When the AI-music start-up Suno recently introduced a feature that lets users upload audio of their own creation and have the software extend and endlessly reimagine it, one particular user took note. Legendary producer Timbaland quickly became obsessed with the process, deciding it was the future of music-making. He started spending more than ten hours a day on Suno, reworking beats from his vast archive by typing descriptive prompts.
Now, he’s making his partnership with Suno official, joining the company as a creative advisor and announcing a remix contest. “It’s the new age of music creation and producing,” says Timbaland, who recently showed off Suno’s possibilities by using the software to turn an a capella snippet from singer Chrissean Rock into a full song. He’s so taken with the platform that he’s nicknamed the Suno interface “Baby Timbo.”
Timbaland knows that there’s widespread suspicion and hostility surrounding AI music, not to mention a massive copyright infringement lawsuit filed by the recording industry against Suno and its competitor Udio, which cites Suno’s use of copyrighted music as training data without permission. “They just late,” Timbaland says, citing the extensive use of other electronic tools. “When they talk that talk, I’m like, ‘Come on, bro. Everything y’all use is [like] AI, from Auto-Tune on down. I don’t know who you are onstage. I don’t know what your voice sound like.’ When Auto-Tune first came out, it was a tool. That’s what Suno is — the best tool of the future. It allows you to get any idea in your imagination out of your head.”
He insists that musicians shouldn’t worry about being supplanted by AI, especially since the process he uses requires human-created audio to start — Suno also allows users to create songs from scratch by typing prompts, but Timbaland doesn’t use that function. “You still need that human element to operate this tool,” he says. “It doesn’t replace anything. All it does it add to your arsenal.” He’s unfazed by the lawsuit. “The attack sometimes lets you know, like, OK, we’re onto something. We got something special. I understand it comes with some some stones thrown.” (Timbaland recently teamed up with fellow super-producer Metro Boomin for a Rolling Stone Musicians on Musicians discussion.)
Starting tomorrow, users will have the opportunity to use Suno to remix am entirely human-created Timbaland track, “Love Again,” and the company is offering “over $100k in prizes” for the best results. “Our team was blown away to learn that Timbaland was a Suno power user,” Suno CEO Mikey Shulman says in a statement. “He has already inspired so many people to make music in innovative ways, and together we hope to encourage people to make more music than ever.”
Timbaland is showing off Suno’s capabilities to every artist he works with, and he is convinced that the fundamentals of music-making are going to change. “I think it’s gonna be about which prompt you’re using,” he says. “It’s not gonna be about ‘Give me that sample,’ it’s gonna be, ‘Yo, give me that prompt.’ So you selling prompts now.” If he has one message for musicians and producers, it’s this: “This is not something to be afraid of. This is something that we need to use.”
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