Dr. Joe Burns, interim head of Southeastern Louisiana University’s Communication Department, drew of his music and radio expertise to discuss the evolution of artificial intelligence in the music industry.
Burns teaches classes at SLU including audio production, web design, podcasting and persuasion, and he had 12 years experience beforehand as a radio programmer and morning host. In his free time, he makes music in his at-home studio with his collection of guitars.
Burns spoke on how people have repeated the sentiment, “It’ll never get better” when it comes to technology developing and how they have been proven wrong repeatedly.
He believes human culture is once again in that position with AI.
“Remember “John Madden Football,” when it first came out it was 8-bit? What does it look like now? That’s been 22 to 23 years. Let’s go five years in the future – the amount of technology is literally squaring every six months. So all of the things that made this [an AI-generated song] sound not good are going to be gone,” he told Hammond Kiwanis Club at their meeting Tuesday.
Burns demonstrated to them how far AI can go in creating music through programs AI assistant Genesis and Suno, an AI-powered music generation platform developed in 2023 to create songs from text prompts.
Burns said he showed Suno to his daughter and by the next day she had made a whole album.
In his demonstration he asked Genesis to create a Broadway-themed Kiwanis band image and for Suno to make a Broadway-themed song about being a nonprofit in Louisiana; both applications successfully fulfilled the request.
Burns informed Kiwanians that fame has been found using Suno in the case of imoliver, a British AI music creator, who writes lyrics and then uses the program as “his instrument.” Burns quoted that the creator goes through 1,000 trials of a song on the Suno platform before releasing it. Burns proposed that many might think no one would offer that artist a record deal, but Burns revealed Hallwood Media actually signed him.
He mentioned other AI bands or artists gaining recognition and numbers in charts. This has propelled the conversation on copyright laws around the world, according to Burns.
“Two years ago, the copyright office, copyright.gov, put up this big giant memo. ‘We will never, ever allow AI to be copyrighted.’ Well in two years let’s see what they’re up to,” he said as he pulled up the website that displayed new requirements on AI. “Copyright artificial intelligence. Here’s section three which is a new section of that document from two years ago which says, ‘As long as AI has been used as a tool’ [it can be copyrighted].”
He said the progression of the technology could lead to artists needing to trademark their likenesses to get rid of AI versions of their music. Burns said he’s seen and heard of people asking AI to create a new Led Zeppelin album or songs with a deceased artist’s signature voice and style.
AI could make its way into the realm of music awards, considering The Beatles song “Now and Then” won a 2025 Grammy even though it was produced using AI trained on an old vocal recording of the late John Lennon.
“I ask my students all the time, ‘Do you care if a song is written by AI?’” Burns said. “And they say, ‘Do I like it?’ ‘Let’s say yeah, you think it’s a great tune.’ ‘Then no.’”
Burns said the pace and progress of the technology makes him nervous and curious for the future.
“Why should I go see a concert? I can make a concert for me. Why should I learn an instrument? I can do this. I really believe this is going to have a strong detrimental effect upon music in general, and it makes me nervous,” he said.
“I don’t have a big ending; I don’t have a big joke; I’m just telling as many people about this as possible,” Burns said. “To what end? I don’t know, it just bothers me, and I wanted to show it. I always said I would only retire when I didn’t recognize it. I’m starting to not recognize it.”
In the following Q&A, Kiwanians shared a similar outlook, expressing fascination but also concern.