Is AI going to kill off my career?

The jobs that AI music would have killed off went long ago. The Pond 5 music library has 2.5 million tracks with licences starting at $5 – less than the price of a flat white at Starbucks. So if a TV producer or film director wanted to work with off-the-shelf music, they already can. There is nothing AI can produce that isn’t already floating around in the Pond 5 swamp.

Pond 5, and others like them, have been around since 2006 and have definitely changed the game. Since then, producers have had a clear choice between working with a composer collaboratively or using off-the-shelf music. While a lot of low and mid budget factual TV went for the off-the-shelf option, most productions did not.

AI can produce very impressive pieces of music, but they are only as good as the prompt. And trying to get exactly what you want by tweaking the prompt is a deeply frustrating process.

Composers are more than just the men and women who write music.

They are music consultants. They suggest things the director hasn’t thought of.  They use emotional intelligence and insight to work out what the director really wants and what the production really needs. They are expert communicators and collaborators. And, beyond everything else, they have an imagination.

Good composers come up with amazing new ideas every day. Original, bonkers, catchy, funny, touching ideas that bring film, television and games to life.

AI will crop up more and more in temp tracks as a starting point, but, in the arms race that is the fiercely competitive creative industries, producers who settle for second best will lose out to those who appreciate the power of an original musical idea.

There is no future in tired cliché music that we’ve all heard a million times before. But then, that ship sailed ages ago. AI will put a final nail in that coffin.

But composers have traditionally not been great at reinventing their business model. Many long-standing income streams will change or disappear, and composers need to adapt to the new reality. There is no such thing as the good old days. It’s a mirage – there to lull you into a false sense of security.

So composers need to be imaginative, collaborative, and communicative.

Here at ThinkSpace, we are working to ensure every student fully embraces these qualities. We constantly review our courses to make sure they are delivering exactly what future professionals need.

That’s why, according to the 2025 Employment Survey, 75% of our graduates find paid work and 60% of them make most of their income from music or sound design.

Our graduates are being forged in the creative fire with the future in mind.

The challenge of AI is absolutely no different.

The future? Bring it on…..