MBW Views is a series of op-eds from eminent music industry people… with something to say. The following MBW op/ed comes from Jorge Brea, CEO of Symphonic, one of the industry’s most successful independent distribution platforms. Since founding the company 20 years ago, he has had a front-row seat to music’s changing distribution landscape.
Below, he says that the wave of AI-generated music heading for streaming services is not, on its own, the thing to worry about. The bigger risk, he argues, is that AI has also made it cheap and easy to launch a music company – and that a polished front end can now disguise a distribution business with none of the rights verification, compliance, royalty processing or fraud detection the job actually demands.
Every few years, the music industry needs to answer the question, “What happens when technology makes creation easier?” Affordable recording gear raised the issue, and production software raised it again. Then streaming changed the equation by giving independent artists and labels a way to reach listeners around the world without the same gatekeepers that once controlled access.
Each shift brought real anxiety. People worried the system would be flooded, that quality would drop, and that listeners would be overwhelmed. More music entered the market, but the industry did not collapse. In many ways, more creators found a way in.
AI belongs to that same history, though the scale is different. It can bring the cost of making a track close to zero, which means the amount of music entering the ecosystem could grow far beyond anything the industry has handled before. Some of it will be thoughtful and genuinely creative, while some will exist mainly to exploit weaknesses in the system.
The real test is whether the industry can keep its standards as AI makes both music and music companies easier to create.
More Music Requires Stronger Systems
Abundance is already part of digital life. People do not stop using platforms because there is too much content or too many products, but they do lose patience when discovery feels broken, quality control disappears, or the rules seem easy to game.
Streaming should be treated the same way. A larger catalog does not have to be a crisis if the systems around it can still help listeners find music while confirming ownership, paying the right people, and removing content that does not belong.
That puts real responsibility on the companies sitting between creators and audiences. Distributors, DSPs, rights administrators, and technology partners are doing more than just moving files around. They are helping decide whether the ecosystem remains dependable.
Distribution Is More Than a Polished Front End
AI is also creating a second issue that has received far less attention. It is making music companies easier to launch, too.
That can be exciting. A small team, or even one person, can now build customer tools, marketing workflows, support systems, and polished software experiences that once required far more money and staff. Some will serve artists well and push the industry forward.
The risk is that a professional-looking front end can create the impression that a business is ready for responsibilities it is not prepared for. Distribution may look simple from the outside: upload a track, send it to platforms, collect royalties, show a dashboard, and answer support tickets. In reality, the work beneath the surface is where the real responsibility lies.
A distributor needs to understand rights ownership, platform rules, content verification, payment compliance, takedowns, metadata, royalty processing, and fraud patterns, all while bad actors constantly test the system for weak points. When those pieces are weak, even a well-intentioned company can become an entry point for abuse.
AI raises the stakes because it gives bad actors more ways to move quickly. They can generate large volumes of music, imitate artists, scatter activity across accounts, and test where the system is easiest to penetrate. A process that depends only on trust, speed, or a clean-looking interface will not hold up for long.
Direct Access Should Be Earned
This is why identity verification and strong account review need to be treated as core parts of distribution. Knowing who is delivering the music, who controls the rights, and how accounts are connected is basic risk management. Without that foundation, the industry is asking platforms and partners to absorb problems that should have been caught earlier.
DSPs also need to be more careful about who receives direct access. A direct relationship with a major platform should come with real scrutiny. There will always be room for new companies, but access to the underlying music ecosystem should be earned through operational readiness.
The industry already has companies that have spent years building the less glamorous parts of the business: things like compliance, account review, catalog controls, fraud detection, support processes, and platform relationships. New businesses should innovate on top of that foundation, focusing on better artist experiences, specialized markets, or communities that need more attention.
In the early streaming era, the industry was trying to get more music onto more services and make access easier for independent creators. The next phase must focus on the systems that protect catalogs after they are uploaded. That means collecting accurate information before a release goes live, asking artists to disclose AI involvement in a way platforms can understand, and watching for suspicious activity before revenue is reversed or catalogs are suspended. It also means sharing knowledge across the industry so bad actors cannot simply move from one company to the next.
The Future Depends on Standards
The future of music will depend on more than how much gets created. It will depend on who is allowed to handle that music, how carefully ownership is verified, and whether the systems behind the catalog are strong enough to withstand AI’s pressure.
Artists should be free to experiment with AI, and entrepreneurs should be free to build around new possibilities. The industry can support both while still being honest about the difference between launching a product and operating responsibly inside a complex rights ecosystem.
AI will not break music, but abandoning standards might.Music Business Worldwide
