AI in Music: Growth Starts With the Catalogue We Already Have

The music industry’s AI debate often focuses on who, or what, will create the next song. an equally valuable question is how technology can help existing music earn more.

In a recent Hypebot article, LyricFind founder and CEO Darryl Ballantyne explains how AI can support lyric workflows and expand revenue opportunities for songwriters and publishers.

Licensed lyric displays generate royalties. Yet preparing accurate lyrics, synchronizing them with recordings, and translating them takes time. For songs with smaller audiences, that work can cost more than the expected return.

AI can help lower that barrier. Ballantyne describes a workflow in which technology handles initial processing while people verify, correct, and review the results. This can make more of the catalogue economically viable to serve.

His argument also challenges a familiar assumption about productivity: greater efficiency does not always lead to smaller teams. When the volume of viable work grows, businesses may have reason to invest in more people.

The broader business lesson is about how we measure success.

If we evaluate AI only by hours saved, we encourage a narrow focus on cutting costs. We should also ask what those saved hours make possible.

Which overlooked opportunities can we now pursue? What additional value reaches creators? Where should we reinvest in human expertise?

That is the approach we would like to see more often in music: technology evaluated by the value it helps deliver, with licensing, quality, and accountability built into the process.

The strategic question is simple: What can we now afford to do that was previously out of reach?

For music businesses, the answer may already be sitting in their catalogues.

https://www.hypebot.com/lyrics-show-how-ai-can-grow-music-revenue-without-replacing-people/