Bands – Please Stop Doing This!

In recent months, I’ve seen several bands release music with AI-generated album covers, and I don’t even know where to begin explaining why this is such a utterly bad idea. Please stop doing this before it’s too late— and here’s why!

First of all, using an AI-generated album cover speaks volumes about you as a band. If you don’t take the time and effort to create something unique for your art (your product), why should we, as fans and critics, bother? It comes across as lazy and low-effort, which makes us wonder—maybe your music is lazy and low-effort, too. Why should I waste my precious time reviewing such a release when you couldn’t even be bothered to spend yours?

I understand that it’s easier, cheaper, and faster to use AI. I know that up-and-coming bands often struggle with tight budgets, spending everything on studio time, mixing, mastering, equipment, and more. But here’s the thing—you can still create something authentic without breaking the bank. Go outside, take a photo of the sky or a tree, put your band’s logo on it, and BAM! There’s your album cover. It’s just as cheap, easy, and fast—but at least it’s truly yours.

Let’s clear this up: AI isn’t intelligent, and it’s certainly not magic. It’s just a tool that guesses. So when you ask it to create a “rock chick” or an “angry rock dude” for your album cover, it doesn’t “understand” your what are you asking —it guesses. That’s why you end up with bizarre results, like 17 fingers on a hand or some other odd distortion.

And, yes, we all use AI to some extent. Many of us use it for fun—I’ve generated plenty of images myself. But guess what? The results I got weren’t all that different from yours. In fact, I recently saw a song on my Spotify Release Radar with a cover that featured a human-like figure identical to one I had generated months ago. How many other people got that exact same result, what do you think? Now imagine this: someone walking into a record store, spotting your album, and realizing they’ve seen that AI-generated face before—because they created it at home themselves. How do you think would that person feel? Buying your album maybe? Yeah, right…

In ten years, you’ll probably regret this choice. Trends suggest that while everyone is dabbling in AI, very few people actually like its existence. AI is often seen as soulless and despised by majority of people, and your album, with its AI-generated cover, risks being dismissed alongside it.

And let’s talk about those AI-generated human-like figures. Why? Why do you even have a need to put those awkward and lifeless characters on your album covers? However, if you really insist on using AI, why not explore something else like abstract designs, cartoonish styles, or something intentionally artificial? AI performs much better in these areas and doesn’t come across as trying—and failing—to mimic humanity.

At the end of the day, it’s your music, your craft, and your decision. If you want to use AI for your album cover, that’s your call. But don’t expect fans or critics to sympathize when the album fails to connect and fades into obscurity. And here’s the harsh truth: if your album cover feels artificial and uninspired, how can we trust that the music itself isn’t the same?

Think about this and take it as friendly advice.

Sincerely,

JP

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