I've been an independent traditional musician for 20 years. When I discovered Suno, I was able to take those years of songwriting somewhere I never could have as a solo act—and honestly, farther than my own music had ever reached before. I had my hesitations at first, like anybody. But stories exactly like yours are one of the biggest reasons I've become such an advocate for generative music. I kept thinking: What about someone who loses the ability to physically make their music? What about someone who never had that ability in the first place—a non-verbal person, for example? What about somebody dealing with depression who has ideas and emotions but no artistic outlet? The music I make today with Suno isn't music I would have sung myself, and I certainly didn't have the finances to hire an entire band like most independent musicians obviously do. /s So it genuinely warms my heart to read your story, @JackieCMyers And to the people complaining: traditional artists are not going to stop making music because we exist. We're not somehow taking money that automatically belonged to another artist. Traditional musicians can make great music, mediocre music, and absolute "slop" too. The tool doesn't settle that question—the listener does. Don't like something? Thumbs down. Skip it. That's completely fair. Meanwhile, people actually heard my music on Pandora, sought it out afterward on other platforms like YouTube, subscribed, and specifically told me they discovered us there. After roughly 3 million Pandora spins in two months, I then started getting comments from listeners disappointed that Pandora had removed our catalog. So there's an irony in being called a thief: opposition to generative music quite literally resulted in money being taken out of my pocket—money that wasn't somehow redirected to another musician afterward. But that's not going to stop me from doing what I love. And I don't expect traditional musicians who love what they do to stop because generative artists exist either. There's room for people to make music differently. Keep doing your thing, @JackieCMyers
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