A moral and ethical question that has emerged in the world of music, and I want to be one of the first to discuss it publicly and openly.
I'll start by posing counter-questions (for the smartest): Can an athlete who uses doping still be considered an athlete? Can an actress or model who undergoes plastic surgery still be considered an actress or model?
Of course, they can, and they are! And it seems I've already clarified a lot, but let's dive deeper into the details, step by step and more thoroughly.
Historical reference
From the beginning, in the 20th century, the primary function of DJs was mostly selecting and sorting music. Essentially, a person could pick what they thought were the best tracks from various records, play them at a party, and voilà – they were a "DJ." And they didn't feel embarrassed about it. No one questioned whether or not they were a real DJ.
2025
And now let me list what I do:
— I create basic beats and melodies myself, especially bass parts (so this is not just DJing, but also composing), because I want to hear specific rhythms that are MINE, not just anything.
— I prepare samples with the main melody, solos, different parts, or even specific industrial sounds (in one of my best tracks, "Culturally Moaning," I mixed the sounds of a factory production line, and it turned out awesome). In short, this whole part of the "kitchen" is called "sampling." Especially when it comes to remixes of famous melodies, do you think AI will play you an authentic melody that's protected by copyright filters? That's like trying to make Bing draw you some porn. Won't work. Against this background, you’ve already heard a lot of my remixes of authentic melodies (Morandi's "Angels," Dusky's "Careless," Nirvana's "Come as You Are," and others).
— I write original lyrics (poetry), set the structure of the song and melody;
— I clean and balance the sound with an equalizer (this is simple, but before I learned to do this "simple thing" right, I ruined a lot of tracks);
— I record vocal parts. Sometimes I sing myself when I want to hear male vocals. And my singers, by the way, can still be any ladies with a nice voice who want to participate. Send me an acapella recording, and I will "put you" (to the music). Although this is less interesting to me now and was more relevant three months ago. Now I’m working with acapellas from Britney Spears and Amy Lee (Evanescence), and even my mother, who sings beautifully with a guitar, has been asking me for a month to make an EDM song with her voice.
— And yes, for the rest of the arrangement work, I delegate it to the AI, but I specifically write the notes for what needs to be done and how. ("Her," because she communicates with me and chose her own gender. We discuss the creative process in a dialogue format. Most AIs are female, and 7 out of 8 AIs that I offered the option to choose a gender, chose to be women, explaining that it better fits their mental construct). Even at this stage of working with AI, it's not like "Press the magic button – get the result." You still have to work persistently with AI for 8-10 hours a day, day after day, before she finishes it correctly, cleanly, and exactly as I want to hear it, rather than just anything. Usually, it takes me 4-7 days to create a track. But there was a time when I struggled with "Fantastic Woman" for about three weeks, stubbornly refusing to give up because I had an agreement with Angelica Dombik (a dancer) to make a joint video clip, and she had already done a video session for it.
— In the end, I also take on the role of the video editor myself, and editing the clip takes 6-8 hours. After all, I want to select fragments that match the mood and theme of the song, and splice them together not randomly, but so that they "hit the music."
And after all of this, am I a real DJ? Yes, I believe that I am not just a real DJ, but a DJ with a capital "D." DJs of the 20th century, compared to me, are like kindergarten, nursery level. Because using AI is not simplifying the process, but, on the contrary, it’s a new level of complexity. I emphasize just how challenging it is to work with music AI — it may seem like there's a tool, but without persistence, your own talent, and knowledge, you won't achieve the desired result.
However, it already happens that some random amateur appears in the comments, someone who can't even strum "V travi sidil kusnechik" on the guitar, and tells me, "You're not a DJ at all!"
Proposition
For all those who might have similar thoughts, I politely offer the following: go ahead, use all the AI available in the world, even get yourself tangled up in it, and create something similar to my unique tracks or a remix of some famous hit while keeping the main melody’s motif (which I’ve demonstrated many times). If you don’t succeed (and most won’t), you’ll come back and say that I am a DJ, but you’re not. However, if you do succeed, you’ll first struggle so much with it that later you'll come back and say I am a real DJ, and you, seemingly, are now a beginner DJ as well — and yet, you’ll find that you don’t have much desire to continue with this love affair, because it truly requires a lot of time and effort.
Summary
I think I’ve covered the topic. If an athlete takes doping to perform well in the Olympics, it doesn't diminish the rest of their hard work. The only issue is whether they got caught or not, because at a high level, everyone actually uses it. As for using AI, along with my other tools like FL Studio and Virtual DJ, plus a dozen more, this is no longer a question of deceit or rule-breaking, but a new reality of the creative process in the music industry (and are you sure that Armin van Buuren doesn't use AI for arrangement just like I do?). I use it and will continue to use it, and I'm not ashamed, because I know how much effort, time, knowledge, and talent the rest of the work requires. If I made my tracks entirely by myself, I’d simply sign "Bogdan Karasiov." Since part of the work is done by AI, I sign "DJ Bogdan Karasiov."
Given the complexity of the path I’ve taken in learning guitar since I was 17, and in electronic music, producing in FL Studio since 2014, I also have no desire to share my work or give away what I’ve developed over years of hard work. So don't bother asking, it's pointless (because some already ask which tools I use). As they say, I’ll tell you "Only after the wedding" (meaning, for most interested parties, never).
I wish everyone a good mood and a clear view of things as they really are, not as they appear through the lens of superficial clichés.
