How AI will change music marketing

By Megh Vakharia & Chuka Chase
Co-founders, SymphonyOS & Integral Studio

The conversation around AI in music has been pretty focused on the topic of creativity and the replacement of artistry with algorithms. We debate whether artists are using AI in their production, watch labels experiment with AI-generated artists, and discuss AI-created artwork and visuals.

These are worthy conversations with real merit – they touch on fundamental questions about creativity, authenticity and what it means to be an artist in 2025. But there are many opinions at this table, and I don't feel the need to add another voice to that particular debate. I'm firmly on the side of creativity: human-led creativity, and I think most of the meaningful work will continue to come from that space.

But I think the common conversations about AI and its impact on music, is missing a bigger picture. What excites me more is how AI is transforming the everyday workflows that people in creative industries face. And frankly, it's overdue.

I've been coding for over a decade and spent years working directly with artists at a creative level, building websites for SZA, Future, and 21 Savage, with millions of fans touching or interacting with their digital worlds. I spent the first part of my career thinking squarely as a creative, trying to use code and the web as a canvas for ideas.

Through that work, I've witnessed firsthand the massive skills gap that exists in music marketing. There's an entire cottage industry of music marketing agencies, playlist pitching services, and local advertising agencies constantly approaching artists with promises they struggle to deliver. The barrier to effective marketing has been so high that most artists either can't afford professional services or end up disappointed by providers that overpromise and underdeliver.

As a leader of a company that’s spent considerable time building with artists, for artists, and at the same time tasked with presenting an outlook on the future of where the music industry may be going as it relates to technology, we're not just thinking about utility; we're thinking about taste. It's a thin line to walk: not displacing creativity while still superserving creatives and the teams doing marketing with what we're building.

That's where tools like what we're at SymphonyOS come into play. We want algorithms to interface with algorithms, instead of algorithms to interface with art. Instead of artists staring at dashboards full of numbers, wondering if their campaigns are working, AI can provide context: "Your campaign is performing above average, primarily due to strong engagement in urban markets." Instead of guessing at targeting or budget allocation, artists can get real-time guidance that was previously locked behind expensive consultants.

This isn't about replacing human creativity or judgment; it's about removing the arbitrary barriers that have kept strategic insight exclusive to those who can afford it. The same way bedroom producers can now compete with major label studios, independent artists should be able to access the same level of business intelligence as major labels.

Think about how music distribution became a near commodity around 2020. Suddenly, getting your music on Spotify wasn't a label-exclusive privilege, it was a €21 annual fee. TikTok did something similar for reach, commoditising mass exposure at the cost of your time making content. AI has the power to do the same thing for the more "educated", more verbose, more traditionally service-based parts of the industry: legal review, business strategy, audience analysis.

What excites me most is the scalability of it all. As noted in the 2025 IFPI Global Music Report, emerging markets are driving explosive growth, with the MENA region and Latin America growing 20% year over year in music revenues, even as more traditional markets like the US start to saturate. We're looking at a truly global creative economy. A few lines of code can be tweaked to help an artist in Atlanta, Amsterdam or Accra, communicating in their language and reaching them in their preferred way. That’s the kind of democratisation that changes entire industries.

As someone who’s spent years building technology for this space, I find myself constantly faced with the challenge of taking what we’ve built and making it work for a global audience. When we see that emerging markets still have only 8% streaming penetration compared to 38% in developed markets, as most recently mentioned in the “Goldman Sachs Music in the Air Report”, the opportunity is staggering. I urge other tech leaders in this space to think beyond their home markets. I’m blessed to be an immigrant from India, and my cofounder Chuka from Nigeria, and we have family who have a front row seat to the future of music. Intimate ties that shape how we build for others.

The real revolution is AI making the business of being a musician more accessible. Because even the best song in the world will only go so far if no one hears it – and finally, the tools to change that are becoming available to everyone, not just those with the biggest budgets.