Guitar maker D'Addario admits AI-generated music was used in promo video
After nearly two weeks of denials, string maker D'Addario has admitted its promotional video used music generated with Suno Studio. The company apologized and pledged to require disclosure of AI use going forward.
Musical instrument accessory maker D'Addario has finally confirmed what critics had been alleging for weeks: a promotional video featured music generated with artificial intelligence.
The controversy began with a demo video for a new set of strings designed for extended-range guitars and low tunings. Listeners quickly flagged the recording as sounding suspicious. The company repeatedly denied the claims, offering various explanations including low-quality exports, digital noise introduced by plugins like Autotune, and the use of AI-assisted mastering tools such as LANDR and Logic.
The situation worsened when D'Addario posted a clip it said was from the Logic recording session for the track, but listeners noted clear melodic and rhythmic differences between that clip and the finished demo. Guitarist and YouTuber Rhett Shull obtained the original Logic files directly from D'Addario and, after reviewing them, concluded that Suno had likely been used at some point to regenerate the original recording.
The admission
D'Addario has now edited its original Instagram post from July 29th, which had denied any use of generative AI. In the updated post, the company said it completed a full review and confirmed that Suno Studio was used to regenerate the original track. It apologized for sharing inaccurate information, stated it does not support AI-generated music, and said it will now require employees and creative partners to disclose any use of generative AI while reviewing content more closely before publishing it.
The company also apologized for heavy-handed moderation of comments on the post, which had included deleting critics' comments and blocking those users. The episode is the latest AI-related controversy to hit the guitar industry, following comments from Fender's CEO comparing bandmates to analog AI.
