top of page

Stop making this mistake with AI music searches — and get what you pay for

Natural language AIMS Prompt Search

We don’t mean to be too bold, but we’ve seen the data. Most people don’t use natural language music searches like AIMS Prompt Search correctly. About 70% of prompts are three words or less — and that’s exactly what this search is meant to help you stop doing. 


Chances are, you too are only scratching the surface of how much time you can save with prompt-based searches, and how blown away you can be by the results.


It’s not your fault; it’s what we’ve all been trained to do. 


The root of the problem is habit

For decades, we’ve been taught to type in as few words as possible. Keyword-based music searches and search engines like Google have required us to condense our queries to the very basics. Anything more complex than that and you’d lose confidence in the results.


Now that tech allows you to go wild with nuanced inputs, you’re likely still writing short prompts like “upbeat rock” — instead of copy/pasting a massive brief or typing whatever comes to mind and trusting AI to figure it out. 


It’s hard to shake any habit. It’s especially difficult when changing your ways feels like a big risk. What if you don’t find what you otherwise would? Miss out on the perfect track? When you’ve been cultivating your keyword skills for years, should you really just toss them aside?


Let’s look at it from the opposite spectrum: What are you missing out on by not changing the way you search? The answer: hours of saved time, creative freedom and great music. After all, that’s what you’re paying for. 


You wouldn’t walk up to an expert and say “pop”

Imagine you’re renovating your kitchen. You’re not sure which tools you need, but you know exactly what you’re trying to build, fix, improve.  


If you go to a hardware store with specialists ready to assist you, you don’t ask for a “power tool.” You have a conversation, describing what you’re hoping to achieve, what you think you need, how you think the results should look, what the kitchen will be used for…   


That’s how natural language music searches work. They don’t get confused by information. They need context, context, context, in order to make the real magic happen. 


The best AI music searches are trained on a massively diverse volume of examples so they can interpret detailed inputs just as a top human expert would. They understand the weight of the most impactful words in your message — the main “keywords” to focus on — all on their own. 


Shorter queries don’t lead to more relevant results. They won’t get you results faster. Instead, they give AI less context to work with, which leaves you with less accurate results. 


Doesn’t this make AI the creative decision-maker? 

Absolutely not. 


Yes, you’re encouraged to copy/paste a brief you’ve received into Prompt Search, verbatim. Skipping extra steps is a massive time-saver, and spot-on results are instant. BUT…


Whether that’s where your search journey ends depends entirely on you. 


Firstly, you alone are the decision-maker — and the taste-maker. You listen to the options, you use your unique expertise to make the final choice. You may have a history with the person behind the brief. You know the strengths and weaknesses of certain tracks. 


Second, great initial results can be the ideal heureka moment for further creativity. Based on factors like a project’s significance or the amount of time you’re working with, you can decide to keep exploring as much as you want. 


Just because the first result is fantastic doesn’t mean you have to be done. There’s always room to experiment in new directions.


What AI does is expand your creative playground. It’s great at digging up hidden gems, reminding you of forgotten tracks and removing bias — which you can decide to add right back in because as we know, not all bias is bad; some stems from priceless experience. 


It’s up to you to recognize the perfect music when you hear it. AI helps you get to it faster. 


Other possible blockers (let’s knock it all out)

Rushing or uncertainty make you revert to shorthand terms

Scenario: You have no brief, just a head full of random info or thoughts. It’s so chaotic that you think it’d take too long to formulate, so you choose to jot down keywords — because you know they’ll at least get you to “good enough” or a jumping-off point, hopefully. 


But that’s exactly what natural language search is for: throwing whatever you have at AI and letting it navigate the mess. You know there’s a great idea in there somewhere — there always is — but you need time and energy to mull it over. AI needs seconds. 


Doubting AI because it all sounds a bit too sales tactic-y

If you’re not an engineer building the thing, it can be hard to imagine how AI search could have come this far. How can a machine possibly understand nuance and ambiguous intent? 


That’s a topic way too broad for this article. Here’s the gist: The most advanced AI models recognize endless patterns and pick up on vague context. Imagine a friend who remembers everything you've ever asked and uses that knowledge to predict what you mean. That’s AI at its best.


It’s fun to call it magic. It feels like magic. But it’s really the opposite — a result of continuous learning, an intricate equation that analytical people cracked over a long, long time.


Worries about the search's cultural or language gaps

What if you’re working with culturally-specific terms or you want to search in a language other than English? You may (reasonably) assume things will get lost in translation.


Well, thanks to that huge volume of examples we mentioned, leading AI has a full grasp of niche references and most of the world’s languages. Whether you’re alluding to an obscure artist, the Brazilian cavaquinho or 快节奏 — advanced music searches like Prompt Search will be right there with you. 


You just really like keywords or need them for specificity

The best natural language searches don’t remove all traces of tags. Instead, they aim to get the most out of both approaches: prompts and keywords. Because sometimes, keywords are super helpful — and can even make your search faster. 


For instance, AIMS searches have a rich set of filters for this exact reason. So if you’re looking for a genre like “country” or “instrumental” music only, it’s easily clickable among the (many) filters. And you can customize which filters are up top so everything’s right on hand. 


What often works great: Start with a prompt, then narrow down your search with filters. 


There’s nothing to lose by at least trying

Maybe just once or twice, see what happens when you don’t strip your searches down to the bare minimum. Somewhere in your catalog there’s a captivating, long-lost song waiting to be discovered — and your saga-length notes might be the exact maze that leads to it.  


And one more bit of motivation: If 70% of users still rely on short prompts, that means more than one quarter of music professionals have already discovered how powerful natural language searches can be at their full potential. And they’re using it daily. 


Don’t sleep on the “magic” at your fingertips. At least play around with it; you can do so right now on the AIMS website, or book a demo and test it out on your catalog the very next day. 

bottom of page