Raw LLM Responses

i think there is an argument to be made about artists being "gatekept," though that's not at all how i would describe the actual situation. i'm an artist, have been all my life, and i've had the dream of telling a story by marrying comics and music. music is so important to the concept of this story that not including actual music with it isn't really an option. there's just one problem: i don't know how to make music, nor do i have the means to, because i'm already spending most of my waking hours at my full time job, and what little time i have left goes towards drawing the comic. i've been at it for 3 years now and at the pace i'm going, it's going to be another 10 years before it's finished if i'm lucky. if we add how long it would take for me to get competent enough in making music to do this whole project by myself, it'll probably be another 10 years. i have health issues and frankly don't know if i have another 20 years left on this earth. i tried for years to save enough money to hire musicians, but that too is impossible in this economy with my chronic health issues. i'm being "gatekept" by the capitalistic hellscape that makes living too expensive for artists to be able to lower their prices to something that the average person like me can afford. then out comes AI. suddenly there is an accessible option for me, and i didn't hesitate to try it out. i can now make a whole song by myself over the weekend. the result is music that isn't 100% what i wanted, but i learned enough about sound editing to manually improve it a bit, and the lyrics i wrote myself are the most important part of it, anyway. it's no billboard top 10, but it's good enough, and it cost me just $8. if i had the money, i would hire a real musician in a heartbeat (i managed to do that once and i much preferred that experience) but i simply don't have the money, and i don't have the time or energy to learn yet another complex skill. i'm just 1 person and i can't do it all. AI can help fill in those gaps so that i can tell the story i need to tell. it saddens me so much to see people abuse AI to make soulless slop. in the hands of someone with passion and a dream, it can be such a powerful tool. i'm working to get my comic monetized so that some day i can afford to hire real musicians to help me bring this thing to its fullest potential. until then, i do what i must, and i just hope people will afford me a little grace.