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This is actually the definition of competition. You are just being drowned by AI music so no one can discover your music. Steam had the same issue years ago wit
by Ritewut 9mo ago
This is actually the definition of competition. You are just being drowned by AI music so no one can discover your music. Steam had the same issue years ago with asset flips drowning out the discoverability of actual titles and they implemented many curating tools to help resolve the issue. Acting like AI music isn't having a similar effort on genuine musicians is just playing dumb.
- anthonypasq 9mo agoif no one wants the slop, then its not competition. the problem is that people do actually want the slop and artists are mad about it.
- Ritewut 9mo agoThat's not how discoverability works. If it becomes too much of a chore to sort through the swamp people will often just opt for whatever is popular.
- nomel 9mo agoAll of the "discoverability" algorithms are specifically and fundamentally about sifting through the millions to find the few that are preferred. That is their many-billion-dollar industry purpose. Spotify does a fantastic job with this, for me. > will often just opt for whatever is popular. Are you suggesting that people consume media they don't like? I'm not familiar with anyone that does this. I personally skip if I don't like a song even a little.
- teucris 9mo ago> All of the "discoverability" algorithms are specifically and fundamentally about sifting through the millions to find the few that are preferred. They are fundamentally about finding the content that will generate the most revenue. That changes the dynamics quite a bit.
- nomel 9mo agoYou're not wrong, but the need to please the user is still paramount, otherwise they'll just do something else. This is why TikTok is eating everyone's lunch.
- Ritewut 9mo agoI don't agree with this and to answer the question you originally asked me, I do think users are consuming things they don't actually enjoy. The goal isn't to please the user, the goal is to not bore the user. If you talk to people I'm sure you'll find a lot of the music they listened to isn't "enjoyed" so much as it is inoffensive background noise.
- nomel 9mo agoIt's not surprising that some people are mindless consumers, but it's not useful to assume the majority is, especially of paying customers, and competition exists.
- Ritewut 9mo agoYou're assuming it's not useful because it doesn't bode well for your argument. What makes you think assuming the majority aren't mindless consumers is useful?
- JohnFen 9mo ago> I'm not familiar with anyone that does this. I see this a lot, actually. People put things on in the background, for instance, and don't really care if they like it or not (as long as they don't hate it). They just want noise. Or people just scrolling through their feeds without genuinely liking much in them. In the old days, this was also how the majority of television was watched. People watched TV out of habit, and frequently watched things they didn't like because choices were limited and often there was nothing they actually like on. Thus all the complaints in the day about how "there's nothing on TV". People are willing to sacrifice quite a lot of real enjoyment for convenience.
- kraquepype 9mo agoMany people don't care because it sounds like music. It sounds like music, because it was generated by a model that was trained on actual music. It is music that has been chewed up and regurgitated. It provides no benefit to the actual artists whose music fed that model.
- anthonypasq 9mo agoshould artists pay royalties in perpetuity to their teachers and musical inspirations?
- kraquepype 9mo agoNo - human learning is still something special in this world. It is a gift of time and effort, from both the student and teacher. The ability to be inspired by other works and draw from them, not merely imitate them. You can ask any human musician to make music that is either inspired or outright copied from another artist. They have a moral compass to do so in a way that is not infringing on the works of others. A music AI model will ingest what is thrown at it, and generate whatever you ask of it. It is a tool, and if it is ingesting human works to be formed into something else, proper attributions and royalties to the sources need to be made.
- peab 9mo agobut people do want it. people who listen to top 40 want slop. most people want slop
- butlike 9mo agoAt least top 40 has a room of engineers and at least they're getting some compensation. Yes, I understand splits are a bloodbath.
- sapphicsnail 9mo agoI have not met a single person offline who wants more AI music
- anthonypasq 9mo agoAI music gets millions of listens, idk what to tell you dawg.
- stephen_g 9mo agoSure it's almost entirely things like background music in shops and cafes where nobody is actually paying real attention to the music? I find it hard to believe anybody is actively listening to that kind of stuff (apart from perhaps checking our some of the more notorious cases for novelty value).
- peab 9mo agoas a musician, the internet has made it that there already is a shit ton of competition. AI will make it worse sure, but it was already a 'problem' and never going to be solved. The thing is, you aren't entitled to distribution. Most musicians who make it these days work really hard at doing live shows, or growing a following on tiktok. once they have an audience - who cares about competition?
- kazinator 9mo agoI feel that human artists as a class are more entitled to distribution than generated slop. And decisions like Bandcamp's above reflects essentially the same view.
- peab 9mo agoWhy? Are human made tools more entitled to distribution than machine made tools?
- Workaccount2 9mo agoThe hardest pill to swallow as a musician is that despite everyone who ever listened to you telling you you're great, despite being in a band and playing shows, despite maybe even selling some merch...if you are not in the top 1%, you probably will never even get chance to play a show that might put you on someone meaningful's radar.
- butlike 9mo agoI hear you and feel you on this being a hard (hardest) pill to swallow, and I think I have a helpful phrase. It helped me quite a bit so I hope it helps you: 'For the love of the game.' When you don't make any money and no one comes to your shows; when the booking emails go unanswered and the likes on soundcloud remain <10, just remember why you picked up the instrument in the first place. For the love of the game.
- Anamon 9mo ago