tech
Page: 34
In March of 2023, as artificial intelligence barnstormed through the headlines, Goldman Sachs published a report on “the enormous economic potential of generative AI.” The writers explored the possibility of a “productivity boom,” comparable to those that followed seismic technological shifts like the mass adoption of personal computers.
Roughly 15 months later, Goldman Sachs published another paper on AI, this time with a sharply different tone. This one sported a blunt title — “Gen AI: Too Much Spend, Too Little Benefit?” — and it included harsh assessments from executives like Jim Covello, Goldman’s head of global equity research. “AI bulls seem to just trust that use cases will proliferate as the technology evolves,” Covello said. “But 18 months after the introduction of generative AI to the world, not one truly transformative — let alone cost-effective — application has been found.”
This skepticism has been echoed elsewhere. Daron Acemoglu, a prominent M.I.T. scholar, published a paper in May arguing that AI would lead to “much more modest productivity effects than most commentators and economists have claimed.” David Cahn, a partner at Sequoia Capital, warned in June that “we need to make sure not to believe in the delusion that has now spread from Silicon Valley to the rest of the country, and indeed the world. That delusion says that we’re all going to get rich quick.”
Trending on Billboard
“I’m worried that we’re getting this hype cycle going by measuring aspiration and calling it adoption,” says Kristina McElheran, an assistant professor of strategic management at the University of Toronto who recently published a paper examining businesses’ attempts to implement AI technology. “Use is harder than aspiration.”
The music industry is no exception. A recent survey of music producers conducted by Tracklib, a company that supplies artists with pre-cleared samples, found that 75% of producers said they’re not using AI to make music. Among the 25% who were playing around with the technology, the most common use cases were to help with highly technical and definitely unsexy processes: stem separation (73.9%) and mastering (45.5%). (“Currently, AI has shown the most promise in making existing processes — like coding — more efficient,” Covello noted in Goldman’s report.) Another multi-country survey published in May by the Reuters Institute found that just 3% of people have used AI for making audio.
At the moment, people use AI products “to do their homework or write their emails,” says Hanna Kahlert, a cultural trends analyst at MIDiA Research, which recently conducted its own survey about AI technology adoption. “But they aren’t interested in it as a creative solution.”
When it comes to assessing AI’s impact — and the speed with which it would remake every facet of society — some recalibration was probably inevitable. “Around the launch of ChatGPT, there was so much excitement and promise, especially because this is a technology that we talk about in pop culture and see in our movies and our TV shows,” says Manav Raj, an assistant professor of management at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, who studies firms’ responses to technological change. “It was really easy to start thinking about how it could be really transformative.”
“Some of that excitement might have been a little frothy,” he continues. “Even if this is a really important and big technology, it takes time for us to see the effects of these kinds of technological changes in markets.” This was famously true with the development of computers — in 1987, the economist Robert Solow joked, “You can see the computer age everywhere but in the productivity statistics,” a phenomenon later dubbed “the productivity paradox.”
It also takes time to settle the legal and regulatory framework governing AI technologies, which will presumably influence the magnitude of their effects as well. Earlier this year, the major labels sued two genAI music platforms, Suno and Udio, accusing them of copyright infringement on a mass scale; in recently filed court documents, the companies said their activities were lawful under the doctrine of fair use, and that the major labels were just trying to eliminate “a threat to their market share.” Similar suits against AI companies have also been filed in other creative industries.
When McElheran surveyed manufacturing firms, however, few cited regulatory uncertainty as a barrier to AI use. She points out that “they may have had bigger fish to fry, like no use case.” A U.S. Census Bureau survey of businesses published in March found that 84.2% of respondents hadn’t used AI in the previous two weeks, and 80.9% of the firms that weren’t planning to implement AI in the next six months believe it “is not applicable to this business.”
Tracklib’s survey found something similar to McElheran’s. Only around 10% of respondents said concern about copyright was a reason they wouldn’t use AI tools. Instead, Tracklib’s results indicated that producers’ most common objections to using AI were moral, not legal — explanations like, “I want my art to be my own.”
“Generative AI comes up against this wall where it’s so easy, it’s just a push of a button,” Kahlert says. “It’s a fun gimmick, but there’s no real investment on the part of the user, so there’s not much value that they actually place in the outcome.”
In contrast, MIDiA’s survey found that respondents were interested in AI tech that can help them modify tracks by adjusting tempo — a popular TikTok alteration that can be done without AI — and customizing song lyrics. This interest was especially pronounced among younger music fans: Over a third of 20-to-24-year-olds were intrigued by AI tools that could help them play with tempo, and around 20% of that age group liked the idea of being able to personalize song lyrics.
Antony Demekhin, co-founder of the AI music company Tuney, sees a market for “creative tools” that enable “making, editing, or remixing beats and songs without using a complicated DAW, while still giving users a feeling of ownership over the output.”
“Up until recently,” he adds, “the addressable market for those kinds of tools has been small because the number of producers that use professional production software has been limited, so early-stage tech investors don’t frequently back stuff like that.”
Demekhin launched Tuney in 2020, well before the general public was thinking about products like ChatGPT. In the wake of that platform’s explosion, “Investors started throwing money around,” he recalls. At the same time, “nobody knew what questions to ask. What is this trained on? Are you exposed to legal risk? How easy would it be for Meta to replicate this and then make it available on Instagram?”
Today, investors are far better informed, and conversations with them sound very different, Demekhin says. “Cooler heads are prevailing,” he continues. “Now there’s going to be a whole wave of companies that make more sense because people have figured out where these technologies can be useful — and where they can’t.”
HipHopWired Featured Video
Source: 2K Sports / Visual Concepts / NBA 2K25
It’s a new season, and 2K Sports promises that NBA 2K25 will deliver the “biggest changes” to the game’s engine in years.
Visual Concepts, the studio behind the NBA 2K basketball video game franchise, is all-in on its ProPlay technology, which it introduced in NBA 2K24 and will use to introduce tons of new animations into the game.
The studio is promising “the biggest change to our gameplay engine in many years,” plus an all-new dribbling system that will give players even more control than before and the ability to take ankles.
Using ProPlay, 2K says that “stops are higher, launches are more explosive,” bringing more lifelike movement to every inch of the court.
Offense On The Court Levels Up
What you can do offense in NBA 2K25 is taken to another level, thanks to many new mechanics. New tools like shot canceling, signature go-to shots, shot-timing profiles, Pro Stick rhythm shooting, and more make putting the ball in the basket even more fun and exciting.
ProPlay gives players a new weapon: signature go-to shots. Per 2K, this new feature allows players to pull off new dribble-into-shot combos directly copied from actual NBA footage. The moves can be executed by simply holding up on the Pro Stick.
Shot canceling will allow players to quickly transition from one shooting animation to the next, giving players another tool to elevate their offensive game.
Last year’s shooting mechanics were not a hit with players, but 2K is hoping to rectify that with shot-timing profiles. The new profiles allow players to customize their shot-timing windows.
Source: 2K Sports / Visual Concepts / NBA 2K25
New options allow players to customize their ideal jump shot by using shot-taking visual cues in an expansion of the Shot Creator suite.
It will allow players to customize where they release the ball in their custom animation, allowing them to get comfortable and in tune with the timing window and hit more shots in the green.
Utilizing the Pro Stick allows players to take advantage of rhythm shooting by pointing the Pro Stick down to start the shot and then up when the animation reaches its set point.
According to Visual Concepts, many people on the team found the new mechanic to be difficult before later appreciating it after using it for some time. They now have a hard time going back to the previous Pro Stick shooting mechanic.
Defense Is Also Improving
You can’t improve the offense in the game without ensuring the defense can keep up. NBA 2K25 introduces a new movement system that will give defenders movements similar to offensive players using the right stick.
Players can now make faster, tighter defensive cutoffs, allowing them to stay in front of Pro Stick all-star players.
To improve shot contention, a dynamic weighing system replaces the fixed one. Shot contests are now determined by defense coverage at the beginning of the shot.
Also, perimeter and interior defense and height play pivotal roles and determine the outcomes of the shots.
Visual Concepts is also trying to reduce your screaming at your AI teammates thanks to improvements that will provide better in-game mimicking of real-word spacing.
What that means is that your AI teammates should be where they are supposed to be while on the court based on what the offense is running.
New Tutorial System & Playbook Sharing
Source: 2K Sports / Visual Concepts / NBA 2K25
NBA 2K25 will also feature playbook sharing, which will allow players to create and share their custom playbooks with the community.
Learn 2K, a new tutorial mode, will help players acclimate to all the new features and older gameplay mechanics.
Ahead of NBA 2K25’s launch, 2K has laid out a roadmap that details the game’s features and modes.
Week of August 5: MyPlayer and MyCareer
Week of August 12: MyNBA and The W
Week of August 19: MyTeam
Week of August 26: The City
Week of September 2: Season 1 preview and 2KBeats soundtrack reveal
September 4: Early access period begins
September 6: Global launch of NBA 2K25
NBA 2K25 sounds like a refreshed experience, and we look forward to picking up the sticks when this game drops.
You can watch the official gameplay trailer below.
HipHopWired Featured Video
CLOSE
Source: EA Sports / Tiburon / Madden NFL 25/ Travis Kelce
No surprise, but Travis Kelce is back in the Madden NFL 99 Club.
Travis Kelce continues to keep winning. The Kansas City Chiefs All-Pro tight end is coming off his third Super Bowl championship and is in one of the most high-profile relationships in the world thanks to hooking up with Taylor Swift.
Now, Kelce can add being the only NFL tight end to earn a spot in the Madden NFL 99 Club three times. Kelce joins former teammate Tyreek Hill, Madden NFL 25 cover athlete Christian McCaffrey, and offensive line Trent Williams.
Along with the announcement that Williams was making the club, EA also dropped the ratings for edge rushers and other offensive linemen.
Edge Rushers Offensive Linemen
Myles Garrett (98 OVR) 1. Trent Williams (99 OVR)
Micah Parsons (98 OVR) 2. Zack Martin (97 OVR)
T.J. Watt (97 OVR) 3. Penei Sewell (96 OVR)
Maxx Crosby (97 OVR) 4. Lane Johnson (95 OVR)
Nick Bosa (96 OVR) 5. Tyron Smith (95 OVR)
Josh Hines-Allen (91 OVR) 6. Tristan Wirfs (94 OVR)
DeMarcus Lawrence (91 OVR) 7. Chris Lindstrom (94 OVR)
Khalil Mack (90 OVR) 8. Laremy Tunsil (94 OVR)
Alex Highsmith (89 OVR) 9. Frank Ragnow (93 OVR)
Trey Hendrickson (89 OVR) 10. Creed Humphrey (92 OVR
Travis Kelce’s Briefcase Had Some Different Swag In It
Like his fellow NFL brethren before him, Kelce was gifted with a briefcase, a golden Xbox controller, and a custom greeting from retired New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning.
The only thing that made his 99 Club care package different was that he was given a custom podcast microphone instead of the gold chains the other players received.
Here is the complete list of highly-rated tight ends and cornerbacks.
Tight Ends Cornerbacks
Travis Kelce (99 OVR) 1. Sauce Gardner (97 OVR)
George Kittle (97 OVR) 2. Jalen Ramsey (96 OVR)
Mark Andrews (94 OVR) 3. Patrick Surtain II (95 OVR)
T.J. Hockenson (91 OVR) 4. Jaire Alexander (93 OVR)
David Njoku (90 OVR) 5. L’Jarius Sneed (92 OVR)
Evan Engram (88 OVR) 6. Charvarius Ward (91 OVR)
Sam LaPorta (86 OVR) 7. Marlon Humphrey (91 OVR)
Dallas Goedert (85 OVR) 8. Denzel Ward (90 OVR)
Dalton Schultz (84 OVR) 9. Trent McDuffie (90 OVR)
Cole Kmet (83 OVR) 10. Marhson Lattimore (90 OVR)
Trent Williams and McCaffrey are the first two 49ers to have joined the club at the same time. But we are optimistic they won’t be the only teammates because Kelce’s favorite quarterback, Patrick Mahomes, will also make the list.
Along with today’s latest 99 Club announcements, EA Sports released another deep dive video for Madden NFL 25 and revealed the new kickoff rules will be in the game.
Below are the reactions from the latest Madden NFL 99 Club members. Click here for the complete list of ratings.
HipHopWired Featured Video
Source: White Dudes For Harris / White Dudes For Harris
Elon Musk continues to show he is panicking now that momentum has swung in the favor of Democrats after Joe Biden passed the torch to his Vice President, Kamala Harris.
Following Kamala Harris taking the torch and running with it, numerous groups popped up online supporting the VP, one of which was White Dudes for Harris.
The group, which featured prominent white men, held a Zoom/YouTube meeting like the other groups and managed to raise over $4 million for the Harris campaign to help ensure the orange menace doesn’t get back into the White House.
Actors like Mark Hamill, Jeff Bridges, J.J. Abrams, Sean Astin, Josh Groban, Josh Gad, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Bradley Whitford were among the many white men who participated in the meeting.
Elon Musk, the reluctant owner of X, formerly Twitter, continues to prove he is the ultimate OP and allegedly was behind suspending the group’s X account.
In a post, Mike Nellis, founder/CEO of digital advertising firm Authentic and one of the organizers of White Dudes for Harris, wrote that the account was suspended for “Violating our rules against evading suspension.”
Harris continued, “We scared @elonmusk and @DonaldJTrumpJr so much tonight they suspended our account and won’t let us back in. These guys are running scared of the success we’ve had tonight, but we’re not going to quit.” In a follow-up posted, he added, “I ask this question seriously… are we the first white dudes to ever get suspended by @elonmusk’s Twitter? I think we are.”
In an update shared on Tuesday, the account announced it was back.
Per Variety:
White Dudes for Harris said its X account was reinstated Tuesday after “a groundswell of grassroots complaints” to X’s owner, tech mogul Elon Musk. “WE ARE SO BACK! After a groundswell of grassroots complaints to @ElonMusk from the #WhiteDudesforHarris community, our account was reinstated & we’re allowed to post again,” the post said. “Thank you for coming to our aid & carrying on this conversation in our absence. More to come! ❤️”
We expect Elon and his hating a** to continue being a hater.
A bipartisan group of U.S. senators introduced the highly anticipated NO FAKES Act on Wednesday (July 31), which aims to protect artists and others from AI deepfakes and other nonconsensual replicas of their voices, images and likenesses.
If passed, the legislation would create federal intellectual property protections for the so-called right of publicity for the first time, which restricts how someone’s name, image, likeness and voice can be used without consent. Currently, such rights are only protected at the state level, leading to a patchwork of different rules across the country.
Unlike many existing state-law systems, the federal right that the NO FAKES Act would create would not expire at death and could be controlled by a person’s heirs for 70 years after their passing. To balance personal publicity rights and the First Amendment right to free speech, the NO FAKES Act also includes specific carveouts for replicas used in news coverage, parody, historical works or criticism.
Trending on Billboard
Non-consensual AI deepfakes are of great concern to the music business, given so many of its top-billing talent have already been exploited in this way. Taylor Swift, for example, was the subject of a number of sexually-explicit AI deepfakes of her body; the late Tupac Shakur‘s voice was recently deepfaked by fellow rapper Drake in his Kendrick Lamar diss track “Taylor Made Freestyle,” which was posted, and then deleted, on social media; and Drake and The Weeknd had their own voices cloned by AI without their permission in the TikTok viral track “Heart On My Sleeve.”
The NO FAKES Act was first released as a draft bill by the same group of lawmakers — Senators Chris Coons (D-DE), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Thom Tillis (D-NC) — last October, and its formal introduction to the U.S. Senate continues to build on the same principles also laid out in the No AI FRAUD Act, a similar bill which was introduced to the U.S. House of Representatives earlier this year.
While the music industry is overwhelmingly supportive of the creation of a federal right of publicity, there are some detractors in other creative fields, including film/tv, which pose a threat to the passage of bills like the NO FAKES Act. In a speech during Grammy week earlier this year, National Music Publishers Association (NMPA) president/CEO David Israelite explained that “[a federal right of publicity] does not have a good chance… Within the copyright community we don’t agree. … Guess who is bigger than music? Film and TV.” Still, the introduction of the NO FAKES Act and the NO AI Fraud Act proves there is bicameral and bipartisan support for the idea.
Earlier this year, proponents for strengthened publicity rights laws celebrated a win on the state level in their fight to regulate AI deepfakes with the passage of the ELVIS Act in Tennessee. The landmark law greatly expanded protections for artists and others in the state, and explicitly protected voices for the first time.
Though it was celebrated by a who’s who of the music business — from the Recording Academy, Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), Human Artistry Campaign, NMPA and more — the act also drew a few skeptics, like Professor Jennifer Rothman of University of Pennsylvania law school, who raised concerns that the law could have been an “overreaction” that could potentially open up tribute bands, interpolations, or sharing photos that a celebrity didn’t authorize to lawsuits.
“The Human Artistry Campaign applauds Senators Coons, Blackburn, Klobuchar and Tillis for crafting strong legislation establishing a fundamental right putting every American in control of their own voices and faces against a new onslaught of highly realistic voice clones and deepfakes,” Dr. Moiya McTier, senior advisor of the Human Artistry Campaign — a global initiative for responsible AI use, supported by 185 organizations in the music business and beyond — says of the bill. “The NO FAKES Act will help protect people, culture and art — with clear protections and exceptions for the public interest and free speech. We urge the full Senate to prioritize and pass this vital, bipartisan legislation. The abusive deepfake ecosystem online destroys more lives and generates more victims every day — Americans need these protections now.”
The introduction of the bill is also celebrated by American Federation of Musicians (AFM), ASCAP, Artist Rights Alliance (ARA), American Association of Independent Music (A2IM), Association of American Publishers, Black Music Action Coalition (BMAC), BMI, Fan Alliance, The Azoff Company co-president Susan Genco, Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI), National Association of Voice Actors (NAVA), National Independent Talent Organization, National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA), Organización de Voces Unidas (OVU), Production Music Association, Recording Academy, Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), SAG-AFTRA, SESAC Music Group, Songwriters of North America (SoNA), SoundExchange, United Talent Agency (UTA) and WME.
HipHopWired Featured Video
CLOSE
Source: EA Sports / Tiburon / Madden NFL 25/ Christian McCaffrey
San Francisco 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey is back in the 99 Club.
Following the announcement of Miami Dolphins wide receiver Tyreek Hill joining the 99 Club in Madden NFL 25, EA Sports revealed that the game’s cover athlete, Christian McCaffrey, will be joining him.
Like Hill, McCaffrey was surprised with a briefcase featuring a custom gold chain, Xbox Elite controller, custom trading card, and video announcement from Super Bowl Champion quarterback Eli Manning welcoming him into the prestigious club.
For McCaffrey, this isn’t a new experience. He was in the 99 overall rating club in Madden NFL 20 as an in-season addition and earned a spot back in the club in Madden NFL 21.
McCaffrey continues to show the world how elite he is. Last season, McCaffrey was named Offensive Player of The Year, leading the league with a career-high 1,459 rushing yards and 2,023 total yards from scrimmage.
He scored 21 total touchdowns, 14 on the ground and seven through the air.
His stellar play got him paid. The 49ers blessed him with a $38 million two-year contract extension, adding $8 million to his salary for the 2024 and 2025 seasons, plus an additional $24 million in guaranteed money.
The contract also reset the running back market.
NFL Fans Have Thoughts
Like Tyreek Hill’s announcement of joining the 99 Club, NFL fans share their opinions on McCaffrey returning to the prestigious club.
“It’s great seeing him stay healthy and show why he’s the most versatile back in the league,” one user on X, formerly Twitter, wrote.
Another user wasn’t so high on McCaffrey’s selection, writing, “Don’t deserve it !!! @KingHenry_2 deserved it more !!!”
EA will continue to announce the ratings via ESPN’s morning show, Get Up, and on the dedicated website.
More announcements are coming; until then, you can see more reactions in the gallery below.
HipHopWired Featured Video
CLOSE
Source: EA Sports / Tiburon / Madden NFL 25/ Tyreek Hill
Next to the release of the NFL schedule, learning who will join Madden NFL’s exclusive 99 club and the ratings of star players in the league have become yearly significant events. Like last year, a receiver is the first player to land in the prestigious club.
The first name announced joining Madden NFL 25’s 99 Club is none other than the Cheetah, Miami Dolphins’ speedy wideout Tyreek Hill.
With the announcement, Hill became the first Dolphins player ever to earn the honor.
Last year, Minnesota Vikings star receiver Justin Jefferson got the 99 Club party started this year, so it was only right that Hill got the honor.
Jefferson’s rating took a 1-point hit this year; he is 98, still pretty high, but we are sure he feels he also believes he should still be in the 99 Club.
The Madden NFL official X account shared a video of Hill receiving a briefcase featuring his custom gold chain and custom Xbox Elite controller and a video from Eli Manning welcoming him to the 99 Club.
Also, just like the previous year, EA Sports has launched an official website where you can check the ratings as they are released.
They also revealed the top receivers and safeties in the game.
Wide Receivers Safeties
Tyreek Hill (99 OVR) 1. Jessie Bates III (97 OVR)
Justin Jefferson (98 OVR) 2. Antoine Winfield Jr. (94 OVR)
Ceedee Lamb (96 OVR) 3. Minkah Fitzpatrick (93 OVR)
A.J. Brown (95 OVR) 4. Derwin James Jr. (91 OVR)
Amon-Ra St. Brown (95 OVR) 5. Tyrann Mathieu (91 OVR)
Davante Adams (94 OVR) 6. Budda Baker (90 OVR)
Ja’Marr Chase (93 OVR) 7. Kevin Byard III (89 OVR)
Stefon Diggs (92 OVR) 8. Kyle Hamilton (89 OVR)
Brandon Aiyuk (91 OVR) 9. Talanoa Hufanga (88 OVR)
Mike Evans (91 OVR) 10. Jevon Holland (88 OVR)
EA Sports will team with ESPN to roll out 99 Club members throughout the week and will share that news with you as its announced.
Once Again, It’s Arguing Time
Of course, like every year, there are reactions to these ratings. Some are stunned that Hill is the first Dolphins player to make it in the club.
“First ever is wild seeing that Marino, Jason Taylor, and Zach Thomas,” one person on X, formerly Twitter, wrote.
Another user wrote, “Stefon Diggs rated too high (based on age and canyon of a drop off last year), Jamar Chase rated too low. Jefferson probably deserves 99 based on how he dominated consistently even after missing a big chunk of the season last year.”
We only expect the discourse to get louder when other positions are revealed.
If we had to guess who would be in there, we think Patrick Mahomes will end up in the 99 Club.
[embedded content]
You can see more reactions in the gallery below.
1. Lol, now be nice
HipHopWired Featured Video
CLOSE
Source: Tom Williams / Getty / Elon Musk
Elon Musk continues to prove he is the biggest OP of them all.
Bootleg Tony Stark, aka Elon Musk, already got called broke on his platform, X, formerly Twitter, after walking back his $45 million a month donation pledge to the Orange Menace, Donald Trump’s re-election campaign.
Now, he is under more scrutiny from not just users on the X platform but the Kamala Harris campaign and prominent Democrats for reposting a manipulated video of VP Harris saying, “selected because I am the ultimate diversity hire,” the GOP’s latest way being racist, without outright saying racist sh*t.
In his post sharing the video, the Tesla chief wrote in the caption, “This is amazing” followed with the crying laughing emoji.
In the deepfake video, which is still on Musk’s timeline, Harris says, “I, Kamala Harris, am your Democratic candidate because Joe Biden finally exposed his senility in the debate.”
The fake VP Harris continues by calling herself the “ultimate diversity hire” because “I’m both a woman and a person of color, so if you criticize anything I say you’re both sexist and racist.” The fake Harris goes on to brand herself a “deep fake puppet” who learned from another “puppet,” Joe Biden.”
The Harris Campaign Responds
Speaking with the AP, the Harris campaign responded to Musk, “The American people want the real freedom, opportunity, and security Vice President Harris is offering, not the fake, manipulated lies of Elon Musk and Donald Trump.”
Biden/Harris surrogate and California Governor Gavin Newsom also criticized Musk, saying that “manipulating a voice in an ‘ad’ like this one should be illegal.”
Senator Amy Klobuchar suggests that Musk’s post breaks his platform’s “synthetic and manipulated media policy.”
Musk doubled down on the post, replying, “Not to mention Pullitsir Prize winner Dr Head, first name Dick” and “Newsom should create an endowed 😉 chair at Univ of California for Prof Deeznuts.”
Social media continues to drag Musk; you can see those reactions in the gallery below.
1. Basically
Thirteen years ago, the then-unknown teenager Rebecca Black posted her song “Friday” to YouTube, hoping to spark her music career. We all remember what happened next. The song, which amassed 171M views and 881K comments on YouTube to date, was pushed up the Billboard charts, peaking at No. 58 on the Hot 100. “Friday” was a true cultural phenomenon — but only because it was a laughingstock.
“I became unbelievably depressed,” Black said of the song’s meme-ification — and the cyberbullying that came with it — on Good Morning America in 2022. “And [I felt] trapped in this body of what the world would see me as forever. I hadn’t even finished growing.”
Many music makers dream of waking up one morning and realizing a song of theirs has gone viral overnight. But, as Black’s experience shows, not all virality is created equal. At best, it can bring a Hot 100 hit, radio play and a slew of new, lifelong fans. At worst, it can be the artists’ worst nightmare.
Trending on Billboard
One such worst-case scenario recently took place with Gigi D’Agostino’s 1999 Italo dance track “L’amour Toujours,” which was recently co-opted by the German far-right. In a popular video posted to social media, a group of young men sang the song outside a bar on the German island Sylt, replacing the original lyrics with a Neo-Nazi slogan that translates roughly to “Germany to the Germans, out with the foreigners.” As they chanted the xenophobic lyric, one of the men raised his arm in a Nazi-like salute. Another put two fingers to his upper lip in a seeming allusion to Adolf Hitler’s characteristic mustache.
After that, several events in Germany, including Oktoberfest in Munich, looked into banning the song, and D’Agostino replied to an inquiry from German newspaper Der Spiegel with a written statement, claiming that he had no idea what had happened.
Granted, the circumstances of virality are rarely that bad, but songs commonly end up on an “unintended side of TikTok,” as Sam Saideman, CEO/co-founder of management and digital market firm Innovo, puts it. “We try to educate our partners that sometimes you cannot control what uses of your song [are] on the internet.” While Innovo “may plan a campaign to [pay creators to] use the song in get-ready-with-me makeup videos,” he explains, another user’s totally different kind of video using the song could become far more popular than the originally planned use, pushing the campaign organically onto another part of the platform and away from its target audience.
For example, Twitter and TikTok users twisted “Cellophane,” FKA Twigs’ heartbreaking 2019 ballad about unrequited love, into a meme beginning in early 2022. Oftentimes, videos using the song pair Twigs’ voice with creators that are acting melodramatic about things that are clearly no big deal. Even worse, one popular version of the audio replaces Twigs’ voice with Miss Piggy’s (yes, the Muppet character).
“Digital marketers are able to boost certain narratives they support,” says Connor Lawrence, chief marketing officer of Indify, an angel investing platform that helps indie artists navigate virality. “It happens a lot — marketers boosting a narrative that is most favorable to the artist’s vision to hopefully steer it.” Saideman says he likes to keep a “reactionary budget” on hand during his song campaigns in case they need to try to course-correct a song that is headed in the wrong direction.
But digital marketing teams can’t do much to fix another bad type of song virality: when songs blow up before the artist is ready. “I am actively hoping that my baby artist does not go viral right now,” says one manager who wished to remain anonymous to protect their client’s identity. “They need to find their sound first.” Omid Noori, president/co-founder of management company and digital marketing agency ATG Group, adds, “It’s a real challenge when someone goes viral for something when they aren’t ready to capitalize on it, or even worse, the song that took off sounds nothing like anything you want to make again.”
Ella Jane, an indie-pop artist who went viral in 2020 for making a video that explained the lyrics to her song “Nothing Else I Could Do,” says that going viral early in her artistic career had positive and negative effects. She signed a deal with Fader Label and boosted her following, but she’s also still dealing with the downsides four years later. “I’m grateful for it, but I think because my first taste of having a successful song was inextricable from TikTok, it has cast a shadow on my trajectory in some ways,” she says.
Over her next releases, Jane says she chased the algorithm, like many of her peers who experienced TikTok hits early in their careers, trying out lots of different video gimmicks to hook listeners. “It doesn’t reflect who I am as an artist now,” she says. “That feeling is addicting, and you feel like you’re withdrawing from it when your videos don’t hit. It can leave artists at a point where they’re obsessed with metrics.” This obsession has been reinforced by some record labels who use metrics as the only deciding factor in whether or not to sign a new artist.
“This is no different than hitting the lottery,” Noori says. “Imagine you get the $100 million jackpot on your first try… It makes artists feel like failures before they even really get started.”
As artists are increasingly instructed by well-meaning members of their team to make as many TikToks as possible, some have turned to sharing teasers of unfinished songs as a form of content — which have occasionally gone viral unintentionally, despite not even being fully written and recorded. That’s what happened to songs by Good Neighbours, Leith Ross, Katie Gregson MacLeod and Lizzy McAlpine, leading many of them to rush to finish recordings so they could capitalize on their spotlight before it faded.
“People put a lot of pressure on the recorded version,” says Gregson MacLeod, whose acoustic piano version of her song “Complex” went viral before she had recorded the official master. “If it is not exactly like the sound that went viral, if you don’t sing the words in the exact same way or use the exact same key, sometimes people decide, ‘We’re not having it.’” While she says she was ultimately happy with how it all turned out, not everyone is so lucky. Within two weeks of the song’s virality, she rushed to release a “demo” version to match the rawness of her original video, as well as a produced version, earning her a combined 43 million plays on Spotify alone.
McAlpine, however, decided to run away from her unfinished viral song. After posting a popular video of herself playing a half-written song, she told her fans in a TikTok video, “I’m not releasing that song ever because I don’t like it. It doesn’t feel genuine. It never felt genuine. I wrote it for fun. It wasn’t something I was ever going to release, or even going to finish… That is not who I am as an artist; in fact, I think I’m the opposite… I’m not concerned with overnight success. I’m not chasing that… I want to build a long-lasting career.”
Noori says TikTok virality in particular has led to a “huge graveyard of one-hit wonders,” something that is far more common today than the bygone days of traditional, human gatekeepers. “With the algorithm, how do you even know who saw your content?” he asks.
Still, there’s an argument to be made that perhaps, as P.T. Barnum famously said, “There’s no such thing as bad publicity.” “I’ve been thinking about that idea a lot and whether or not it is true for virality,” says Saideman. “And it’s hard to say.”
Black ultimately reclaimed “Friday” and her music career in 2021 by getting in on the joke, turning the decade-old cult hit into a hyperpop remix, produced by Dylan Brady of 100 Gecs and featuring Big Freedia, Dorian Electra and 3Oh!3. From there, Black continued to release music as a queer avant pop artist and played an acclaimed DJ set at Coachella in 2023. Still, the original version of “Friday” is her most popular song on Spotify by a long shot, even though it was released before the streaming era began.
“The beauty and curse of these platforms, especially TikTok today,” Saideman says, “is that they are remix platforms. When you put your music on them, you are opening your music up creatively to other people using it in positive and negative ways. You can’t have one without the other.”
This story was featured in Billboard’s new music technology newsletter ‘Machine Learnings.’ Sign up to receive Machine Learnings, and Billboard’s other newsletters, for free here.
Supernatural, the subscription-based VR fitness app, has launched a pair of new workouts featuring the music of Billie Eilish, adding to the platform’s catalog of superstars featured in their Artist Series.
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
Songs like “Bad Guy,” “Lunch” and the Sofi Tukker remix of “Copycat” are highlighted in Supernatural’s new boxing workout, while the “Flow” routine features current hit “Birds of a Feather” as well as “Bellyache” and “Oxytocin,” among others. Supernatural allows users to partake in choreographed cardio workouts with headsets strapped on, and a 2021 deal with Universal Music Publishing Group opened up a large selection of songs for in-app programming, including for the SN Artist Series, which launched in 2022.
“When it comes to selecting songs for our Artist Series, we prioritize showcasing an artist’s full catalog of work while striking a balance between song selections that appeal to both new listeners and dedicated fans, promoting the artist’s new work, and using songs that are best suited for our movement modalities and application,” says Jess Zobler, Supernatural senior producer. “For example, Boxing classes in Supernatural use more traditional, fitness-forward music, while the Flow modality uses visual cues such as targets, triangles, and tails to cue movements that are choreographed to embody the song’s feeling and rhythm.”
Trending on Billboard
The routines soundtracked by Eilish’s music launched on Monday (July 22), and join Supernatural’s 26 previous Artist Series workouts, which includes spotlights on artists like Taylor Swift, Post Malone, Queen and Nicki Minaj.
“Billie Eilish’s catalog is very sonically diverse: Hard-hitting, trap-like instrumentation in the chorus of ‘You Should See Me in a Crown’ allows for boxing flurries and cross-body uppercuts, while ‘Bury a Friend’ features choreographed punches on even beats that match the rhythm of the bass, making it feel like the user’s punches are controlling the drums and snares,” Zobler adds. “Long bob and weave movements play with some of the sinister sound effects in the song, creating the feeling of dodging the evil monster lurking under Billie’s mattress.
“In the Flow modality,” Zobler continues, “songs like ‘Bellyache’ with a minimalist beat and ethereal quality inform the quality of movement to be more open and sweeping, using ‘tail’ targets to move the user in sync with some of the song’s dream-like qualities.”
With the launch of the workouts, Supernatural has also unveiled two playlists with the Eilish songs featured in each routine. Both workouts include tracks from Eilish’s third album, Hit Me Hard and Soft, which was released in May.