AI music made me 'feel', admits Scottish indie musician, as he warns of industry 'earthquake'

Stephen McAll, frontman of indie-folk group Constant Follower, has issued a warning about the threat posed by AI to human songmakers, as industry leaders gather to plan Scotland’s music roadmap for the future.

Mr McAll said the opportunities and creativity built together by musicians, filmmakers and others faced being “drowned out” by the speed and delivery of “empty” generated music, especially for emerging artists.

His comments come as the Scottish Music Industry Association (SMIA) holds its annual meeting in Glasgow.

Mr McAll said: “The SMIA summit feels like a line in the sand for Scottish music and film. AI can now write and produce a studio-quality track or film in seconds, and it's near indistinguishable from the real thing.

“It even makes you feel. That’s the part I never thought I’d say. For artists like me, this is an earthquake. If a machine can do the job faster and cheaper, what happens to the young ones learning an instrument, scrapping for studio time, or building small film crews. What happens to the places we’ve made for working together?”

Mr McAll cited the new animation created for his Constant Follower’s track Gentle Teaching by Japanese filmmaker Tsumagi Yagi as an example of creative work that could be put at risk by AI.

He said: “We need to choose how we value and protect human work like this film by Tsumugi, which took hundreds of hours to make - how we label it and how we pay for it. Otherwise our culture risks being flooded by content that is perfect, instant - but empty.

“This week’s SMIA summit is a line in the sand. We must decide how Scotland protects human creativity before it is drowned out by machines.”

The SMIA Summit 2025 takes place at the Old Fruitmarket across Thursday and Friday, with artists, industry professionals, policymakers and stakeholders coming together to connect, share knowledge and help shape the future of Scotland’s music industry.

The programme of panels and roundtables will also help inform the development of the Scottish Music Industry Roadmap from 2026 to 2030, and include discussion on prioritising skills development for a fairer, more inclusive music industry.

Other talks will include looking at how Scotland can better support rural and grassroots music communities, how local eco-systems can be championed in national strategy, and how Scotland can build a music export model that reflects diversity and connects with the world.

Earlier this year, a group of Scottish songwriters and performers warned musicians risked being “AI-brushed” out of existence unless urgent action was taken by the music industry and government to protect human creativity from artificial intelligence.

The warning by Tumbling Souls - a Scots supergroup featuring members of ‘90s indie band Astrid, trad favourites Hò-Rò, and festival stalwarts Boys of Summer - came after the meteoric rise of AI-driven The Velvet Sundown. The artificial band racked up more than 750,000 listeners on Spotify in just one month - despite having no live presence and no social media footprint.