Opinion

It’s a safe bet that most HFN readers are not merely gearheads, but music lovers too. So you might have wondered how economic decisions affect the lives of the artists on whom we depend, aesthetically and emotionally. Back in the days of physical media, musicians launched tours in support of new releases. Tickets were affordable because profits were primarily derived from sales of records. Beginning with Napster, and especially since the advent of streaming, that business model is dead. Recordings today are basically given away as promotional items to sell concert tickets, whose prices have skyrocketed.

This development has left many musicians out in the cold financially. Most make little from streaming and a pittance from performing – if they are lucky enough to land regular gigs. Superstars rake it in, but those below the peak of the economic pyramid are often doing subsistence labour for an art form they dearly love.

I recently chatted about this with Rick Clark. A Nashville-based music producer, recording engineer, songwriter, performer, writer, radio show host and all-round Renaissance man, he is quite concerned about the directions culture and cultural economics are taking, particularly with regards to the growing incursions from artificial intelligence (AI) on every front.

‘Typical consumers aren’t invested as part of the professional creative class, and receive only the end results of years of creative work and practice’, he said. ‘As long as what they’re hearing or seeing scratches their itch, most people are fine, provided it’s free or doesn’t cost much.’

The popular appetite for low-cost entertainment threatens musicians and artists at the bottom of the economy. ‘There will always be creatives, because the need to express will always be there’, Clark continued, ‘but AI-generated music, art, video, etc, will become the norm, probably within a decade. It will conform to consumers’ input for desired effects. Younger generations will have no problem with this, because for them it will be normal’.

Above: Music producer and engineer Rick Clark (pictured top) has written a number of books on recording including Mixing, Recording, And Producing Techniques Of The Pros

Clark also believes that streaming services will become platforms where consumers can order any musical expression they desire. ‘They are very much this way now. Billionaire head of Spotify, Daniel Ek, already sees music as “product”. Eventually Spotify might decide to farm the elements from millions of pieces of human creativity in order to generate AI music on command’.

Is there a remedy? Clark isn’t optimistic. ‘In time, artists will either have to strike deals with AI operators or find their own human-curated platforms – maybe boutique operations for those who value “imperfections” in real human expression. Music won’t die, but it will dramatically change.’ So too will the industries around it. ‘I’m a film/TV music supervisor’, Clark explained. ‘I see my career being deleted by AI. Only a handful of music supervisors will survive, probably as input operators for AI – until they’re also replaced.’

Where does the money go? ‘Naturally, it goes into the hands of the very few. Social order is laying prostrate on the tracks of the oncoming train of AI. It’s already left the station. The arts have always been the first things cut in social and educational programs – they’re canaries in the coal mine.’

Clark believes that AI operations will have to be heavily taxed as millions of jobs evaporate, and ‘organisations of all kinds’ will have to avoid being rendered impotent by AI – but Joe Public can fight back. ‘There will be inevitable discord and chaos, but consumers will keep the lights on as they choose between the artificial and the authentic. We overcome fear with adaptability.’