"Just learn how to write REAL music"
This might sound reasonable when talking about someone who wants to make jingles, or contemporary pop songs. But let me explain to you why that's an absurd take for some people, certainly for me.
I want to make Christian KPop that was simultaneously theologically sound and also authentic to genre. So let's break down all the reasons why writing it, from scratch, by myself, is nonsense.
- I don't know Korean, I just like how the genre sounds and the diverse stylistic range it encompasses. So I'd have to not just learn, but become fluent in Korean in order to make the authentic bilingual lyrics that KPop is known for incorporating.
- I do have a musical background, I LOVE music and it's a bigger part of my life than anybody else in my personal life, but I'm really not passionate about being a music producer. I don't have a compulsive desire to bring into existence songs that only exist in my head, I don't have ideas that need to get put to paper. I literally just want it to be a genre that exists, and nobody else was doing it. If someone else started producing stuff I was satisfied with, I'd absolutely stop overnight.
- What am I supposed to do for performers? Use artificially generated instruments and artificially generated vocals, or become spontaneously rich af and just hire people? Like... what do you want from me? How is artificially created music by a human somehow superior to artificially created music by an AI that was very specifically directed by a human? Why is your "song in your head" better than my "artistic direction in my head"? It's still an idea that was uniquely conceived by me and brought out of nonexistence by me, the AI wasn't gonna come up with it by itself. But I can't get over the fact that toooons of producers use artificial instruments and vocals anyways.
- Production costs are also a thing. I pay Suno like what, $10/mo? Even if a producer is doing it just as a side hobby, how much is an actually acceptable music software, or the add-ons for niche ideas like foreign language vocals? How much is a good synth keyboard or microphone setup?
- Frankly, I don't have the TIME to actually tinker with a song that much. Even with Suno doing the heavy lifting, I still take a long time developing each song that I actually want to publish on my channels.
- Lastly, let's suppose I did all that anyways. My rich uncle dies and somehow I'm his sole beneficiary. I don't need to work so I have time, I purchase all the equipment/software needed to start producing music, I become fluent in Korean, I become skilled in song-craft, I master music production from beginning to end, I hire a bunch of Korean performers and stylists and videographers and just go the whole 9 yards... for like all 10 people who share my super niche interest? Why? Most people who like KPop couldn't care less about whether it's agreeable with Christianity, and most Christians couldn't care less about KPop, so why would I do that? It's a waste of money and everybody else's time.
So no, I'm quite content to just enjoy my little niche by myself, making music that both sounds great and also is agreeable for my conscience.
If someone wants to be a professional music producer, then yes absolutely Suno is no substitute for the journey of mastering the craft. But I reeeeeeeeeeeally doubt that there are many people here that this would apply to. Most people are either people who do actually already know how to professionally produce music and are using it as a fun toy/resource, or they're hobbyists who just find it to be a great outlet to creating songs they want to hear that don't exist yet (or are so hard to find that they just don't know they exist yet). I don't think anybody really believes that Suno is an acceptable substitute for music production artists, but it's absolutely a prosthetic that allows people like me to make stuff that I would never make without it.