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From ChatGPT writing code for software engineers to Bing’s search engine sliding in place of your bi-weekly Hinge binge, we’ve become obsessed with the capacity for artificial intelligence to replace us.
Within creative industries, this fixation manifests in generative AI. With models like DALL-E generating images from text prompts, the popularity of generative AI challenges how we understand the integrity of the creative process: When generative models are capable of materializing ideas, if not generating their own, where does that leave artists?
Google’s new text-based music generative AI, MusicLM, offers an interesting answer to this viral terminator-meets-ex-machina narrative. As a model that produces “high-fidelity music from text descriptions,” MusicLM embraces moments lost in translation that encourages creative exploration. It sets itself apart from other music generation models like Jukedeck and MuseNet by inviting users to verbalize their original ideas rather than toggle with existing music samples.
Describing how you feel is hard
AI in music is not new. But between recommending songs for Spotify’s Discover Weekly playlists to composing royalty free music with Jukedeck, applications of AI in music have evaded the long-standing challenge of directly mapping words to music.
This is because, as a form of expression on its own, music resonates differently to each listener. The same way that different languages struggle to perfectly communicate nuances of respective cultures, it is difficult (if not impossible) to exhaustively capture all dimensions of music in words.
MusicLM takes on this challenge by generating audio clips from descriptions like “a calming violin melody backed by a distorted guitar riff,” even accounting for less tangible inputs like “hypnotic and trance-like.” It approaches this thorny question of music categorization with a refreshing sense of self awareness. Rather than focusing on lofty notions of style, MusicLM grounds itself in more tangible attributes of music with tags such as “snappy”, or “amateurish.” It broadly considers where an audio clip may come from (eg. “Youtube Tutorial”), the general emotional responses it may conjure (eg. “madly in love”), while integrating more widely accepted concepts of genre and compositional technique.
What you expect is (not) what you get
Piling onto this theoretical question of music classification is the more practical shortage of training data. Unlike its creative counterparts (e.g. DALL-E), there isn’t an abundance of text-to-audio captions readily available.
MusicLM was trained by a library of 5,521 music samples captioned by musicians called ‘MusicCaps.’ Bound by the very human limitation of capacity and the almost-philosophical matter of style, MusicCaps offers finite granularity in its semantic interpretation of musical characteristics. The result is occasional gaps between user inputs and generated outputs: the “happy, energetic” tune you asked for may not turn out as you expect.
However, when asked about this discrepancy, MusicLM researcher Chris Donahue and research software engineer Andrea Agostinelli celebrate the human element of the model. They describe primary applications such as “[exploring] ideas more efficiently [or overcoming] writer’s block,” quick to note that MusicLM does offer multiple interpretations of the same prompt — so if one generated track fails to meet your expectations, another might.
“This [disconnect] is a big research direction for us, there isn’t a single answer,” Andrea admits. Chris attributes this disconnect to the “abstract relationship between music and text” insisting that “how we react to music is [even more] loosely defined.”
In a way — by fostering an exchange that welcomes moments lost in translation — MusicLM’s language-based structure positions the model as a sounding board: as you prompt the model with a vague idea, the generation of approximates help you figure out what you actually want to make.
Beauty is in breaking things
With their experience producing Chain Tripping (2019) — a Grammy-nominated album entirely made with MusicVAE (another music generative AI developed by Google) — the band YACHT chimes in on MusicLM’s future in music production. “As long as it can be broken apart a little bit and tinkered with, I think there’s great potential,” says frontwoman Claire L. Evans.
To YACHT, generative AI exists as a means to an end, rather than the end in itself. “You never make exactly what you set out to make,” says founding member Jona Bechtolt, describing the mechanics of a studio session. “It’s because there’s this imperfect conduit that is you” Claire adds, attributing the alluring and evocative process of producing music to the serendipitous disconnect that occurs when artists put pen to paper.
The band describes how the misalignment of user inputs and generated work inspires creativity through iteration. “There is a discursive quality to [MusicLM]… it’s giving you feedback… I think it’s the surreal feeling of seeing something in the mirror, like a funhouse mirror,” says Claire. “A computer accent,” band member Rob Kieswetter jokes, referencing a documentary about the band’s experience making Chain Tripping.
However, in discussing the implications of this move to text-to-audio generation, Claire cautions the rise of taxonomization in music: “imperfect semantic elements are great, it’s the precise ones that we should worry about… [labels] create boundaries to discovery and creation that don’t need to exist… everyone’s conditioned to think about music as this salad of hyper-specific genre references [that can be used] to conjure a new song.”
Nonetheless, both YACHT and the MusicLM team agrees that MusicLM — as it currently is — holds promise. “Either way there’s going to be a whole new slew of artists fine-tuning this tool to their needs,” Rob contends.
Engineer Andrea recalls instances where creative tools weren’t popularized for its intended purpose: “the synthesizer eventually opened up a huge wave of new genres and ways of expression. [It unlocked] new ways to express music, even for people who are not ‘musicians.’” “Historically, it has been pretty difficult to predict how each piece of music technology will play out,” researcher Chris concludes.
Happy accidents, reinvention, and self-discovery
Back to the stubborn, unforgiving question: Will generative AI replace musicians? Perhaps not.
The relationship between artists and AI is not a linear one. While it’s appealing to prescribe an intricate and carefully intentional system of collaboration between artists and AI, as of right now, the process of using AI in producing art resembles more of a friendly game of trial and error.
In music, AI gives room for us to explore the latent spaces between what we describe and what we really mean. It materializes ideas in a way that helps shape creative direction. By outlining these acute moments lost in translation, tools like MusicLM sets us up to produce what actually ends up making it to the stage… or your Discover Weekly.
Tiffany Ng is an art & tech writer based in NYC. Her work has been published in i-D Vice, Vogue, South China Morning Post, and Highsnobiety.
When introducing myself as the vp of marketing and wellness at Guin Records, a title that doesn’t conform to the usual melody of the music industry, I’m often met with raised eyebrows and intrigued inquiries. This blending of roles — pairing the vibrant, creative world of marketing with the crucial, human aspect of wellness — might seem unconventional to most in our industry. Yet, this combination isn’t just possible. It’s essential and, I would argue, long overdue.
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The responsibilities of my role involve walking the line between two worlds. I champion and promote the music our artists create, steering the narrative to connect deeply with new audiences and core fans. Simultaneously, I cultivate an environment that nurtures the mental and emotional well-being of our artists and staff.
At Guin Records, we embed wellness into the very fabric of our ethos and values. We recognize that the creative process, while exhilarating, can also be emotionally taxing. We acknowledge the highs and lows, the euphoria and the vulnerability that come with artistic expression. Therefore, we prioritize the well-being of our artists, empowering them to create and share their music in a sustainable and healthy way.
Why is this important? Because music is profoundly human. The music that touches our souls, the lyrics that resonate with our experiences and the performances that captivate our senses — all are born from the hearts and minds of individuals. Artists, like all of us, require support, care and an environment conducive to their growth and well-being.
How do we accomplish this? By acknowledging that an artist’s well-being is not a peripheral concern but a core element that directly impacts their art as well as our bottom line. As a concrete step, we offer non-recoupable wellness stipends to our artists. This financial support allows them the freedom to invest in their mental and physical health without burden.
Moreover, we maintain a strong alliance with non-profit entities like Backline, ensuring our artists and team members have readily available mental health resources. We’ve proudly signed the “Breaking The Barriers” pledge, committed to helping knock down long-standing roadblocks that often keep BIPOC communities from getting the mental health care they need. To further our investment in our team’s well-being, we’ve instituted a “Mental Health Day Policy.” This grants our employees the liberty to take much-needed breaks for personal rejuvenation; fostering a culture of prevention against burnout. After all, in nurturing our people, we nurture the music.
So I call on my industry peers to turn the volume up on this crucial conversation. Let’s recognize that a healthy artist creates better music, and a team that feels supported performs better. Let’s shift our industry narrative to one that doesn’t just produce beautiful music but also upholds the well-being of the beautiful minds behind it.
By prioritizing wellness, we’re setting the stage for a more sustainable, empathetic and human-centered music industry. By championing the music we love while investing in the well-being of those who create it, we pave the way for a sustainable industry that supports everyone involved. It’s not just about the end product but about the process, the people and the passion that fuel it all.
Brandon Holman is vp of marketing & wellness at Guin Records, whose artist roster includes Asha Imuno. Holman is also co-founder of The Lazuli Collective, an experiential wellness agency that delivers wellness and mental health programming to audiences around the world through events, music and consultancies including the Coachella Arts and Music Festival.
Twenty-something years ago, after failed major label record deals, I started my journey as an independent artist. I would get in front of small crowds and sing songs no one in the room knew. Some shows were better than others, but each one ended the same way. I would thank everyone for coming out, and challenge them; that if they felt something, support it. I would then run off stage to the merch table. You didn’t have to shake my hand, buy my CD or sign my mailing list. But you had to walk past me.
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We now have seven people on our staff. The band and I have traveled the world several times over. My songs are known and have graced this magazine many times. It wasn’t easy, but I’m fortunate for every lesson learned. Here are five points to consider:
1. Completion
Talent is important. But completion defines who wins and who loses in this business. We all know countless songwriters, producers and musicians working in a studio, with world-changing ideas they will never complete. At the same time, you may scratch your head, wondering how the person you feel isn’t that talented is winning so much. There’s one main difference between these two people: that person is giving his or her work a chance to win.
I have absolutely no idea what will and will not work. I’ve had songs I thought would pay off my house. But they were released to a choir of crickets. Sometimes an idea is one second from the trash can — but ends up being the song that keeps me on tour for a year. My friend, comedian Tommy Davidson, told me, “The only one who knows what works is God.” I’d add that the only one who shows you what works is the crowd. I’ve been fortunate to chase my dreams and make a living doing the music I love. I have an amazing team I believe in and who believe in me.
Next year will mark the 30th anniversary of my song “The Moon” appearing in Billboard. Just last year, I enjoyed my most successful song to date, “Lessons.” We didn’t get here because we did everything right. We got here because we completed everything we tried. Why have an idea if you’re not going to write it? Why write it if you’re not going to record it? Why record it if you’re not going to release it? Why release it if you’re not going to market it? Completion is an attitude.
2. Hire Yourself
I was a struggling songwriter for several years. A big year would be followed by a quiet one. Even when working with a major artist, I was unemployed as soon as i walked out of that studio. No matter what my bank account said, I financially operated broke. The main reason is because I was waiting to be selected. I was writing songs, hoping for a label or artist to select them. Month to month, check to check, walking a tightrope hoping someone would rescue me before everything fell apart.
A drastic shift came when I released my first album independently. I found myself more in control of my destiny. Sure, I still had to be selected. But this time I had more control over who was selecting me. If no one is booking you, book your own show. Rent a small venue; go to all the barbershops and hair salons to sell tickets. Show your heart and passion; challenge anyone who felt something from you to support it. When someone supports you, remember them. If done right, that small venue will become a bigger venue.
3. Believe
No matter what your beliefs may be, what we do takes faith. Faith that we are doing the right thing, even when it’s not coming together like you planned. Faith that it is going to work. Faith that what you are doing has purpose. As an independent artist, you are pushing your dreams to the forefront without any stamp of approval. Rejection hurts. Nobody likes having the melody of their exposed heart responded to with silence. But something has to keep you going. Work till something takes your breath away. Then show the world what takes your breath away in hopes that it will take theirs away too. Don’t take it personal when someone doesn’t believe in it. They’re simply moving themselves out the way for the people that do believe.
4. Perception
Life is a stage. Whether you’re a musician or not, you have a tender instrument that deserves a level of tuning and care. Every professional guitar player will tune their guitar before taking the stage. Professional vocalists and horn players will go through hours of exercises to warm up their instruments. They do this to have a better connection to the musical sounds that will surround them. Skipping this process can have catastrophic consequences, not only to your perception of your instrument, but also to your audience’s perception of your instrument. Perception holds the key to how much enjoyment and fulfillment you will receive during the journey. When out of tune, we may forget that the reward is not what our gifts produce, but the gift itself.
This road may not be easy, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be beautiful. Tune out negative talk and discouragement. Warm up your instrument daily to handle the ups and downs that await you. Hold on to your hunger and drive. Allow your challenges to be seen as opportunities.
Someone is reading this and wishing to be on a chart. Someone is on that chart, wishing to be higher. Someone has the highest chart position but wishes for some peace and quiet. Perception helps you appreciate where you are. Some days will be hard, and this business takes sacrifice. But if you’re fighting to do what you love, it’s worth fighting for to find happiness.
5. Failure
I underwent vocal cord surgery nine years ago. The doctor told me about the blood hemorrhage I had, the surgery risks and the strenuous recovery process ahead. When he walked out of the office, I cried like a newborn. A tour was canceled; I spent weeks in silence and months relearning how to do the things I loved. Eventually, I found my way back onstage and in the studio. I lost a bit of my range and gained a nice rasp that I personally feel adds character. Most important, I gained a vocal health I never had before. I learned about the acid reflux that was causing constant hoarseness. Now I can come home after multiple shows, talk to my wife and kids or go into the studio and sing as much as I like.
Not everything is going to work. But you will learn more from the failures than the successes. We usually walk away discouraged and weighed down with pity. We are human, so a moment of that is more than fine. After that though, ask yourself what was the purpose of the failure? More times than not, it wasn’t so you could stop. It was probably strengthening you so you could keep going.
I hope a younger version of me is reading this and the words are ricocheting through his or her body. I do hope you felt something. If you did, I challenge you to support it — especially if what you end up supporting is you.
Eric Roberson, a Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter/producer, is celebrating his 21st year as an independent R&B/soul artist. Through his Blue Erro Soul label, Roberson released his 17th studio album Lessons in 2022. He’s also a professor at the Berklee College of Music.
In 1994, at the dawn of the internet era, Rolling Stone asked Steve Jobs if he still had faith in technology. “It’s not a faith in technology,” he responded. “It’s faith in people.”
Today, at the dawn of the artificial intelligence era, we put our faith in people too.
It’s hard to think of an issue that has exploded onto the public scene with the furor of the debate over AI, which went from obscure technology journals to national morning shows practically overnight. This week, Congress is convening the first two of what will surely be many hearings on the issue, including one with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and another with musician, voice actor and SAG-AFTRA National Board member Dan Navarro.
As members of the global Human Artistry Campaign, made up of more than 100 organizations that represent a united, worldwide coalition of the creative arts, we welcome this open and active debate. It’s gratifying to see policymakers, industry, and our own creative community asking tough questions up front. It’s a lot easier to chart a course in advance than to play catch up from afterward.
We don’t have long to get this right, either. The internet is already awash in unlicensed and unethical “style” and “soundalike” tools that rip off the writing, voice, likeness and style of professional artists and songwriters without authorization or permission. Powerful new engines like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Jukebox, Google’s MusicLM and Microsoft’s AI-powered Bing have been trained on vast troves of musical compositions, lyrics, and sound recordings — as well as every other type of data and information available on the internet — without even the most basic transparency or disclosure, let alone consent from the creators whose work is being used. Songwriters, recording artists, and musicians today are literally being forced to compete against AI programs trained on copies of their own compositions and recordings.
RIAA Chairman/CEO Mitch Glazier
Othello Banaci
We strongly support AI that can be used to enhance art and stretch the potential of human creativity even further. Technology has always pushed art forward, and AI will be no different.
At the same time, however, human artistry must and will always remain at the core of genuine creation. The basis of creative expression is the sharing of lived experiences — an artist-to-audience/audience-to-artist connection that forms our culture and identity.
Without a rich supply of human-created works, there would be nothing on which to train AI in the first place. And if we don’t lay down a policy foundation now that respects, values and compensates the unique genius of human creators, we will end up in a cultural cul-de-sac, feeding AI-generated works back into the engines that produced them in a costly and ultimately empty race to the artistic bottom.
That policy foundation must start with the core value of consent. Use of copyrighted works to train or develop AI must be subject to free-market licensing and authorization from all rights holders. Creators and copyright owners must retain exclusive control over the ways their work is used. The moral invasion of AI engines that steal the core of a professional performer’s identity — the product of a lifetime’s hard work and dedication — without permission or pay cannot be tolerated.
David Israelite
Courtesy of NMPA
This will require AI developers to ensure copyrighted training inputs are approved and licensed, including those used by pre-trained AIs they employ. It means they need to keep thorough and transparent records of the creative works and likenesses used to train AI systems and how they were exploited. These obligations are nothing new, though — anyone who uses another creator’s work or a professional’s voice, image or likeness must already ensure they have the necessary rights and maintain the records to prove it.
Congress is right to bring in AI developers like Sam Altman to hear the technology community’s vision for the future of AI and explore the safeguards and guardrails the industry is relying on today. The issues around the rapid deployment of novel AI capabilities are numerous and profound: data privacy, deepfakes, bias and misinformation in training sets, job displacement and national security.
Creators will be watching and listening closely for concrete, meaningful commitments to the core principles of permission and fair market licensing that are necessary to sustain songwriters and recording artists and drive innovation.
We have already seen some of what AI can do. Now it falls to us to insist that it be done in ethical and lawful ways. Nothing short of our culture — and, over time, our very humanity — is at stake.
David Israelite is the President & CEO of the National Music Publishers’ Association. NMPA is the trade association representing American music publishers and their songwriting partners.
Mitch Glazier is chairman/CEO of the RIAA, the trade organization that supports and promotes the creative and financial vitality of the major recorded-music companies.
TOKYO — The traditional path to financial independence through music creation has been evolving for years. While there was once a clear-cut approach that included labels, publishers, touring, and CD sales, now the vast majority of artists need to find a different way to make it. The world is bigger now, and the borders and boundaries of music are being torn down piece by piece. Not only are more and more people listening to music from outside their markets, even in once more locally focused countries like Japan, Korea and India, but more and more people are watching how other music pros operate and taking notes.
This means that new markets are opening up to creators in the United States and that, simultaneously, Asian artists are rethinking their whole approach to the business. Together, these dynamics are leading to new career paths and new sounds.
In Japan, we’ve witnessed a huge change in the incentive structure. I’ve worked for years in the Japanese market as a producer and have watched things change firsthand. One of the biggest sources of change came not from our market, but from South Korea. BTS broke the world charts and now everyone’s looking outside of Japan. Korea opened their eyes.
BTS, BLACKPINK, and other K-pop groups set a precedent and demonstrated what’s possible. Before, everyone assumed you had to change for export, to sing in English, to adjust your look and feel. But these young Korean stars didn’t initially feel a need to sing in English; instead their fans learned Korean. Korean artists and producers were able to prove that an Asian person who doesn’t know English or even have perfect pronunciation can top charts and win a Grammy. The most important factor is entertainment. Are you entertained? If so, that’s all you care about as a fan.
Watching BTS take the world by storm, Japanese artists began to expand their ambitions, and the industry has had to respond. Music professionals used to be focused on monetizing this island and that alone, but now younger artists are looking outside and considering their options. The entire ecosystem of labels and publishers has come into question, as young artists are asking why they should sign to a label. Talented musicians who sign to a major are a huge deal now. Artists know they have to pull through all their fanbase themselves.
As young Japanese creators think globally, the market is starting to open up more and more to new global talent. Yet creating the relationships to make this openness work has proven a slow evolution, not a quick pivot. The first and foremost reason that there’s a disconnect is the language barrier, as not everyone in the Japanese industry feels comfortable conducting business in English. They can’t communicate the way they’d like.
This further enhances local skepticism about working with foreign producers. Instead of a set deal, things change as the project evolves, terms change, as, say, three more writers start asking for advances out of the blue, all problems that I’ve heard about from A&Rs I’ve talked to. Relationships with people in Japan make project management easy. Because of the way publishing works in Japan, local producers cost less and everyone knows the terms of a standard contract. No negotiation is required. It’s safe and administratively simple, by comparison.
Yet if a Japanese A&R exec turns to a producer who isn’t big in Japan, they can feel shocked by higher prices and more complex terms, with international publishers and other parties involved. They have to put out their neck personally and that’s a major risk. As things change at home, however, and Japanese creators rethink their strategies, this risk can feel worth taking, and more and more tools and services are working to enable better communication and collaboration.
This has implications for artists far from our corner of the world. Artists in the United States are fighting for attention for percentages of pennies—this is not new information to anyone. In Japan, however, one play of an artist’s track in a karaoke booth can generate a hundred times as much revenue as a Spotify stream. Write, produce, or perform a hit that gets played regularly in karaoke rooms across Tokyo, especially if it’s a song that works for weddings, birthdays, or graduation, and you could receive a comfortable check for life. Yet even as artists continue to search for new ways to stand out from their peers, opportunities in East Asia often get overlooked as viable options. I see this changing, as both Japanese and non-Japanese players understand one another better, and it’s thrilling.
We’ve entered a space without borders, where business practices as well as sounds cross and blend. We can look at each other, communicate and share information any time, even across languages. The quicker that moves, the quicker the trends flow. We don’t go through decades of rock; it’s a one-month period of rock, until someone comes up with a new crazy sound. This is often happening on platforms with global reach, key gateways to new music and to what kids are making right now. How the next steps unfold–how labels, publishers, and established players react to this new global exchange–are still being determined. But once distant markets are growing closer, and the entire business stands to benefit.
Kenneth Kobori, CEO of SURF Music, is a songwriter and producer in Japan as 2SOUL. He achieved early success with “Story” by AI in 2005, which charted in Oricon’s top 10 for 73 weeks. He’s worked with Earth, Wind & Fire and Little Glee Monster, among others, and is also a former executive and startup member of Breaker, Inc.
As a musician, educator, and author, I’ve spent the last few years examining AI’s challenges to the music ecosystem. But recently, after a comical misunderstanding on a U.S. podcast, I ended up playing devil’s advocate for the AI side of the AI and music equation. The experience was thought-provoking as I took on the role of an accidental AI evangelist, and I started to refocus on the question of, “Why are we fighting for ethical use of AI in music in the first place? What are the benefits, and are they worth the time and effort?”
As we hurtle from the now-quaint AI chatbot ChatGPT, to the expected text-to-video and text-to-music capabilities of GPT 5 (rumoured to drop in December), to Microsoft’s acknowledgment that AGI is feasible (artificial general intelligence, or a sentient AI being, or Skynet to be alarmist), to viral AI-generated hits with vocals in the style of Drake & The Weeknd and Bad Bunny & Rihanna, it can be easy to focus on the doom and gloom of AI. However, doing so does us a disservice, as it shifts the conversation from “how do we harness AI’s benefits ethically” to “how do we stop AI from destroying the world?” There are many, with a cheeky chappie nod to Ian Dury, “Reasons to Be Cheerful” (or at least not fearful) about music and AI. Here are nine reasons why we need to embrace it with guardrails, rather than throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
Fun: Yes, damn the ethics – temporarily. Generative AI technologies, which ingest content and then create new content based on those inputs, are incredibly fun. They tease and capture our curiosity, drawing us in. We might tell our employers that we use text-to-image services like DALL-E and Stable Diffusion or chat and search bots like ChatGPT and Jasper to optimise workflow to stay ahead of the technological curve, but they are also so seductively entertaining. Elementary AI prohibition won’t work; our solutions must be at least as stimulating as our challenges.
Time-saving: According to a survey by Water & Music, this is what music makers desire most. Many musicians spend countless hours managing social media accounts, wishing they could focus on music-making instead. AI solutions promise to grant that wish, allowing them to auto-generate text for social posts and announcements, and providing inspiration and potential starting points for new tracks, giving them the gift of time and helping them write, record, and release music more quickly. Let’s use automation wisely to free up musicians for their art and their economics.
Education: Despite dwindling funds for music education, technology offers new ways to make music accessible to everyone. Affordable AI tools can help students break through privileged barriers, providing access to personalised learning. I work with Ableton, which makes a variety of music production hardware and software. Successful initiatives such as the Ableton Push 1 campaign, which provided discounts to those who traded in their Push 1 midi controller and then refurbished and provided them for free to schools that needed them, demonstrate how digital tools can empower the economically marginalised, enable them to explore new musical styles and techniques, and nurture their passion for music.
Imperfect charm: AI’s imperfections and quirks make it endearing and relatable. AI’s unpredictable nature can lead to happy accidents and repurposing technologies for new musical uses. The fact that LMMs (large language models), which analyze huge swaths of text and then generate new text based on the patterns it learns, can be flawed retains a touch of human magic and humour in our interactions with them. Let’s enjoy this fleeting VHS fuzziness before it’s gone.
Affordable: Setting aside the environmental costs for a moment, AI has become exponentially accessible. AI allows creators to produce incredible results with basic tools. Last July, I purchased an expensive GPU-filled MacBook with dreams of making mind-blowing AI musical creations, but by September, I was doing just that using only my old phone’s browser. This so-called “democratisation” of music production can level the playing field for musicians worldwide, allowing more people to pursue their passion. Can we get it to increase their income too?
Tech Stacking: Experimenting with new combinations of generative AI APIs (application programming interfaces) opens up a world of DIY creativity. APIs are essentially pre-made functionality that developers can slot into their code easily, allowing them to focus on innovation rather than spending their time creating generative AI applications from scratch. This collision of technologies can encourage collaboration between musicians and developers, fostering a dynamic and innovative environment that crucially must be aligned with new licensing and rights payment models.
Elevated Chatter: As AI becomes more prevalent, the quality of conversations surrounding it has improved. People are starting to debate the legality of using copyrighted material to train AI, particularly in the music world, with a variety of strong arguments being made on behalf of human creators. In my research, I tried to address the complexities of AI in the music ecosystem, and now, I find these discussions happening everywhere, from John Oliver to barber shops. This elevated discourse can help us as a global industry make informed and necessarily swift decisions about AI’s role in our lives, better integrating its reasonably cheerful benefits and not being overwhelmed by its many chilling implications.
Inspiring the next generation: Introducing AI to young minds can be inspiring and terrifying. In my undergraduate module at Windmill Studios Dublin, I tasked students with inventing new music IP using existing cutting-edge technologies, with one rule of thumb: they could use a hologram but not bring someone back from the dead. Initially, I felt terrible about presenting such a potentially dystopian vision to young minds. But what happened next amazed me: all 40-odd students (from two classes) came up with outstanding commercial ideas. Their creativity and enthusiasm reminded me that the adage, “no one knows anything,” holds as true for music as it ever did.
Time to adapt: Perhaps the biggest reason to be cheerful at the moment, we still have enough time to address AI’s challenges. As Microsoft announces the “first sparks of AGI” and we face a saturated streaming market, we must work quickly together to ensure an equitable future for music makers. In my book, “Artificial Intelligence and Music Ecosystem,” my fellow contributors and I delve into the pressing issues surrounding AI, and now, more than ever, we need to take action to steer the course of music’s evolution. As AI continues to develop, it’s crucial for musicians, industry professionals, and policymakers to engage in open dialogue, collaborating to create a sustainable and equitable music ecosystem. Otherwise, what looks like Drake and sounds like Drake may not actually be Drake in the future.
The Human Artistry Campaign is the first step in this direction and interlinks with the concerns of MIT’s Max Tegmark’s “Pause Giant AI Experiments Open Letter” (which currently has 27,000+ signatures and called for a pause in the development of AI to give governments the chance to regulate it) for a big-vision picture. As we work together, we can ensure that AI serves as a tool for artistic growth and sustainability. But we must move fast and nurture things as AI’s growth is exponential. Do you remember back when ChatGPT was on the cutting edge of AI? Well, that was only five months ago, and we’re now talking about the possibility of sentience. That’s why I am working with some of the biggest companies in music and big tech to create AI:OK, a system to identify ethical stakeholders and help to create an equitable AI music ecosystem. If you are human and would like to help shape this future, it might be the most significant reason to be cheerful of all.
Dr. Martin Clancy, PhD is a musician, author, artist manager and AI expert. He is a founding member of Irish rock band In Tua Nua, chairs the IEEE Global AI Ethics Arts Committee, serves as an IRC Research Fellow at Trinity College Dublin, and authored the book Artificial Intelligence and Music Ecosystem. He also manages Irish singer Jack Lukeman and is a leading voice in advocating ethical use of AI in music.
Pick a lane. How many times have you heard that? For me, I’ve lost count. I’ve never been one for labels, boxes, or genre assignments. I feel that extends to every vertical of my life – down to how I live, work, love, and find joy.
In some ways, I took the whole “dances to the beat of my own drum” as far as I could. Just call me an Avril Lavigne lyric, because I am “anything but ordinary,” honey! Maybe that has stifled some of my success, but I would argue that it’s helped me more than it’s hurt me. I am resourceful, adaptable, resilient, and I relate to so many different human experiences – which in my line of work(s) has been nothing short of an asset.
For example I’ve been a songwriter for over 19 years professionally, a performer since the age of three, a major label signed artist at the age of 19, and I’ve worked behind the scenes as an industry professional since 2014. That being said, even as someone with years of professional experience it took me years to land a mid-to-senior level role working for a reputable music company. No one wanted to hire me, because I didn’t have a college degree and I never worked as a coordinator. For some reason that never applied to the men I used to tour with, but that’s a story for another day.
The question is… why aren’t we looking at future employees with a holistic viewpoint? Why are we assigning only one genre tag and then disregarding their potential because we can’t place them?
When I pitch music, the more metadata tags the better; I want to know the song can fit many opportunities, not just when all the stars align. Why are we afraid when a future teammate offers layers? Often in my interview process, I would get asked if “being an artist” was going to get in the way of my prospective job. It’s such an odd question to me, because as a freelancer most of my life was and is about time allocation. No one is more mindful of how I spend my time… than me. There’s also no one way to be an artist.
I see a lot of fear when it comes to hiring in the music industry. Hands-on experience in the creative music space is a huge asset and shouldn’t be looked at as a liability. Often, a potential employee goes to college, scores an internship, lands an assistant gig, and then shoots up the ladder… but they’ve never been to the factory. They don’t know how the product is made.
Here’s the thing – traditional music industry folk can’t empathize with the talent, because they have never lived it. They don’t speak the language.
When we don’t understand each other, can’t relate to each other’s experiences, and have no visibility in the day to day functions of each other’s jobs it can become a breeding ground for miscommunication.
Miscommunication is the enemy of progress and productivity aka the enemy of getting sh*t done.
Not to say there’s anything wrong with taking a traditional route to the top of the music business, but it shouldn’t be the only path and at the very least… go to the factory y’all!
When I received the opportunity to work for other companies (not just my own) – I jumped at it! To me, it’s just another tool in my arsenal. I had a front row seat to look into how the other side strategizes, rationalizes, moves mountains, and builds winning campaigns on behalf of their roster.
I got to hear the worst and the best from peers and senior executives that would have never kept it real with me as the talent/creative. I listened to everything intensely. What I heard motivated me to get to work. I saw how both sides need each other, that it’s a marriage and that marriage is rocky at best.
How do we save this union? Like anything in life… we seek to understand and we find better ways to communicate effectively. A strong tool I can offer you? Hire a former creative or active creator. Let them help fix what’s not working – they know how to. They’ve been small businesses for years. They’ve been on the road, they’ve had the odds stacked against them and they still got on that stage and SERVED. That’s someone I want on my team. The show must go on and they know how to deliver the goods.
As a songwriter I listen, internalize, and then externalize. I aim to understand and have others find themselves in the work. I create. I am a little big problem solver, so why would this be any different in behind the scenes business?
Open up your doors to creators and allow them to bring the positive tension this industry desperately needs. We only grow when we allow ourselves to be uncomfortable, so embrace the fear.
Creatives are builders, let them build. They may show up with big dreams, but they’re going to have the know-how to see it through. Give them a chance to bring home the bacon. They’ve been singing for their (YOUR) supper anyways, now let them sit at the table.
Jessica Vaughn is the head of sync at Venice Music and president of Head Bitch Music. Before breaking into the business side of the industry, Jessica began her career as an artist under the name Charlotte Sometimes, releasing a debut album on Geffen Records and later appearing on season 2 of NBC’s hit series The Voice.
During my first visit to New Orleans for Jazz Fest many years ago, I experienced a profound moment that changed everything for me. The best way to describe it would be the sensation of deja-vu; like I had been here before, or more specifically that I had returned “home.” That day, the city spoke to me, and thankfully I heeded the call.
Shortly after that auspicious Jazz Fest, New Orleans became my home, and I’ve worked in the music industry here since then — at WWOZ, at Tipitina’s, in the classrooms of Tulane and with so many of our city’s talented artists. This city has provided me with a sense of purpose, a feeling of belonging, and a community of like-minded folks who share the same passion for music. It’s also given me the foundation for a meaningful life.
But the same elements that spoke so deeply to me — our rich cultural heritage and vibrant music scene — often go hand-in-hand with the city’s reputation for partying. It’s a story with which the music industry, my industry, is all too familiar, and one that often leads to addiction.
Addiction is a particularly serious issue in the music world. A 2020 study by Tulane’s Graduate School of Social Work paints a staggering picture: 56% of music industry professionals cite problematic substance use, and 80% met the cut-off for serious or moderate mental health concerns — both far above any national average.
Bill Taylor
Singer-songwriter Anders Osbourne, my good friend who helped me find the path to sobriety after I bottomed out with drugs and alcohol, had an idea about how to tackle this within the music industry. Together, we created “Send Me A Friend,” a national network of sober individuals who were “on call” to support struggling musicians and industry professionals at their gigs.
The effort was an overnight success, with more people asking for help and wanting to volunteer than we could handle. Anders and I wondered what it would take to create a cultural shift so that sobriety was embraced, supported and celebrated on a larger scale?
Our vision is shared by The Phoenix, a national sober community that embraces connection through a shared, active lifestyle that enhances and helps maintain each other’s recovery journeys. During the pandemic, we joined forces with them with a mission of creating sober-supportive change in the music space.
Today, we’re blown away to see how this movement has progressed all the way to a New Orleans institution: JazzFest. This year, I’ll be there alongside The Phoenix and Stand Together Foundation at the 1 Million Strong Wellness Retreat, a sober-supportive wellness lounge where festival attendees can relax between sets, enjoy mocktail happy hours and meet up with people in recovery and others to catch performances together.
And this isn’t about making the festival sober. It’s about giving people an opportunity to bring their whole selves to the festival, free of shame and fear. Together, we can transform the way people think about addiction by supporting new ways for sober fans to enjoy shows, ensuring touring musicians and crews have access to resources on the road, and engaging in conversations about sobriety that are free from shame and stigma and full of possibilities.
I’m proud of how far we’ve come in changing the way we approach recovery and sobriety, turning it into a celebration of inclusivity and togetherness. At this year’s Jazz Fest, we’ll continue to change the landscape not only for those who work in the music industry, but also for our audience members who want a way to engage and enjoy all this beautiful city has to offer while feeling safe, supported, and connected.
Bill Taylor is the director of music programs and strategy at The Phoenix, where he leads music activations all over the country and works with the Stand Together team on the 1 Million Strong campaign.
As a kid, I dreamed of being a unicorn. Now that I am one, I recognize I’m just one of the herd. When I gaze at festival lineups, skirt cables backstage, log onto Zoom meetings with labels or give the post-COVID elbow bump before settling down for an in-person, women are still scarce. We make up a fraction of the music industry, both in presence and recognition. However, we are here and always have been.
The world of jazz is a microcosm within the industry, but it mirrors the greater whole. While the majority of celebrated titans are men, the smattering of women in the pantheon are often finely coiffed, smiling behind mics and backed by an entirely male band. However, people need to take a closer look. For example, Louis Armstrong wouldn’t be an international icon without wife Lillian ‘Lil’ Hardin Armstrong. She was a celebrated pianist, composer/arranger, bandleader and singer in her own right long before taking Louis under her wing. Yet, few know her name.
There are countless other women in front of and behind the scenes who remain obscured, despite the valuable contributions they’ve made to the music and business. How do we bring the overlooked to center stage and expand the spotlight? Enter Grammy- and Tony Award-winning singer-songwriter-actress Dee Dee Bridgewater and The Woodshed Network.
Bridgewater launched this artists residency in 2019 with me as co-artistic director and program curator. We‘re steadily building community, providing support and educating cohorts of women in jazz. The annual 10-day program (Feb. 27-March 10 this year) is bolstered by a who’s who of women executives, creatives and legends including Sheila E., Lizz Wright, Regina Carter, Maria Schneider and more. Alumnae are busy topping charts (Lakecia Benjamin’s “Phoenix”), releasing albums (Candice Hoyes’ “Nite Bjuti”) and winning Grammys for arrangements and compositions (Marta Sanchez’s “Unchanged” on Terri Lyne Carrington’s New Standards. Vol. 1).
However, this is just one piece of a very large puzzle. Before you can hold space, you have to create it. The most enduring line from the 1989 movie Field of Dreams can be applied to jazz and the industry more broadly: “If you build it, (s)he will come.” Across the world, various programs are creating spaces for women in all sectors of the industry … and women are joining in droves.
Here are a few tangible examples of those fields plus several accompanying myths that spring to mind. So let’s get down to busting those myths, shall we?
Myth 1: There are no women sound engineers.
Women may make up only 2.1% of engineers, but they’re flipping all the right switches and turning award-winning knobs. Examples: Woodshed mentors Jett Galindoand Grammy winner Jaclyn “Jackie Boom” Sanchez. This dynamic duo has been with the program since its launch, breaking down process, equipment and production in all formats from recording to release. Organizations like Women in Vinyl, SoundGirls and Women’s Audio Mission are also training, supporting and getting gigs for women in sound recording, mixing and mastering.
Myth 2: No women run labels or produce music.
Betty Carter launched BetCar Records in 1970. Dee Dee Bridgewater launched DDB Records in 2006. Jazzmeia Horn launched Empress Legacy Records in 2020. Lizz Wright launched Blues & Greens Records in 2022. All produce and release projects on their own labels with distributors. Some 15% of women in the industry overall run labels, while even fewer produce their own material at 2.6%. Throw in songwriting and they figure into that 12.5%. These are just four examples among countless others.
Myth 3: People don’t care about jazz.
Tell that to the Nice Jazz Festival (founded in 1948, France), Monterey Jazz Festival (f. 1957, USA), Festival International de Jazz de Montreal (f. 1959, Canada), Montreux (f. 1967) and New Orleans & Jazz Heritage Festival (f. 1970). They’re all going strong. Globally, jazz is one of the most sought-after genres. Ella Fitzgerald said it best: “Music is the universal language.” Yet, when you turn up to one of these festivals, only 14% of the headliners are women.
Considering that women comprise over 49% of the world’s population, influence more than 80% of purchases and are set to hold 66% of consumer wealth in the coming years, this is not a demographic to ignore.
Something is amiss.
So how do we fix it?
1. Start at the beginning organizationally and include women.
When Woodshed took the Keychange pledge (the global campaign committed to gender equality in the music industry), we realized that we’d already surpassed the goal line. Women make up 90% of our team and 100% of our mentees, mentors and speakers. We have precisely zero problems finding leaders in every category and facet of the music industry who are women. There is so much pent-up desire to mentor and pay it forward that we have a year’s-long list of women who have approached Woodshed to participate on both sides of the table.
2. Make larger tables and bring folding chairs.
When organizations make it central to their mission to include women, not for tokenism, but in acknowledgment of their contributions, experience and expertise, they’re stronger for it. Echo chambers may be good for vocal effects, but they’re terrible for healthy businesses and communities. A quick internet search yields pages of results for women in various fields of the music industry. Let your fingers do the walking and hire more women in all positions. It’s not a capitulation, it’s a sound investment in your organization’s future.
3. Free the unicorns.
Once individuals and organizations take stock of their own houses, they can look outward to the community. The ripple effect is positive in all aspects. By creating, maintaining and ensuring the health of spaces inclusive of and specifically for women, The Woodshed Network is investing in the future. A thriving jazz community fosters dynamic exchanges of ideas and, in its highest form, democracy. Women belong on the bandstand, behind the scenes, and in C-suites. We’re providing support, resources, visibility … and space. What will you do? It’s time to crossfade into the thundering hooves of unicorns.
Tulani Bridgewater-Kowalski is the founder and president of Bridgewater Artists Management and co-artistic director and program curator of The Woodshed Network.
Sources: USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative’s “Inclusion in the Recording Studio?” by Dr. Stacy L. Smith, Dr. Katherine Pieper, Hannah Clark, Ariana Case & Marc Choueiti, Jan. 2020. Berklee Institute for Creative Entrepreneurship’s “Women in the U.S. Music Industry: Obstacles and Opportunities” by Becky Prior, Erin Barra, Sharon Kramer, Ph.D. “Music Festivals’ Glaring Woman Problem” by Alanna Vagianos, Huffington Post. “Tracking the Gender Balance of This Year’s Music Festival Lineups” by Rob Mitchum and Diego Garcia-Olano, Pitchfork. Keychange PRS Foundation’s “Keychange Manifesto: Recommendations for a gender-balanced music industry”; designed by Ian Robson and Infographics by Jon Stanbrook.
Generative AI is hot right now. Over the last several years, music artists and labels have opened up to the idea of AI as an exciting new tool. Yet when Dall-E 2, Midjourney and GPT-3 opened up to the public, the fear that AI would render artists obsolete came roaring back.
I am here from the world of generative AI with a message: We come in peace. And music and AI can work together to address one of society’s ongoing crises: mental wellness.
While AI can already create visual art and text that are quite convincing versions of their human-made originals, it’s not quite there for music. AI music might be fine for soundtracking UGC videos and ads. But clearly we can do much better with AI and music.
There’s one music category where AI can help solve actual problems and open new revenue streams for everyone, from music labels, to artists, to DSPs. It’s the functional sound market. Largely overlooked and very lucrative, the functional sound market has been steadily growing over the past 10 years, as a societal need for music to heal increases across the globe.
Sound is powerful. It’s the easiest way to control your environment. Sound can change your mood, trigger a memory, or lull you to sleep. It can make you buy more or make you run in terror (think about the music played in stores intentionally to facilitate purchasing behavior or the sound of alarms and sirens). Every day, hundreds of millions of people are self-medicating with sound. If you look at the top 10 most popular playlists at any major streaming service, you’ll see at least 3-4 “functional” playlists: meditation, studying, reading, relaxation, focus, sleep, and so on.
This is the market UMG chief Sir Lucian Grainge singled out in his annual staff memo earlier this year. He’s not wrong: DSPs are swarmed with playlists consisting of dishwasher sounds and white noise, which divert revenue and attention from music artists. Functional sound is a vast ocean of content with no clear leader or even a clear product.
The nuance here is that the way people consume functional sound is fundamentally different from the way they consume traditional music. When someone tunes into a sleep playlist, they care first and foremost if it works. They want it to help them fall asleep, as fast as possible. It’s counterintuitive to listen to your favorite artist when you’re trying to go to sleep (or focus, study, read, meditate). Most artist-driven music is not scientifically engineered to put you into a desired cognitive state. It’s designed to hold your attention or express some emotion or truth the artist holds dear. That’s why ambient music — which, as Brian Eno put it, is as ignorable as it is interesting — had its renaissance moment a few years ago, arguably propelled by the mental health crisis.
How can AI help music artists and labels win back market share from white noise and dishwasher sounds playlists? Imagine that your favorite music exists in two forms: the songs and albums that you know and love, and a functional soundscape version that you can sleep, focus, or relax to. The soundscape version is produced by feeding the source stems from the album or song into a neuroscience-informed Generative AI engine. The stems are processed, multiplied, spliced together and overlaid with FX, birthing a functional soundscape built from the DNA of your favorite music. This is when consumers finally have a choice: fall asleep or study/read/focus to a no-name white-noise playlist, or do it with a scientifically engineered functional soundscape version of their favorite music.
This is how Generative AI can create new revenue streams for all agents of the music industry, today: music labels win a piece of the the market with differentiated functional content built from their catalog; artists expand their music universe, connect with their audience in new and meaningful ways, and extend the shelf life to their material; DSPs get ample, quality-controlled content that increases engagement. Once listeners find sounds that achieve their goals, they often stick with them. For example, Wind Down, James Blake’s sleep soundscape album, shows a 50% listener retention in its seventh month after release. This shows that, when done right, functional sound has an incredibly long shelf life.
This win-win-win future is already here. By combining art, generative AI technology and science, plus business structures that enable such deals, we can transform amazing artist-driven sounds into healing soundscapes that listeners crave. In an age that yearns for calm, clarity, and better mental health, we can utilize AI to create new music formats that rights holders can embrace and listeners can appreciate. It promises AI-powered music that not only sounds good, but improves people’s lives, and supports artists. This is how you ride the functional music wave and create something listeners will find real value in and keep coming back to. Do not be afraid. Work with us. Embrace the future.
Oleg Stavitsky is co-founder and CEO of Endel, a sound wellness company that utilizes generative AI and science-backed research.