The McDonaldization of Music: Why AI Won’t Kill Artists—It’ll Make Them Priceless
- René Delacroix
- 4 days ago
- 2 min read
There was a time—not long ago—when making a poster meant rolling up your sleeves. You needed to find the right stock photo (good luck digging through those endless libraries), pay for the rights, maybe organize a photoshoot, and then spend hours in Photoshop hoping your layers wouldn’t crash.
Fast forward to 2025: now you can whisper your wish into the AI void and boom—poster done. In seconds. Zero budget. Zero skill. A 10-year-old with a laptop and a vague idea of gradients can now whip up a billboard-worthy design between two Fortnite rounds.
At first, everyone panicked. The robots are coming for our jobs! Graphic designers, illustrators, photographers—extinct!But the apocalypse never arrived. Quite the opposite. The McDonaldization of Music has begun!
AI Didn’t Kill Creativity—It Just Made It Cheaper
Professionals didn’t vanish. They adapted. They got faster. Smarter. Some became five times more productive (and wealthier) because they used AI to do the heavy lifting—like interns that don’t ask for coffee breaks. The result? More art, more gigs, more output, more money. McDonaldization of Music, exactly!
Yes, AI lowered the barrier to entry. Yes, it flooded the market with fast, cheap, decent-enough content. But let’s get one thing straight: this didn’t destroy quality. It created a clearer distinction between fast food and fine dining.
Welcome to the McMusic Era
Just like you can grab a McCheese for $1.99, now you can generate 500 “emotional cinematic scores” for your Instagram reel without spending a cent. But would you serve McNuggets at your wedding?
No. You hire a chef. You book the fancy venue. You spend real money because the occasion matters.
In the same way, when Netflix drops $50 million on a movie, you can bet they won’t settle for AI-generated royalty-free loops. They want Hans Zimmer, not Hans Algorithm. Because music, like food, has tiers. And context is everything.
AI Democratizes the Bottom—And Elevates the Top
Let’s be real: not every wall needs a Monet. Sometimes, a cheap AI-generated flower print from Etsy does the job. That’s fine. That’s what it's for.
But here’s the twist: the easier it becomes to get low-effort, zero-cost content, the more we appreciate the stuff that’s handcrafted. The human-made. The slow-cooked.
Just like fast food didn't destroy gourmet restaurants—on the contrary, it made them more valuable by comparison—AI content is reinforcing the worth of real musicians, real composers, real artists.
You Can’t Fake Soul
Sure, AI can generate a catchy jingle. But it can’t write “Bohemian Rhapsody.” It can’t suffer for its art. It can’t tour in a broken van for five years, or write a love song that makes you cry because it’s about something. That’s a human monopoly.
And in a world drowning in artificial everything—filters, bots, fakes, and fillers—authenticity is becoming a luxury item.
The Takeaway? Humanity Is the New Premium
We're not heading toward a future without artists. We're heading toward a future where the human touch is a luxury. Like handmade shoes, vinyl records, or handwritten letters—music made by real people will carry a premium, not a price cut.
AI is fast food. Human creativity is fine wine.
And some occasions still call for champagne.
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