Why Every AI Launch Sounds The Same
The "check out our cool shit" soundtrack AI labs love.
The relentless pace of AI raises plenty of serious questions and sparks heated debates:
Is using creative AI models trained on the work of human artists unethical? Does the answer change if we really want to see what a steampunk platypus looks like?
How will AI impact jobs, industries, and our entire way of life?
When is superintelligence coming, and how quickly will it kill us all?
Yet, in all this existential panic, nobody’s asking the most critical question of all:
“What’s up with all these AI product launch soundtracks?”
Don’t worry, friends, I got you!
“What are you even talking about, Daniel?”
If you don’t already know, you probably haven’t seen an AI product teaser in a while.
But I have.
I see these launch videos all the time:
When I’m putting together the week’s Sunday Rundown.
When I’m checking out a new AI tool to test.
When I open YouTube to step away from AI and unwind, only for the algorithm to throw more AI stuff at me.1
I see these AI trailers in my dreams. They haunt me.
So I’ve started noticing a clear pattern: They all use the same cookie-cutter style of background music.
The best way to summarize the vibe of these tracks is “high-energy, upbeat electropop/hip-hop with deep synth bass and heavy drum drops, claps, occasional brass riffs, and often a woman rapping or exclaiming excitedly.”
On second thought, that wasn’t a very effective summary at all, was it?
Here, let me just show you.
“Show me!”
I will! I already said I’d do it, relax!
It all started on a seemingly calm summer day in 2023.
On August 16, Adobe dropped this trailer for its AI-powered revamp of Adobe Express:
That was my first encounter with the “AI launch” soundtrack.
And sure, the bass line didn’t punch quite as heavily, and the brass was missing.
But cut Adobe some slack: Those were the early days.
In less than a month, Adobe had perfected the formula for its September release of Adobe Firefly:
Adobe has never looked back.
In parallel, whether inspired by Adobe or entirely independently, Pika Labs developed its own skull-shattering trailer for customized camera movements just a week later:
This type of track became Pika’s signature sound.
But Pika was a true innovator, occasionally making the bold move of replacing the female vocalist with a male one…
…or even dropping the vocals altogether:
See?
It’s not completely the same style!
“But that’s just Adobe and Pika!”
Why must you constantly doubt me, Mr. and Mrs. Strawman?!
If it’s only Adobe and Pika, how do you explain this trailer for Canva’s Magic Studio?
Why, yes—I can “hear you now,” generic AI track lady.
You sound exactly like all the other versions of yourself!
Or how about this banger from when Ideogram 1.0 launched?
Or this one from HeyGen:
Spotify’s “AI Playlist” announcement strikes most of the notes, too (sans the vocals):
“What you need to understand, Daniel, is that these are the ‘fun’ companies who can afford to show a bit of character. You won’t see any serious big brands doing somet—”
Let me interrupt you right there and present Exhibit A, Google’s “Circle To Search”:
It wasn’t a one-off, either.
Google did it again with its Whisk announcement:
Even Apple, which is largely seen as having missed the first bus to the AI party, has done something similar:
Of course, there are exceptions.
After all, nobody expects a B2B-focused company like Microsoft to let loose with funky beats.
Just kidding!
Here’s their “Windows AI Foundry” ad, because nothing screams “high energy” quite like sitting at a desk and staring at lines of code on your screen:
I rest my case.
“So is this a conspiracy, then?”
I can’t answer that question with any degree of confidence, but yes, it’s absolutely a conspiracy, 100%! Clearly, there’s a secret cabal of music aficionados coordinating their AI launch tracks for maximum impact.
While it already sounds like an open-and-shut case, I didn’t want to be accused of half-assing my investigation. So I tried getting to the bottom of it.
I was sure most of these tracks must already exist in the wild.
It’s not like you can just type my vague word-salad description of them into Suno…
“High-energy, upbeat electropop with deep synth bass and heavy drum drops, claps, occasional brass riffs, and a woman rapping about the future.”
…and grab the first thing that pops up:
Oh…I guess you can.
Still, I’m nothing if not thorough.
Equipped with my phone’s “Now playing” feature, I successfully identified eight of the tracks:
I then fed their names to one of the best reasoning models out there: OpenAI o3:
After a minute of thought, o3 spat out this:
Let’s see…
“All eight cuts sit in the same little corner of the production‑music world: high‑gloss, female‑fronted “swagger‑pop” that’s tailor‑made for ads, tech‑launch sizzle reels, and upbeat YouTube intros.” [Emphasis mine.]
“Tailor-made for ads” and “tech-launch sizzle reels”?!
Wait…it couldn’t be that simple, could it?
But o3 had even more to say:
So, o3 would have us believe that AI labs are picking these songs because:
They’re royalty-free or particularly easy to license
They’re perfectly suited for advertising clips
They communicate hype-y techno optimism we associate with the AI scene
I don’t know about you, but that explanation sounds very convincing to me.
Suspiciously convincing.
Is o3 helping AI labs cover their tracks?
The only way to find out is to prod it with this unbiased investigative prompt:
This time, it took o3 a mere six seconds to uncover The Real Truth™:
Now we’re talking!
Feel free to pick your favorite of these perfectly reasonable explanations.
The good news? The fad is over!
Aren’t you glad we unraveled this mystery together?
If that wasn’t enough, I’m also happy to report that the “tech launch track” craze is officially over. It peaked in 2023-2024 and is now in rapid decline.
Even Adobe, which kicked off the trend, has moved on to other, better soun—
Oh, for God’s sake!
🫵 Over to you…
Have you noticed the same pattern? Is this a conspiracy (yes!)? Have you given this matter even one-hundredth of the thought I have?
Leave a comment or drop me a line at whytryai@substack.com.
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It’s like the algorithm is AI or something.
Thank you- great case for searching icon pop tracks from before and relaunching their creators for legend moods
Love it! Let’s go Daniel.! Yes it is a conspiracy. I had never heard of “Swagger Pop” before you pointed it out. My new favorite thing is to turn on closed captions for these ai launch videos. Very deep lyrics. “I made it. I made it hot..”