Totally agree. The state of music making today – what I call “the DAW cultures” – is that there’s little to no money available to hire talent. I’m fascinated by these cultures, but have only speculated about them in private. My speculations follow…
Some DAW operators are reclusive. If you think about starting a band, then you must think about finding people to be in it, finding rehearsal space, harmonizing your workflow and career objectives with the others in the band, the logistical overhead of playing gigs (if you can get them), what to do about expenses and revenues (if any), and on and on and on. It makes being a hermit look good in terms of time-saving alone. But then the hermit has to do all of these jobs that fellow band members would have done. Even if you can write and arrange all the music, then play and record all of the instrument and vocal tracks, then mix and master it, how do you share it with the world? Back to the band, I guess.
Another DAW sub-culture is rooted in production. From what I’ve gathered, there’s very money to be made in production because there’s little money coming into anyone’s pockets; with a few exceptions, mostly in the upper echelons of the commercial world. Those studios are exceptional in their personnel, equipment, and acoustics. Time pressure is always a factor.
No matter how you slice it, music creators are spread thin. The hermits are over-extended, the bands are distracted away from all things DAW, and the producers are hurried. Many would-be producers can’t gain experience in a paid apprenticeship. They wind up self-taught, struggling with whatever books, you-tubes, forums, and unpaid jobs they can find.
Consequently. a lot of badly produced music is inevitable. AI offers a bit of help. It could reduce rookie mistakes coming from the teeming hordes of rookies. (BTW, I count myself in one of those hordes.) For the decent producers, it could save time. I’m amazed at what iZotope has done with Neutron and Ozone. I’d say they’re on the right track to addressing these serious problems that are not going to go away.
Nobody is saying that AI is the ultimate answer. We’d all prefer to have golden ears. Maybe AI would inhibit the learning of that. I don’t know if that’s true for everyone. In any case, I think AI can only help.