Been making music with AI? You could win money for it.
A global contest called the Future Sound Awards launched on Tuesday to recognize creators of music made with the help of artificial intelligence. Entries will be judged on elements including inspiration, process, vocals, lyrics and beat, along with listens on a dedicated chart. Amid intensifying ethical and legal debates around AI, contest rules stipulate that music found to contain copyrighted material will be disqualified. The top three winners will split $10,000 in prizes.
“I’ll be looking for lyrical content, something that is not just from ChatGPT, something that has been edited and has a bit more human flavor to it,” contest judge Jeff Nang, a London-based music producer whose own bespoke compositions have been featured by brands including Disney and JP Morgan, said over Zoom. “Even though it’s an AI project, I still believe that it benefits from the human touch.”
The awards are sponsored by the World AI Creator Awards, a broader competition for AI creativity run by Fanvue, a subscription-based platform that hosts virtual models, sports figures, DJs and the like. The creator awards launched last year with the first beauty pageant for AI-generated women and have now ventured into the music world.
The Future Sound Awards are a “true celebration of the democratization of music, and we have big ambitions to grow the awards into the Grammys of the AI music space,” Narcis Marincat, head of AI at Fanvue, said in a statement.
The contest arrives as AI becomes an increasingly popular tool for musicians from amateurs to professionals — more than 60 million people used AI software to create music in 2024, according to the International Music Summit’s 2025 Business Report. But while some musicians embrace AI as a collaborating partner, others fear it will impact their careers, and the very nature of creativity.
Earlier this year, more than a thousand musicians including Kate Bush, Annie Lennox, Imogen Heap, Billy Ocean and Riz Ahmed protested a proposed overhaul of U.K. copyright law that they fear will make it easier for AI companies to train datasets on their work without permission unless they proactively opt out (the bill passed last week). And last year, a metal band faced enough backlash for using an AI-generated album cover — one fan called it “a big slap in the face to any real, living artists” — that it ultimately replaced it with a new one.
Spotlighting AI’s Creative Promise
Organizers of the Future Sound Awards say they want to highlight the creative potential of AI in music, and how it can be used responsibly across the music ecosystem.
All contest entries must be created and verified through contest partner TwoShot, which lets users make music tracks from its fully traceable, rights-cleared audio library. Because TwoShot users can also upload their own audio, the tool runs tracks through an automated licensing system to detect copyrighted content. Cleared contest entries will appear on a chart powered by online audio distribution platform SoundCloud, and anyone over 18 can enter with tracks in any genre or language. There is no entry fee.
Contest judge Nang says he’ll be assessing submissions for the same qualities he values in music not created with AI. “You’re always looking for structure, style and taste,” he said.
Nang co-founded Controlla Voice, which lets users create AI singers, and he’s built full choirs from his own voice with the product. “I love to see what the new generation of music creators have been creating with these tools,” he said.
Another awards judge, Josua Waghubinger, is a trailblazing member of that new generation.
The Austrian musician, known by the stage name Butterbro, became the first artist to enter the official German single charts with a fully AI-generated song, “Verknallt in einen Talahon,” composed with AI music service Udio. The tune combines a traditional style of European music known as schlager with bouncy pop to tell the story of a German girl with a crush on an immigrant.
Speaking over Zoom, Waghubinger said he hopes the Future Sound Awards will spark conversation on how platforms can respect musicians and still encourage innovation, while reminding artists that experimenting with AI doesn’t mean abandoning their own creative voice.
“It’s important to always remember to keep the fun when we try to experiment with new technology, and never forget that we as humans can decide if we want to stay at the center of it,” he said.
“I see AI both as a tool and as a collaborator, depending on how it’s used,” Waghubinger added, “with the human touch remaining at the core.”
