I recently went to a couple of websites and viewed some videos that had AI-generated music. It was eye-opening. A couple of things came to mind. One, it sounded great. Two, the ability to make any money by selling music is going to change for the worse. These revelations changed our views and our path.
We realized early on that the business model for Spotify, YouTube, Apple music and others doesn’t pay artists shit. As music content providers, selling sync placements (as stock music for videos, commercials, soundtracks, etc.) was the only realistic means to make consistent income. As a working band, we are very happy to license our music or discuss your project needs, so please contact us! But it’s becoming clear the advent of AI-based music has very likely killed the sync placement market. If you don’t have those critical artist-client relationships in place by now, it probably ain’t gonna happen. Why would a music director want to deal with fallible human beings, when for the price of a combo meal they can have a website spit out an unlimited amount of content made to order?
So where is all of this headed? I truly believe – and if you are reading this maybe you do too – that listeners are, regardless of the state of computer-generated music, willing to search out and appreciate the creativity of other human beings. As for BULK, we will continue to make the neo-classic rock we enjoy and the world needs, AI be damned.
This blog post is certified 100% AI-free.