AI and Music Tech in 2026 - Sonarworks Survey

About this episode

Helmuts Bems discusses the findings of Sonarworks' AI survey and the industry's perspective on AI in music.

Helmuts Bems, Co-Founder and CEO of Sonarworks, joins Sam Inglis to discuss the findings of their recent AI survey. The conversation explores differing industry perspectives on generative versus assistive AI and provides insight into the extent to which professional musicians are already adopting these emerging technologies. Chapters 00:00 - Introduction 00:33 - A Data-Driven Audio Company 04:56 - Assistive Vs Generative AI 07:36 - New Categories Of Tools 08:27 - Early Adoption Of AI Tools 12:50 - Negative Or Neutral Tensions 18:37 - Tackling Ethical Issues 21:25 - Where Music Production Is Heading 26:33 - The Impact Across Industries And Musical Genres 33:05 - Changes In Music Consumption 37:08 - How Technology Has Shaped Music 42:41 - AI As A Huge Industry Disruption For more insights and data read the related article: www.soundonsound.com/music-business/ai-music-tech-2026 Full Report (PDF): https://blog-uploads.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/2026/01/ai-music-production-skills-report-2026-sonarworks.pdf Sonarworks Blog (Short Version): www.sonarworks.com/blog/research/future-music-production-human-producer-survey-2026 Sonarworks Biog Sonarworks is an award-winning audio technology…

People in this episode

Host: Sam Inglis

Guest: Helmuts Bems

Topics covered

• AI in music
• music technology
• generative AI
• assistive AI
• music production
• ethical issues in AI
• industry trends

Keywords

• AI survey
• music technology
• generative AI
• assistive AI
• music production
• Sonarworks
• industry disruption

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Sonarworks, Sound On Sound

Places: Riga, Latvia

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