occur as Suno grows. The overwhelming majority of creators on the platform will likely be hobbyists who simply need to attempt their hand at making music for a mere second.
However, Shulman mentioned that “high songwriters and producers” are utilizing Suno, proper? That’s true of Timbaland, probably the most profitable producers in historical past. Suno even made Timbaland a inventive guide for the corporate.
The factor is, in response to Rolling Stone, Timbaland makes use of one operate of Suno known as “cowl music.” Because the title suggests, this operate takes an present music and transforms it into completely different variations. The prevailing songs Timbaland is utilizing are from his in depth again catalogue, which he’s accrued over three many years of constructing music the exhausting manner.
Per the interview, Timbaland describes these songs he’s protecting as basically full. They’ve lyrics, melodies, beats, and manufacturing. Clearly, he’s nonetheless honouring human creativity after which utilizing Suno to generate new concepts. That is arguably probably the most benevolent use of this system (though Timbaland did find yourself utilizing a copyrighted music to coach Suno with out permission).
Sadly, barely any Suno customers can have a Timbaland-level catalogue prepared and ready to transmute into completely different variations. They’ll have to begin from scratch utilizing prompts for an AI that’s educated on recorded music from hard-working artists for what is going to most certainly be paid pitiful royalties.
…all within the title of accessibility.
What’s much more insulting about this concept of accessibility is that music-making is already so accessible! Smartphones and tablets can entry free and fully-featured music-making apps and DAWs. These packages have all the pieces a newbie wants: recording capabilities, digital devices, and results. Madlib produced all of the beats for, Bandana, his 2019 collaborative album with Freddie Gibbs, on an iPad, for instance.
With a couple of faucets, model new music-makers can lay down a beat and document some vocals. The primary one received’t sound anyplace near skilled, however the 1,000th one will. All Suno does is give everybody the chance to skip from one to 1,000 and construct music with out their very own tastes and methods.
When Bandcamp launched Bandcamp Fridays in the course of the pandemic, the folks working there confirmed they care in regards to the artists who’re keen to take the journey from 1 to 1,000. At present, Bandcamp Fridays proceed to pay out hundreds of thousands to artists, lengthy after the pandemic has ended.
Clearly, folks nonetheless need to use their hard-earned cash to assist artists placing within the work to make music, and slightly than give each potential artist the prospect to entry that supply of earnings, Bandcamp is drawing a line within the sand.
Bandcamp is providing a platform for devoted musicians, producers and beatmakers to attach with audiences and promote the human-made music and merch that they care about. That’s what actual accessibility seems to be like.
Harry Levin is a contract journalist with credit in SPIN, Billboard, MusicTech, Grammy.com, Los Angeles Journal, and extra. His musical journey started 20 years in the past with a Led Zeppelin CD. He performed jazz trombone by faculty, produced large-scale digital music occasions, and now spends his skilled time writing and modifying.
