Musical Heroes in the AI Age. cover art

Musical Heroes in the AI Age.

Musical Heroes in the AI Age.

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 Musical Heroes in the AI Age. Nø Førmat! You need to know about this record label. Nø Førmat! is an independent record label based in Paris. They’ve been around for over 20 years, and they’re one of my favourite labels. I love so many of their releases, but my current favourite is the album “Synthetic Hearts” by South African duo Msaki & Tubatsi. It’s a masterpiece! I’ve got a soft spot for South African music because I was born and raised there, but they’ve got artists from all over the world on their label. I’m confident that you’ll find an artist of theirs that resonates with you. And for the record, I don’t know anyone at this label, so this is not a promo for them. I’m just a fan of theirs. Another one of my favorites is the album “Our Calling” by the English singer-songwriter Piers Faccini and the Malian kora-player Ballake Sissoko. It’s a truly unique collaboration. The beauty is heartwarming, and the catchy melodies will have you joyfully singing along. Do yourself a favour, and spend some time checking out the artists on this heroic record label. So why are they heroic? Because they’re one of the very few labels in the music industry who are brave enough (and awake enough) to be rejecting generative AI. Here’s a quote from a recent newsletter of theirs about this topic: “We refuse to let what artists have spent a lifetime mastering be melted into billions of data points and regurgitated as artificial music by Udio, Suno or others. We refuse to let music, and more broadly, art, be reduced to robotic excrement, just to fatten a tech unicorn.” Subscribe to get the latest posts in your inbox. Now you can see why I love this label! And there’s more. They continue: “This is not the world we want. Not for our children, not for all the world’s children, who dream of one day learning to play a couple of notes on a guitar. Because, how, in such a world, can we transmit the teaching, the effort, composition techniques, the love of practicing music and the social bonds it creates?” If it sounds like they’re exaggerating, they’re not. I’ve been teaching music for 31 years, and I can confirm that interest in music education has almost entirely disappeared. The numbers don’t lie. It’s crystal clear: hardly anyone nowadays is willing to put in the work it takes to learn music. The sales of my online courses and PDFs have fallen by over 80% since the release of generative AI to the public. And for music teachers like me, who are trying to survive on less than 20% of our previous income (which was low to start with), we’re no longer able to pay the rent. So unless people start choosing humans over robots soon, all the music making skills that have been passed on for centuries will be lost, because music teachers all over the world are having to find other work. And with no music teachers, the tiny amount of people who still want to learn music and can concentrate long enough to do it, will have no other choice but to learn from AI. If you have kids, please think about this, because it’s happening right now. This will be your children’s reality within the next year or two, because when music teachers can make significantly more money stocking shelves in their local grocery store, what choice do we have? The rent won’t pay itself. Subscribe to get the latest posts in your inbox. Right, back to Nø Førmat!’s newsletter now. So they continue: “We believe in the power of artists over our imagination, our way of interacting with the world, our well-being and mental health. We believe in the profound impact of their work on our lives, and we want to continue nurturing this work. We believe that creation, -and the technique inherent to it, is a human miracle that must be fiercely protected and passed on to future generations. We therefore refuse any use of our catalog to train AI.” As with everything in the world. If there’s demand for something, people will supply it. The people and corporations who are responsible for making the AI that’s killing our art (and a lot more too) are only doing it because it’s what the masses want. If the masses didn’t want AI, these corporations would’ve already moved on to something else. I think this is one of the (many) times where we can learn a lot from the Amish. Every new technology that comes to market is assessed by the elders in each Amish community. If they decide the technology will deepen their relationships with each other and with God, then they welcome it. If it won’t, they reject it. This is the nuanced approach that we all need to take when it comes to new technology. Our choices matter, because whatever we want, corporations will make it and sell it to us. They don’t care if it’s bad for us, our families, our communities, and our surroundings. So please, think about AI. Deeply ponder it. Ask yourself this question: By using AI, am I creating the world I want ...
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