AR Rahman reacts to Abhijeet: Is tech killing live music?

Singer Abhijeet blames AR Rahman for replacing live musicians with tech.

Transcript

00:00On 9th April, singer Abhijit Bhattacharya slammed AR Rahman for the overuse of technology on an A&I podcast.

00:30On the same podcast, he claimed that Rahman's tech-driven music has left many instrumentalists jobless.

00:42However, Rahman in his response to India Today on 14th April, took the criticism in stride.

00:48It's nice to blame me for everything, he said with a smile, adding that he still loved Abhijit and would send him cakes.

00:54It's nice to blame me for everything. It's his opinion, nothing wrong.

00:59Look, I just set up an orchestra with 60 women in Dubai.

01:05They're all employed every month, they get paid insurance and health and everything.

01:11And every movie, whether it's Chava or P.S., there are 200 to 300 musicians.

01:19And some songs have more than 100 musicians that I don't like to show and put photographs of all that.

01:25Rahman defended his use of tech saying computers are just tools.

01:29And all final recordings still involve live musicians.

01:32And the computers are used as a tool to design extraordinary harmonies and everything because

01:39you can't afford to get musicians to play and reject it later.

01:44So all the rejection should happen in the soft sense.

01:47However, the concern raised by Abhijit isn't isolated.

01:59A 2023 Federation of Western India Cine Employees report said over 50% of Bollywood session musicians saw

02:06a 40 to 60% income drop post-2020, blaming the rise of digital tools.

02:12Globally, a 2022 Berklee study found 70% of producers now use AI-assisted composition,

02:19often replacing live instrumentalists in background scores and demos.

02:23Performing Rights Society, aka PRS for Music UK in 2023, reported

02:27one in three instrumentalists fear job loss due to tech.

02:30So, is this a crisis or just the industry's evolution?