Louie
Active member
I guess this might be sort of a spin-off from @Spirit Groove ’s recent thread. I’m getting sick of reading about AI as I’m guessing many folks are, but this subject concerns me also as a music fan/listener, not only as a musician/creator. So wanted to discuss more the aspect of what we might see next as safe places for music fans, entirely free of AI scraping and fake AI music. Meaning, sites where AI scraping and uploading of AI music is strictly prohibited, not just with words, but with blocking technology. The technology might be a combination of membership access only, file encryption, and digital watermarking. Perhaps a combination of these would be enough of a deterrent to mostly keep independent artists and fans safe from it? I imagine with big record companies and/or super star artists this still wouldn’t be enough protection from determined human or AI thief's, but they will at least have the money, lawyers and backing to protect their own interests (far as I know the Suno and Udio cases are still ongoing and who knows what precedents will emerge). Please remember, if there isn’t such a place online currently, that doesn’t mean there won’t eventually be enough collective distaste, discomfort, and ethical reasons from music fans and artists that such spaces will start emerging. A rough analogy might be the organic food movement.
I came up with the following list. Even with this short list, I honestly can’t keep up with all the great music being made, not even including all the great music that has been made in the past that I haven’t yet discovered or listened to with full attention. So I said to myself as others are saying, "why even be concerned, it is going to happen”, etc. And the answer is, there are very few things as important to me as music, life is short, and in my own small way want to spend my time and money participating in support of human artists and activities, and avoid fake AI generated music as much as “humanly” possible. True, I’m just one drop in the ocean of humanity, but at least can still vote with my feet.
1) live music concerts and in bars/restaurants.
2) The record store: I’m one of those “old souls” who buy vinyl records occasionally and actually research how they were made, who mastered them, and what gear they used, sometimes even what factory they were printed in (to avoid non-fill defects).
3) CDs: Believe it or not, I still buy them occasionally.
3) Bandcamp: This is where I buy digital music more or less directly from individual artists. I finally started reading their Terms of Use, but gave up. Too many pages of boilerplate legalese. I did pick out one interesting paragraph, ” Notwithstanding the foregoing, Bandcamp will not use, and will not permit others to use, any Artist’s Music to train models to generate sound recordings, videos synchronized with sound recordings or other audiovisual works, or musical works embodied within sound recordings and music videos, without that Artist’s express permission”. That seems good on the face of it, but I’m not sure how they enforce? Encryption of files, digital watermarking. AI blocking software?
4) Directly from record companies: For example, I bought Norah Jones' most recent record directly from Blue Note Records web store. Digital download 24/96.
4) YouTube: I’m not sure about. I watch plenty of videos and have shared a number of them also. The ones I watch are mostly created by individual creators who have posted them for free on topics of music education. But I also search for music and enjoy plenty of live concert music on there. Thankfully, I haven’t run across much AI (yet) on music related topics.
5) Alonetone. I read their user agreement. Certainly straight-forward, which is good. But they seem to be wide open to scraping, and partially open to AI music getting uploaded. From reading on their forum, they do seem to have been doing pretty good preventing AI music inundating their site.
Feel free to elaborate on or add to the list. Some are slam dunks, others mixed, and excuse my ignorance if I’m missing somewhere obvious (note: I don’t subscribe to Apple music, have never used and refuse to use Spotify, and am no longer visiting Soundcloud).
I came up with the following list. Even with this short list, I honestly can’t keep up with all the great music being made, not even including all the great music that has been made in the past that I haven’t yet discovered or listened to with full attention. So I said to myself as others are saying, "why even be concerned, it is going to happen”, etc. And the answer is, there are very few things as important to me as music, life is short, and in my own small way want to spend my time and money participating in support of human artists and activities, and avoid fake AI generated music as much as “humanly” possible. True, I’m just one drop in the ocean of humanity, but at least can still vote with my feet.
1) live music concerts and in bars/restaurants.
2) The record store: I’m one of those “old souls” who buy vinyl records occasionally and actually research how they were made, who mastered them, and what gear they used, sometimes even what factory they were printed in (to avoid non-fill defects).
3) CDs: Believe it or not, I still buy them occasionally.
3) Bandcamp: This is where I buy digital music more or less directly from individual artists. I finally started reading their Terms of Use, but gave up. Too many pages of boilerplate legalese. I did pick out one interesting paragraph, ” Notwithstanding the foregoing, Bandcamp will not use, and will not permit others to use, any Artist’s Music to train models to generate sound recordings, videos synchronized with sound recordings or other audiovisual works, or musical works embodied within sound recordings and music videos, without that Artist’s express permission”. That seems good on the face of it, but I’m not sure how they enforce? Encryption of files, digital watermarking. AI blocking software?
4) Directly from record companies: For example, I bought Norah Jones' most recent record directly from Blue Note Records web store. Digital download 24/96.
4) YouTube: I’m not sure about. I watch plenty of videos and have shared a number of them also. The ones I watch are mostly created by individual creators who have posted them for free on topics of music education. But I also search for music and enjoy plenty of live concert music on there. Thankfully, I haven’t run across much AI (yet) on music related topics.
5) Alonetone. I read their user agreement. Certainly straight-forward, which is good. But they seem to be wide open to scraping, and partially open to AI music getting uploaded. From reading on their forum, they do seem to have been doing pretty good preventing AI music inundating their site.
Feel free to elaborate on or add to the list. Some are slam dunks, others mixed, and excuse my ignorance if I’m missing somewhere obvious (note: I don’t subscribe to Apple music, have never used and refuse to use Spotify, and am no longer visiting Soundcloud).
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