AI Is Changing Music, but Original Composition Remains Irreplaceable

By Emily Carter

Artificial intelligence is transforming the music industry at an unprecedented pace. From generating melodies and assisting with orchestration to creating production-ready material for film and television, AI has become an increasingly common part of the creative process. While some see these tools as a way to make music creation more accessible, others question what their growing capabilities could mean for the future of professional composers.

For young composer and screen composer Sun Longfei, the conversation is less about whether AI can make music and more about what makes music meaningful in the first place.

Sun's career has been shaped by years of rigorous musical training. She earned her bachelor's degree in composition from the New England Conservatory before continuing her studies in screen scoring at the University of Southern California. Her education spans classical composition, orchestration, film scoring, and interdisciplinary creative practice, providing a foundation that combines traditional musicianship with the collaborative demands of contemporary visual media.

Although she welcomes technological innovation, Sun believes artificial intelligence still falls short in the areas that matter most.

"Technology can generate sound, but it struggles to reproduce a creator's understanding of character, story, and authentic emotion," she said. "The most important element of music is not the notes themselves, but the human connection they create."

That philosophy can be heard throughout her recent work. In the internationally recognized films Our Lines and So I, the music is never treated as a standalone element. Instead, it is carefully woven into each film's emotional arc, supporting the characters and strengthening the narrative.

"In film scoring, the question isn't simply whether a melody is beautiful," Sun explained. "It's whether the music helps tell the story."

She believes audiences rarely remember a score as an isolated piece of music. Instead, they remember how a scene made them feel when the music entered. Making those creative decisions—knowing when music should lead, when it should step back, and how it should shape emotion—requires artistic judgment developed through years of experience, something AI cannot easily replicate.

The same approach has informed her work on larger public cultural projects. During the creation of We Are Together for the Hangzhou 2022 Asian Games, the music needed to resonate with audiences across different generations and cultural backgrounds. Expressing warmth, inclusiveness, and a shared emotional experience through melody demanded far more than technical proficiency.

Many music professionals argue that while AI is becoming increasingly capable of imitating musical styles, it still struggles to understand the broader cultural and social significance behind major public events. In that sense, a composer's value extends beyond writing music—it lies in understanding the context, purpose, and audience that give a work its meaning.

Another example can be found in Five Impossible Things: Chaoyin Brass New-Style Concert, a large-scale touring production to which Sun contributed. The concert has traveled to major cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen, building a loyal audience along the way.

For Sun, the production illustrates something AI cannot easily recreate. Live performance is about far more than the notes on the page. Composition, dramatic pacing, stage presentation, performer interaction, and audience response all work together to create an experience that is unique to each performance. Human creativity remains at the center of that experience.

As artificial intelligence continues to reshape the global music industry, debates over its creative potential are only becoming more prominent. Increasingly, industry professionals believe the truly scarce resource of the future will not be technology itself, but originality.

Sun's own career reflects that larger conversation. From internationally recognized films and public cultural projects to national concert tours and professional screen scoring, her work highlights the challenges facing a new generation of composers: as technology becomes more powerful, how can artists preserve independent thought, emotional authenticity, and creative judgment?

For Sun, the answer remains clear.

Ultimately, music is not about connecting algorithms. It is about connecting people.