music – Matthew King Kaufman

Artifical Intelligence Music Will Eliminate Royalities

The “jukebox that pays,” the major label’s Frankenstein, Spotify, is about to bite its enabler/creator (the major labels) in the ass. I saw some disquieting news today I thought I’d share. Spotify is planning to hire the Artificial Intelligence expert, Francois Pachet.

Francois is currently in charge of Sony Music’s Artificial Intelligence research for the last 20 years. He has been Director of the Sony Computer Science Laboratory. He is allowing his contract to expire and sign a deal with Spotify. Under his leadership at Sony, several AI-created compositions have been created and published. I’m not going to dignify these compositions by discussing them here.

I’ve written about how pedestrian this music sounded before, but I’d like to comment on a disturbing trend. Spotify supposedly engaged in fake artist/playlist creation to reduce royalty payments. Combine that with recent comments by Francois. When he spoke at Buma Music In Motion, friends of mine told me he felt: AI-written music inherently shouldn’t require any royalties to be paid to copyright holders after it is published.

And now he’s tasked with creating a toolbox for Spotify creators.

This can only mean Spotify wants to create a class of “lesser royalty status compositions,” eliminating the human incentive to create new music, therefore reducing the overhead by adding them to playlists.

As someone who made music in the golden age of recorded music, 1971-1984, I should embrace listening to a Muzak version of my era. But I don’t. At first I hoped AI and music would allow people to create music w/o years of instrument mastery, but now I’m afraid the role of AI will be subverted by business interests to avoid paying humans for music, and figuring out how to find and fool the truly passive music fan into listening to “royalty-free” music.

USING ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE TO CREATE MUSIC IS TRULY DISTURBING

The idea of using artificial intelligence to create music is a truly disturbing concept. The word music comes from the Greek word μουσική (mousike), which means “(art) of the Muses.” In many cultures, music is an important part of peoples’ way of life, as it plays a key role in religious rituals, rite of passage ceremonies, and social activities. The Sony Computer Science Laboratory has released several songs created by artificial intelligence. This is only the 1st step in complicated software replacing man. I have witnessed drum machines and digital samples replacing human music makers. It is a simple business equation, Artificial Intelligence doesn’t require the same funding human musicians require. As someone, who has been involved in music from an entertainment and business point of view, I FIND THIS TREND ACCELERATING AT AN ALARMING PACE. Music is a human form of artistic expression that is an endangered species. With the elimination of music education in our schools, this human art form needs to be preserved. So action is necessary!

With a lot of help, I’ve creating a new website called HumanMusicIntelligence as a substitute for dwindling music education opportunities. It features music created by humans. This site allows anyone to enjoy the early history of human recorded music. FOR FREE. As of 2017, this great music is in the public domain! I selected Jazz as the first genre to demonstrate the “joy of collaboration,” “the blending of instruments,” and “the value of the composition.” I am hoping to demonstrate the human’s ability to create a unique kind of music and art.I selected seven songs essential to the early roots of jazz and have posted them on the web-site. This kind of music is irreplaceable and may never be made again. Somehow I feel compelled to pay music back for the personal rewards I received. Just like any great art, that stands the test of time this music is a treasure.

I realize this isn’t about life or death, and I’m not anti-technology. I’m looking forward to driver-less cars and artificial intelligence’s contributions to medicine, but I’m afraid the use of AI in the music business, which has only profit as its motivation, and not the good of mankind or music. If you notice this recent artificial intelligence release is a spear headed by an large corporate, existing member of the music industry establishment, Sony. And they have convinced this music is worthy of discussion and criticism by knowable sources in the music and technology community. Do a Google search for artificial music intelligence to see the reach of this corporate music power. I wonder if they realize these efforts in artificial intelligence are going to eliminate the “golden goose” of recorded music?

NEVER MIND THE COPYRIGHT THERE’S A NEW PUBLIC DOMAIN LAW

As of January, 2017, the new public domain laws regarding music take effect. Public domain is intended to benefit mankind by allowing anyone to use material that has been previously protected by copyright, with out any responsibilities to the creators. The control and tyranny of recorded music by the “music business” has now been counter balanced by allowing the public access to music beyond copyright ownership. Simply put, after 75 years, the creators’ contributions, formerly protected by copyright, have been transferred to public ownership.

The stifling practices of an industry driven by profit and the bottom line has left a wake of under- and over appreciated music creators and consequently their creations are either over or under exposed. The profit motive and competition has changed an art form to conform to current broadcast technologies, like radio and television, for example.

The new public domain laws make this control of music more difficult. The public domain laws in music have opened the door for alternative listening. The lean forward music enthusiast will have access to many recordings previously neglected as not as profitable as popular music. We must remember music is a language and an art that has been appreciated by mankind for all ages. This universal language has been constantly evolving.

With the growth of recorded music, people have the technology to enjoy music more easily than at any time in history. Throughout the ages there were lots of different technologies necessary to communicate using music. The technologies to make instruments and record them are much older than today’s very prevalent digital technologies. We also have made great advances in the way to listen to music. This beautiful language made in the past by talented musicians on the cutting edge of the new recording technologies (Recordings) and the cutting edge of a new musical school of expression (Jazz/Blues.) I’ve spent some time filtering and trying to make this early music accessible to the modern listening breakthroughs. Starting in 2017, I intend to offer a listening opportunity to some of the music that has stood the test of time, that I feel is essential to having an appreciation of the art that is music. I’ve benefitted from many music lovers who have ripped cylinders and 78s to mp3. I’ve decided to further enhance the process by mastering for streaming the digital files that have been preserved from wax. I’ve created two sites to offer music lovers a chance to listen to this worthy music for free: PublicDomain4u.com and HumanMusicIntelligence.com. I must confess at first I was horrified by the concept of music being creating by artificial intelligence, but now I only want some of the “out of the box” songs I’ve posted to be considered by this new approach to creation. My hope is to expose the qualities of human music creation to the changing world. This music has been discovered and rediscovered, I hope you’ll enjoy this music as much as i do.

For your edification please listen to “The Early Roots of Jazz” and “Love the Blues” @humanmusicintelligence.com.

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BLOCKAI IS THE FUTURE!! CONTENT CREATORS REJOICE BLOCKAI RETHINKS COPYRIGHTS

What a tool! Formal, irrefutable proof of copyright ownership by just uploading my art. This is an visionary idea using “Bitcoin Technology.” The Blockchain technology always had the potential to be a great tool for us, copyright owners. Blockai had the vision to make this possible. In all my time as an independent label operator (Beserkley, Fun Fun Fun Recordings), no one has offered a better tool to manage artwork copyrights. Besides the music, there is a lot of art (covers, logos, video images, and photos) that are exclusive to my little label. Blockai allowed me to add these images smoothly and intuitively. I realize nothing can replace the copyright office, but Blockai is the next best thing. Being able to prove ownership in a time stamped Bitcoin Blockchan is the “best evidence” I need for much of my artwork, and Blockai allows me so see where all the image uses on the WWW are.

The final joy is the moment the art is done, ‘Wham Bam Thank You Mam,” It’s protected!

The 1% of the 99% of Music You Need To Hear.

The “99% of music” that’s being made by smaller recording companies or the artist themselves contains some true musical gems.

At WWW.FunFunFunMedia.com, we focus on the music gems we’ve found in the “99%” that are available for free MP3 download legally.

Our bloggers find music they love, and they post it for you to find. This is content filtering with the criteria being music love, not commercial appeal.

The artists and recording companies need exposure for their music.

If you like the song, there are two things you can do. One, you can buy more of that artist’s music. Two, you can spread the word about the music on your social network. Doing any of these actions makes you a music lover just like us.

You can help the 99%.

Join us @ FunFunFunmedia.com by being an Intern

It’s simple you post a link to a song you like on your Facebook page or Twitter feed.

Here’s the link to become FunFunFunMedia Music Intern:

http://funfunfunmedia.com/interns-wanted

HELP US SPREAD THE WORD ABOUT THIS GR8 MUSIC.