D'Addario Acknowledges Use of AI Music in Its Promotion

D'Addario Acknowledges Use of AI Music in Its Promotion

The music company D’Addario has admitted that music generated by AI, specifically Suno, was used in a recent promotional video. After denying the allegations for nearly two weeks, the company finally acknowledged that its string demonstration video was created with Suno.

D’Addario offered various explanations, ranging from low-quality exports to combinations of plug-ins like Autotune introducing digital noise, as well as the use of AI-assisted mastering tools from LANDR and Logic. However, the company has since modified its original post on Instagram, where it denied the use of generative AI, to admit its mistake.

In a detailed update to its post from July 29, it stated:

"We were wrong. We conducted a thorough review and confirmed that Suno Studio was used to regenerate the original track. We shared inaccurate information, and we are truly sorry... We do not endorse AI-generated music, and our process will reflect that moving forward. We will require our employees and creative partners to disclose any use of generative AI, and we will scrutinize more closely everything we put out into the world."

The post also apologizes for a moderation of comments deemed too harsh, which led to the removal of critical posts and the blocking of those users. Rather than issuing a new statement, it appears the company simply modified its original post five days prior, ten days after its initial publication.

The original video was a demonstration of a new set of strings designed for extended-range guitars and low tunings. People immediately reported that the recording sounded suspicious. The situation escalated when D’Addario released a snippet of what it claimed were the Logic recording sessions of the demo track in question. However, there were very noticeable melodic and rhythmic differences between what people heard in the final track and the Logic session.

Guitarist and YouTuber Rhett Shull managed to obtain the original Logic files directly from D’Addario, which further fueled the controversy. Even in his rather generous assessment, Shull concluded that Suno had likely been used at some point in the process, most probably to regenerate an original recording.

D’Addario has now admitted that Suno Studio was used to regenerate the track. This is the latest AI-related controversy to shake the guitar world, following comments from Fender's CEO comparing band members to analog AI.