“There’ll be some swings and misses across the industry”: Universal Audio CEO is bullish on his firm’s new LUNA AI features – but says AI in music is broadly “overhyped”Look across the industry, and it feels like most, if not all, music technology companies – from hardware purveyors to plugin developers – are looking to integrate some degree of AI with their products. 
It’s totally understandable; AI (artificial intelligence) remains one of the world’s top buzzwords in late 2025 – and looks like it will continue to do so for many years to come – so it’s no wonder brands are looking to cash in on the hype.
But does the pursuit of new AI features make sense in every case, and for every brand? Universal Audio CEO Bill Putnam Jr. says not necessarily.

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His firm recently unveiled LUNA 2.0, the latest iteration of its own DAW, introducing a slew of AI-powered features, including Hands-Free Recording via a voice assistant (say, “Hey Luna, start recording” instead of clicking record), as well as Instrument Detection and labelling and more.
Bill Putnam sees AI and Universal Audio as a good match, but as he explains in a new interview with MusicTech, it doesn’t make sense for every brand venturing into the territory.
While AI is very much at the forefront of many people’s minds these days, Putnam isn’t blind to the widespread scepticism that also exists.
Bill Putnam Jr. Image: Universal Audio
“There are people who get it,” he says, reflecting on LUNA’s new voice assistant features, “but other people ask, ‘Why would I ever want to talk to a DAW?’
“If your workflow is just mixing and editing, you might never want to. But for some people, that’s not the case; there’s not going to be a one-size-fits-all… AI is clearly overhyped right now, and we’re starting to see the negative side.”
He goes on: “I’ve seen some reactions that say, ‘Well, you’re just feeding into the hype. This is just AI slop’ or whatever. [But UA] needs to go out there and be willing to be pioneers; we need to be willing to make mistakes. There are gonna be some swings and misses across the industry. And, hopefully, we don’t beat people up too much for that; we just learn a lesson and make something better.”
Putnam touches on the fact there’s nuance regarding AI in music production; it’s not either a song generator does everything for you or you do it all yourself. Certain tools may assist with the technical or workflow aspects of the process, freeing up your time and energy to focus on creating.
“It’s very hard to spend the time to get to the point where music is fun. And it should be,” Putnam says. “Making a tool that can automatically create a soundtrack and replace a music maker is not like Universal Audio.”
Read the full interview with Bill Putnam Jr. at MusicTech. Learn more about LUNA 2.0 at Universal Audio.
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