Since college, I’ve probably had music playing for about 70 percent of my day. Walking, working, driving, zoning out, whatever. There’s almost always something on. Back then, before streaming really took over, I spent a lot of time hopping between music blogs trying to find anything new or weird that wasn’t on the radio. Stuff like Earmilk, Drowned in Sound, and especially Hype Machine. You actually had to dig a little to find good music, and honestly that was part of the fun.
Now it’s the opposite problem. There’s basically infinite music everywhere. Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, Tidal, Amazon Music, all of them have recommendation engines that would have blown my mind in college. Personally I’ve been on Spotify for years and most of what I listen to comes straight from their playlists. Discover Weekly, Daylist, Release Radar. That’s pretty much my rotation. I don’t search much anymore, the algorithm just hands me things and it’s usually right.
With AI getting shoved into everything lately, it felt inevitable that music would be part of it. I figured it would be a novelty I’d try once and forget about. Turns out I was very wrong.
This whole thing started because I wanted to make a theme song for our TTRPG campaign. Just something fun that felt like our group. The goal was ambitious but simple in my head. One song, references to every character, something epic but a little silly. In practice, that was way harder than expected.
The first few attempts were rough. Some sounded generic in that “fantasy trailer music” way. Some got character details wrong. A couple were technically impressive but had zero personality. I went through a bunch of prompt tweaks, rewrites, and retries before one finally landed. It hit the right tone, managed to reference everyone, and actually sounded like something we’d play before a session.
🎵 Roll initiative – final version
I shared it with the group and was honestly surprised that everyone liked it. That single song basically opened the floodgates. Once people realized how easy it was to generate stuff, everyone started making their own songs. Character themes, joke songs, dramatic intros, absolutely unhinged experiments. Different styles, different moods, wildly different results. Some were epic, some were ridiculous, a few were so bad they wrapped back around to being incredible. Here is the one I made for our resident Barbarian (Bloodrager for those PF1e fans) Klorg the Tentacled.
🎵 Klorg the Tentacled
It turned into this shared side activity that none of us planned. Just a bunch of us sending links back and forth, laughing, and occasionally being impressed by something the AI accidentally nailed. It’s honestly been some of the most fun we’ve had outside of actual game sessions.
After that, I tried using AI music for family stuff. My son has a birthday coming up, and the idea of a custom birthday song that sounds like whatever he’s obsessed with right now felt too good not to try. Those went great. Super wholesome, catchy enough to get stuck in your head, and very toddler-approved.
Then I tried making one for my wife. The first one was passable and actually somewhat catchy. It’s an afrobeats song about her love of traveling, organizing, and baking. We actually had a lot of fun dancing to it and laughing how the AI pronounced “Pastries”.
🎵 Pookie with Pastries
Then came the next attempt. It was probably the hardest prompt I’ve ever tried to craft. We’re looking forward to crushing our new yers goals both as individuals and as a couple. So in that new years spirit, I wanted a song that was encouraging, uplifting, and encompassed how badass my wife is. On paper, the prompt was fine. In reality, the lyrics came out accidentally hilarious and… mildly insulting. Not intentionally. Not malicious. Just one of those moments where the AI took something a little too literally and ran with it. We laughed a lot. No permanent damage done. Lesson learned.
🎵 The song we will never play again
What surprised me the most about all of this wasn’t the technology itself. It was how social it became. These songs turned into shared artifacts. Little inside jokes. Things we reference later. Stuff that makes sessions feel more personal. It was a good reminder that creative tools don’t need to be perfect to be useful. They just need to be fun.
I don’t know how long I’ll stick with AI music, but for now it’s been a really enjoyable experiment. And honestly, a nice reminder that not every project needs a goal beyond “this made us laugh.”
