I am a musician/music profucer who made trance music (subgenre of electronic music) for 18 years. I had my ups and downs in this scene, a few releases accumulated during that period, occasional breaks etc... but nothing had me prepared for what was to come.
I had already noticed an infestation of AI generated cover art in the past years. While it was quite deplorable, I figured the music itself, at the very least, was safe. Knowing how passionate this community can be about what is "real trance" and what isn't, I figured that any kind of "AI music" or anything AI related being used in the genre would be met with universal rejection and controversy (similar to how back in the early 2010s there was massive backlash over the "housification" of trance music as a result of the EDM boom in the USA).
Boy, I was SO wrong and naïve in thinking like this.
Late last year on Facebook, a relatively well-known music producer had posted an (obviously Chat got generated) announcement late last year that he will be using "AI generated vocals" in his music going forward. One of the biggest trance music forums had a discussion about this and based on the posts I saw there, the main opinions ranged from "you can't stop AI" and "what u gonna do about it, start a civil war bro" to outright full on support of generative AI. Barely anyone was calling this out as unacceptable behaviour from a producer and a terrible thing to do in general for the health of the scene. I found that that same forum is being moderated/administered by pro-AI shills, as one of the admins even had a post encouraging people to "post their AI generated tracks here".
All of this was incredibly disturbing and heartbreaking on so many levels... it made me deeply unmotivated to continue making any trance music, as well as deeply depressed, a depression I am STILL suffering from. What's the point of making this niche music? Why spend 10+ hours on a single track only for it to be listened to by pro-AI shitheads that would gladly throw you and everyone else under the bus for some pitiful crumbs of dopamine? Why throw pearls for swine?
Every day was full of mental suffering. Back in spring this year it got so bad I was nearly ready to end things... until I mustered up the mental strength to simply.. let go.
Letting go of my attachment to this beloved music scene was incredibly difficult. I had pretty much grown up with this scene, spent my adolescence and young adult years listening to trance daily and producing it myself under a couple of different aliases. Seeing the community just blatantly accept AI slop invading, even mostly supporting generative AI in general, it was incredibly heartbreaking.
-- On a related note, I've also lost two close, longtime friends, both trance fans, to AI psychosis. I never expected those people to ever end up and be this way, it came as a shock.
The first one (let's call him K) was also a trance producer-turned-metalhead nowadays leading a metalcore band. I noticed last year in 2025 already that K was using AI generated slop on socials promoting his bad, using it for covers and also for "female vocals". I confronted him about it only for him to get angry, call it a "small issue" and make bullshit arguments about how AI isn't even that bad, how it's actually "greener than traditional art" etc. I temporarily stopped talking to him after this conflict hoping that maybe he would come to his senses and realize the error of his ways.
I later found out that K is an active user on a Reddit subreddit that defends AI "Art". He even made posts about me there about our fallout over his use of gen AI, hoping to have the other lunatics give him validation about how he is in the right and I'm insane for calling him out. Reading all the insults and labels the AI defending lunatics commented about me ("chronically online" "12 years old" "not a true friend" etc.) was difficult. Of course I cut off all contact with him after this. At the time I didn't really let this whole thing get to me, I figured that this would be just an isolated case.
Then, back in spring this year (during the peak of my severe depression because of gen AI), I lost another friend (let's call him N). He was a diehard trance fanatic since the 90s, and a long time supporter of my own music, a confidant in a way. When I complained to N about my depression caused by the trance scene being destroyed by AI slop, N completely tone deaf to my woes and concerns. I tried to tell him about how bad gen AI is for society, how it is built through theft, how evil billionaires are supporting it... he wouldn't listen. He would tell me about how "there are more important things to be concerned about, like Donald Trump" etc. and labeled me as having "bipolar disorder". I couldn't really understand why N was acting this way. Then, I found out on Facebook, purely by coincidence, his posts in certain Atheism groups. The posts were AI generated "comics" he generated with one of the widely available online generators. Now it all made sense – it turns out he had already taken a bite of the forbidden apple himself, and was actively generating AI slop and publishing it on various Facebook groups, no wonder he was reluctant to even TALK about this subject. Another friend lost.
Life hasn't really been the same since. I used to be a passionate person full of hopes and dreams but now I feel like an empty shell of my former self. Losing my two closest friends, and the music scene I had surrounded myself with so long has severely impacted my quality of life.
Is there any hope going forward?
TLDR: Musician of nearly two decades, AI slop infested my niche music scene and most people in the scene either completely don't care or even support AI slop; how I lost two longtime friends over gen AI.