Everywhere these days we keep hearing about A.I. Me? I’d rather be a happy Iron Maiden fan that enjoys making and sharing AI generated images with Maiden’s mascot Eddie like the one above. Not to make money, not to infringe on the band, but to share my fandom for a band, music and creativity. I’m hoping to meet other like-minded fans and share in the passion of the music that Iron Maiden created.
To date, I’ve chalked most tech coverage to overhype of a very nascent technology, but one thing that I think about is how humans are the thieves of other creative people, not AI. And no, I don’t think AI generation is thievery. Could AI be used by humans to steal from other humans? Sure, but I don’t think that’s the AI’s fault, it’s how it’s being used, when, where, why.
I’m not a Limp Bizcut music fan, but can’t help but feel for Fred Durst, if any of his allegations are true, of course.
“Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst has sued the band’s former label Universal Music for $200 million over alleged unpaid royalties. Durst’s legal team filed the papers in federal court in Los Angeles today, claiming that a deliberate flaw in Universal’s royalty system meant the band – and other artists – were owed millions of dollars in unpaid royalties.” via Fred Durst sues Universal Music over alleged unpaid royalties amounting to more than $200 million (yahoo.com)
Say that again: Deliberate flaw.
So, to unpack what’s happening here, it’s an artist making music, trusting a corporation to market and sell it and share in those royalties. Instead, again just an allegation, said corporation makes some sort of loophole that lines their pocket more than it should.
Deja vus all over again, as Yankees catcher Yogi Berra would say.
Nevermind this specific lawsuit which may or may not have any merit, it reminded me immediately of Suno (PGM Experiment: Suno AI Music Generator to Create Arcade, Videogame and Pinball Songs) where I wrote: “I don’t know how this lawsuit will go down, but as a creative person myself, I don’t trust any corporation with anything I’m creating.”
For years and years corporate entities have been sucking the financial soul of musicians. Durst is far and away not the first person to allege he’s been ripped off by some corporate machine.
For this reason and others, I hope Suno wins in the courts with AI. It’s rich to think musicians would think they were ripped off by AI when the reality is music is one big giant wheel of shared inspiration. Note the word: shared. Sounds, notes, music, should anything other than the created work belong to anybody? Copying the exact work we can all agree is wrong, but music inspired by and created from other music, derivative content as it’s labeled in legal circles is one big hot mess.
Money and creativity are a caustic brew. At some point money becomes more important than it should be to some (many?) artists and they can forget what’s important in the greater creative pursuit.
Am sure higher courts will untangle what all this means, and hopefully they will lean toward the continued pursuit of creative freedom and not buckle to the almighty dollar. All this to say in this article that I want Suno to win. Not for Suno’s sake, not for AI, but for creativity.
Maybe overly optimistic, but I see a future world where humans and AI work together to create music we couldn’t imagine to be possible. What say you, friendly readers?