THE AI CONVERSATION IS CHANGING

Mmm hmm.. check it out:

I was catching up on all the music industry news from this week… and there's definitely a shift happening.  

For the past few years most of the argument surrounding AI has been about copyright:  "Did you train on my song, did you have permission? And wait… don’t you owe me money?!" 

Well, now the U.S. Department of Justice has weighed in… on the side of AI companies. 

Their argument: training AI models on copyrighted material should qualify as fair use because the potential benefits outweigh the competitive harm. 

Never mind that for now, lol... that's a whole separate conversation. And remember, that doesn’t suddenly settle the copyright debate (far from it). 

BUT! 

There’s another question starting to emerge that I think might be even more interesting: what happens when AI doesn’t copy your song… but copies YOU? 

Yup.

Because this week, musicians Jason Isbell, David Lowery and two others sued Suno and part of their argument goes beyond songs. 

They claim Suno built technology capable of indexing musicians BY NAME and capturing what they describe as artist “voiceprints”... pitch, timbre, and even breath dynamics. 

That's a muuuch different conversation, isn't it? 

Because you can copyright a recording. You can copyright a composition. 

But can you own the idea of... YOU?! 

Your voice, production tendencies, musical instincts. 

That little collection of choices that, taken together, makes somebody hear ten seconds of music and go: “Oh, that sounds like _____.”

I have a feeling we’re going to be talking about this a LOT over the next few years. 

And as an artist, I’m actually more interested in THAT conversation than whether AI itself is “good” or “bad.” 

Because... like it or not, AI isn’t going away. 

The more useful question to me is: What parts of being an artist should actually BELONG to the artist?

Ok..... here's the zag:

Personally I’m gonna start thinking about artistic identity as something worth protecting… AND strengthening. AI is gonna make it easier and easier to generate competent music in virtually any style. You probably can’t control that. 

But what you CAN control is how unmistakably YOU your work becomes. 

Your voice, taste, visual language... the way you perform. The community around you! And of course the stories you tell. 

All the weird little decisions you make that nobody would ever think to put into a prompt. Hell... now's even a good time to get weirder! 

So while everyone else is asking: “How can I use AI to make more stuff?” 

Maybe ask a different question: “What am I building that gets harder to imitate the more I build it?” 

For example, if I wasn’t already doubling down on TAME THE MACHINE as a completely live electronic performance concept, I’m now thinking about how I can quadruple down on it... and build a community and deeper appreciation around this format and artistic discipline. 

Because the easier it becomes to imitate the output, the more valuable everything SURROUNDING the output becomes: the craft, the story, the philosophy... the community. 

The human being behind it.

And one last practical thing... 

If you’re experimenting with AI tools, you might wanna start reading the terms. 

What rights are you granting? Can your uploads be used for training? What happens to your voice, stems, likeness or other creative material once you upload it? 

You don’t need to be afraid of these tools. I certainly am not. 

But “I made this” and “this sounds like me” are becoming two very different rights conversations. 

Know what you’re giving away... and what you could NEVER ever lose. 

That’s the zag.