Music producer Rick Beato: I'm Sick Of This AI SH*T (This is about Spotify promoting AI slop music)

[highplainsdem]

It's becoming more and more obvious that Spotify is pushing AI music, rather than labeling it and allowing people to avoid it completely. It's much cheaper for them to use AI-generated music. Last year they were adding AI slop from a nonexistent band called Velvet Sundown to their popular Vietnam War era music playlist, which otherwise was classic rock. They added dozens of AI tracks by that fake band to the playlist to make them appear popular - many more tracks from them than from any of the other artists, real artists, on that playlist. Real artists whose music costs Spotify more to stream.

I'm posting this in GD as well as Music Appreciation because so many people use Spotify.

I found the video of the AI-generated nonexistent singer saying "I feel real" - as a response to people pointing out "she" is AI - particularly disgusting. And it may be prosecutable fraud. IMO Spotify trying to make stars of fake artists is fraud, too.

[Starbeach]

1. Rick Beato

One of the most influential music guardians we have. Thanks Rick!

[PJMcK]

2. Apple Music has screwed with their playlists

They use an algorithm that segues one song into the next by adjusting the tempo of the end of the first song to that of the next. It's very unnatural and, more importantly, it's unmusical and messes with the songwriters' intent for their music.

Technology is great but just because something CAN be done doesn't mean it SHOULD be done.

[kysrsoze]

4. That's a setting you can turn off, BTW.

[PJMcK]

10. WOW!

Thank you for that tip!

In Settings, choose Apps then Music and disable Song Transitions.

My wife has been complaining about this since the last update. You'll bring peace to our home!

[hatrack]

5. Obligatory Jeff Goldblum GIF

Couldn't agree with Rick Beato more. I thought I really hated autotune, and I did (and still do). That wasn't hate, that was a flicker of mild annoyance, like dropping your house keys.

Then AI slop came along . . .

[highplainsdem]

6. That sounds horrible. I hate the alternate nightcore or sped up versions of songs that TikTok twits

made popular, too.

Artists' work should be respected, not treated as a toy by any creep who wants to tinker with it.

[Conjuay]

3. I've listened to Rick for years now.

Always insightful, but I never expected to see him on DU.
And I have to agree most people have no idea who (or what) they are listening to.

People spend years of hard work and effort developing their craft, only to have it sampled, modified, and stolen.

[highplainsdem]

7. I've posted a few dozen of Rick's videos in the Music Appreciation forum (which I host) in the last

four years, and some of them in other forums as well.

[hatrack]

8. It's worse than that . . . pop music has essentially been lobotomized

And yes, I'm saying this as an old guy, but I'm also a musician for most of the last 40 years. I love jazz and classical and lots of rock, world music, all kinds of things. Anyway, my point in all this is that I know a good song when I hear one, and what's sparkling up our airwaves these days is shit.

They're not even songs, they're one- or two-chord vamps. There's no verse, chorus or bridge, just painfully repetitive sampled shit, with vocal efforts courtesy of patients currently in residence at Lord Autotune's Royal Hospital For Oversinging.

Part of the problem is that FM sucks and I say FM because that's playing where I work. Whatever the "Todayzz Hitzz!" stations happen to be in your town, the rule is about a 60-song playlist, which means during my day at work, I'll hear the same crap song four or five times.

And trust me, it's not all crap: "Sally When The Wine Runs Out" by Role Model is a really clever pop song, and "Messy" is the best Bad Relationship Fuck You song I've heard in a long time. But again, the exceptions that prove the rule.

[highplainsdem]

9. And a lot of those songs are written by committees, not reflecting one or two people's experiences

and feelings, but reflecting what the majority of the committee thinks will be most commercial.

Even those are better than AI, though.

[BidenRocks]

11. In the 70s people were bitchin about

Disco killing live music.
This is true as one DJ is cheaper than a band. I'm Rock, not Disco!
I still have a T shirt. Disco Sucks Kill the Bee Gees. ( Didn't mean it literally)

New times, new troubles.

Boomer personal opinion?
The best music was 70s and 80s.
Then it was rap and Cribs and I was done. Right about OJ time. Pauley Shore?

Now we hear our tunes at the grocery store or medical offices.
I guess the copyrights expired. I don't miss Muzak!

I hate AI Slop! Computers will not replace us!

[highplainsdem]

12. No, the copyrights haven't expired, and won't for a long time. See this:

https://www.ascap.com/help/music-business-101/money-copyright

In late 1998, Congress passed the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act which changed the 1976 Copyright Act by significantly increasing the length of time a song remains under copyright protection. Different rules though apply for songs written prior to January 1, 1978 and those written on or after that date.

For compositions written on or after January 1, 1978, the basic term of protection is the life of the writer plus 70 years. For example, if two 20 year old writers wrote a song in 2005, and one lives to be 50 and the other lives to be 100, the copyright protection for that song would last for 150 years from its creation. In this case, the protection would last from the time the song was written through the life of the last living writer (i.e. 100 years minus 20 = 80 years) plus an additional 70 years.

For compositions written prior to January 1, 1978, and which were still under copyright protection as of the time the Term Extension Act was passed, an additional 20 years of protection was added to the old law's terms. As the total number of years of protection for most pre-1978 songs under the 1976 law was 75 years (28 original years + 28 renewal years and a 19 year extension), the term of protection for these works has been extended to a total of 95 years from the original date of copyright.

For compositions written prior to January 1, 1978, and which were still under copyright protection as of the time the Term Extension Act was passed, an additional 20 years of protection was added to the old law's terms. As the total number of years of protection for most pre-1978 songs under the 1976 law was 75 years (28 original years + 28 renewal years and a 19 year extension), the term of protection for these works has been extended to a total of 95 years from the original date of copyright.

AI music generators are almost entirely trained on stolen copyrighted work.

[PatSeg]

13. If everything becomes AI,

then what is the purpose of humans? It is making people obsolete.

[highplainsdem]

14. That's how AI companies are selling generative AI to businesses - as a replacement for workers.

And while they're doing that, they tell workers not to worry because the AI will just assist humans and make their work easier.

And if a lot of people get laid off, some AI bros say, AI will have led to so much prosperity that there will definitely be UBI, and people can just relax and do whatever they want to do.

[PatSeg]

16. Yeah and eventually

there will be no consumers for their goods and services, because so many people will be unemployed. We're on the road to becoming a third world country. Meanwhile, an authoritarian leader can use such circumstances to expand their military by recruiting the unemployed and unemployable.

This is the beginning of a dystopian futuristic world. Aldous Huxley and George Orwell saw this coming long ago. I think I'd rather read it in a book than experience it first hand.

[ScratchCat]

15. To paraphrase Steven Van Zandt

"The music business and Vegas have something in common: They were both better when they were run by the mob".

If you haven't read his book, its a must.