American Intelligence: I Replaced a Recording Studio with AI. Here’s What Happened.

Over the winter break, I finally achieved a goal I’ve been chasing for 15 years. I produced a full-length music album that sounds exactly the way I imagined it.

It’s titled American Intelligence, and it was created with help from Suno AI.

As a former professional music producer, I approached this experiment with skepticism. I expected robotic artifacts and hollow performances. Instead, I found a tool that is indistinguishable from human output—and an industry that is about to face a complete economic reset.

Here is what I learned about the future of music, code, and creativity.

The "Pro" Advantage: Expertise Still Matters

There is a prevailing narrative that generative AI levels the playing field so drastically that expertise no longer matters. After producing this album, I strongly disagree. While a novice can use a tool like Suno to go from 0 to 10 (creating a decent output), a professional can use the same tool to go from 10 to 100.

Because I am a professional music producer, I wasn't just "prompting and praying." I understood arrangement, sonic texture, and genre constraints. I knew when a bridge needed to lift and when a mix was too muddy. This dynamic mirrors the software industry: AI coding assistants help junior developers ship faster, but they turn senior engineers into 10x architects. The tool doesn't replace skills and taste; it amplifies them.

However, I am not a professional songwriter. To ensure quality, every track on American Intelligence was written by a professional human songwriter. While I could have used AI to write the lyrics and melodies, I understood that I would be limited by my own lack of expertise in that specific domain.

I believe you can copy and paste this idea to various professions. Legal AI can help me understand contracts, but it makes a professional attorney 100x better. Medical AI can help me understand biological concepts, but it makes a professional physician 100x better. Teachers, police officers, plumbers—we are entering an era where professionals will combine their expertise with AI to accelerate their crafts, rather than being replaced by them.

The Future of the Music Industry

Regardless of expertise, we are about to see drastic shifts in the business of music. The industry has historically been centered around publishing and distribution giants whose business models relied on deploying massive capital to create records and building legal armies to defend their intellectual property (IP).

Tools like Suno remove the financial barrier to creating professional-grade records. When the cost of production drops to near zero, the record label's capital advantage evaporates. Additionally, we will see an explosion in the volume of music, which fundamentally changes where the value lies.

The Distribution Shift: From Artists to Curators

Recording artists (vocalists and bands) have been the centerpiece of modern pop music. They have used their unique vocals and instrumental talent to create stunning records to sell to the world. However, AI erodes this technical advantage while simultaneously causing a massive spike in the supply of high-quality records.

In a world drowning in good content, the creator becomes less valuable than the curator. The economic value will shift away from those who can make a good song (because AI allows anyone to do that) toward those who can find a good song and gather an audience. Taste, brand, and curation will replace raw technical ability as the primary market differentiators.

The IP Shift: From Songs to Algorithms

Historically, music IP has been a gold mine. Publishing companies and Performance Rights Organizations (PROs) collect billions in licensing fees annually from businesses—retail stores, coffee shops, hotels, and gyms—that play music to set a vibe. These businesses essentially rent the rights to play popular songs.

AI is about to evaporate this revenue stream by commoditizing "functional music."

Consider a national retail chain that currently pays millions a year in licensing fees to play pop hits in their stores. In the near future, they won't need to rent that IP. They will simply prompt an AI: "Generate an endless stream of upbeat, non-intrusive pop music that sounds like 1980s synth-wave."

The result will be royalty-free, tailored perfectly to their brand, and cost effectively zero. The value of the "static song" collapses when a "good enough" substitute can be generated on demand. We are moving from an era of Scarcity IP (where you pay for the specific recording) to Utility Audio (where music is just a generated utility, like air conditioning).

The Capital Shift: From Production to Attention

For decades, record labels acted like Venture Capitalists for musicians. They fronted the money for expensive studio time, mixing engineers, and session players—costs that were prohibitive for independent artists. In exchange, they took ownership of the masters.

Now that a $10/month subscription can replace a $500/hour recording studio, labels can no longer justify their take rates based on production costs. The only capital lever left is Attention Capital. Labels will transform entirely into marketing agencies. They won't pay to make the music; they will purely pay to make people look at the music. The barrier to entry is no longer cost; it is noise.

Conclusion

Creating American Intelligence was a validation of a theory I’ve held for a long time: AI is not a replacement for human creativity, but a lever for it. It allowed me to bypass the technical friction of recording and get straight to the creative output.

The music industry is entering a turbulent period of deflation and restructuring. But for the creators—the people with ideas, taste, and the drive to execute—there has never been a better time to be alive.