The Future Sound Awards is a mainstream music competition for AI-generated content, establishing a global platform where creators can showcase their work regardless of their size or experience level. Powered by creator AI monetization platform Fanvue, the awards aim to recognize excellence in AI music creation at a time when tens of millions of people worldwide are using artificial intelligence to produce music.

Narcis Marincat, Head of AI at Fanvue, leads this initiative as part of the company’s broader mission to help creators harness AI technology effectively. The submissions are open until August 5 to anyone over 18 worldwide and the prizes total $10,000.

“The Future Sound Awards were really launched to demonstrate the positive impact that AI can have in the creative process in music creation,” Narcis explains. “It’s an opportunity, just like it was with ‘Miss AI’ [Fanvue’s beauty pageant competition], to celebrate creative talent, but in AI music specifically.”

This inclusive approach stems from Fanvue’s mission to empower creators in a brand new category: the “Creator AI Economy,” where successful creators can build, create, and monetize more effectively using AI tools. Under Narcis’s leadership, the company has focused on developing AI tools that help creators scale their personal brands while removing the technical obstacles that have hindered creative expression in the past.

For Narcis, competitions like this serve multiple purposes beyond just the prizes. “When you enter a competition in general, there’s that idea of pushing your limits and seeing what you can build when you put your mind to it,” he explains.

The Entry Process

The competition leverages technology partnerships to ensure a smooth experience for participants. Creators must submit their AI-generated music through TwoShot, an AI-powered creation platform that helps musicians generate, discover, and remix samples with AI.

“We really wanted to partner with a platform that is doing things right in this space,” Narcis explains, highlighting TwoShot’s ethical approach to AI music creation. 

The platform includes licensing technology in partnership with Audible Magic that prevents copyright infringement, ensuring all submissions are original creations rather than derivative works.

After being created and verified through TwoShot Studio, tracks are automatically added to the Future Sound Awards chart on SoundCloud, where they gain visibility with both the judging panel and the general public. “SoundCloud is helping us actually host the sounds for everyone to hear,” notes Narcis. “We’ve been working closely with them throughout the process to make sure that submitting a song and getting it out to the world to hear is a seamless process.”

To reiterate, creators interested in participating have until August 5 to submit their entries, with no limit on how many tracks they can enter. There’s no registration fee, making the competition accessible to anyone with creative ideas, regardless of financial resources.

Judging AI Music Creation

The judging process combines expert evaluation with audience engagement metrics. Tracks will be assessed by a panel of industry professionals across criteria including vocals, lyrics, beat, and genuineness, with these scores combined with the total number of listens each track achieves on the Future Sound Awards SoundCloud chart.

The panel brings together diverse perspectives from across the AI music field. “We really wanted to have a diversity of perspectives and wealth of knowledge,” Narcis explains when discussing the selection of judges like AI music producer Jeff Nang, who has worked with Disney, Universal, and Sony; Butter Bro, producer of the first AI-generated song to enter the German music charts; and Tobi Akinyemi, TwoShot founder and AI music producer.

Narcis himself brings both technical expertise and personal passion to the judging process. With a background in psychology and neuroscience, as well as a master’s in computer science, combined with his experience as a hobbyist DJ for over 20 years, he boasts competence in both the technical and creative aspects of AI music creation.

“One of the core things that I always look at when I look at an AI-generated song is does it have that AI feel or does it feel like it was made like a real song?” Narcis explains. “It takes a bit of trial and error to get to that stage and you can tell when someone’s putting the time in to actually make the song feel dynamic and realistic.”

The shortlist will be revealed on August 12, with notable rewards awaiting the winners. The first-place winner will receive $7,000, while second and third place winners will each receive $1,500. The competition accepts entries from any musical genre, from rap and hip hop to EDM and country, allowing creators to express themselves in their preferred style.

Why Now?

The timing of the Future Sound Awards coincides with a major increase in AI music creation. According to a recent International Music Summit (IMS) report, over 60 million people used AI to make music last year alone, showing the growing popularity in this area.

According to Narcis, this growth is driven by two key factors. First, AI tools are making music creation more accessible by lowering barriers to entry. “Part of it is getting new people in the space because the barrier to entry when you can make music in this way gets lower, which is amazing. So you get more people being able to be creative with AI in the music space,” he explains.

Second, for experienced creators, AI speeds up the creative process. Narcis has experienced this change firsthand in his own music production: “I used to make music the step-by-step way—it could take me weeks to make a song that I really enjoyed. With AI, it can take me a couple of hours. Still very targeted, but that’s crazy to go from a few weeks to a few hours.”

The Future Sound Awards serve as both a celebration of this change and a platform to showcase its possibilities.

Technology and Human Creativity

Despite the capabilities of AI music tools, Narcis emphasizes that human creativity remains essential to producing meaningful work, informing both the Future Sound Awards’ judging criteria and Fanvue’s broader approach to AI development.

“Where I think AI is not necessarily useful is when people just throw all of the AI tools out there all at once and use them all at once, and then not infuse what they’ve created with their creative spirit,” he explains. “That can lead to soulless sort of AI creations.”

This perspective guides Fanvue’s work in AI development for creators. As Head of AI, Narcis leads a team focused on building helpful features for content creation, personalization, and audience engagement. “A lot of what we do is having conversations with creators, trying to figure out where the places are where we can integrate AI seamlessly within their workflow so that they can focus on the things that actually matter for them,” he shares.

AI Music and Creator Awards

The Future Sound Awards represent just one component of Fanvue’s broader strategy in AI-powered creation. As Narcis explains, “The Fanvue World AI Creator Awards, they’re the umbrella awards behind the Future Sound Awards and the Miss AI [awards].”

With the inaugural Future Sound Awards well underway, Fanvue is already planning for the future. “Miss AI is scheduled to return in 2025,” Narcis reveals, noting that “the awards have undergone a full overhaul and rebrand, which are in line with celebrating all creators.”

Looking beyond their current initiatives, Narcis hints at expansions into other creative areas: “We’re thinking across music, AI influencers, art, fashion. So expect some big things coming soon in that space.”

These plans reflect Narcis’s positive outlook for AI’s role in creative fields. As for predictions about the future of AI music, he suggests that in the next few years, we’ll see “more mainstream adoption of responsibly generated AI content, where AI creators with AI music will be more heard and loved. And basically the normalization of intelligent creative AI across the industry.”

For creators intrigued by the Future Sound Awards but who haven’t yet explored AI music tools, Narcis offers the following advice: “Try to use the AI in the field that you’re interested in. It’s the best way to start.”

Beyond Numbers

For Fanvue and Narcis, success for the Future Sound Awards transcends metrics like submission numbers or media coverage. With over 300 submissions already received, the competition has clearly struck a chord with creators worldwide, but the true impact goes deeper.

“Everyone entering having a good time is a great test,” Narcis explains, along with “getting the best entries on the podium, having people that haven’t participated get great exposure, and encouraging more cool ways to use AI.”

This vision of making creative tools more accessible while celebrating excellence aligns with Fanvue’s platform, which provides creators with the ability to monetize their content “with just a few clicks,” whether it’s audio, images, or video.

As the submission deadline approaches, the Future Sound Awards stands as an opportunity for creators worldwide to showcase their AI music creations and potentially gain recognition in this growing field. But perhaps more importantly, the awards represent Fanvue’s commitment to supporting creators as technology changes and ensuring they benefit from rather than get left behind by AI advancements.

“We want to see amazing things that people build with AI across the creative industries,” Narcis concludes.

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