Will AI Disrupt Production Music?
Mining Through the Crypto Bullshit
With the NFT boom slowing and bitcoin dropping to its lowest price in 2021 it makes a good time for the more interesting use cases to start to rear their head. I’ve previously been pretty skeptical about the real value of NFTs with their current infrastructure (see a great technical teardown here) but even if it did all work perfectly, buying ownership of a digital image or a bit of text had seemed quite limited given all the hype.
With all that said, the combination of NFTs, music, and gaming seems to offer something a lot more interesting. There’s limited information on Roc Nation’s purchase of Senso Tokens, other than their technology being used to access VR shows but where something of more substance is The Elektra Crowdfund.
“As this project evolves, the lines between creator and audience will blur.”
The Elektra is an interactive game with music at its core that leverages NFTs as tickets but then as a form of investment in the game/ecosystem itself as it may grow in popularity. The potential for this to be expanded into brand activation in other gaming environments is huge and could give millions of gaming fans an opportunity to share in the virtual success of their favourite artists.
The other side to this opportunity to those with a catalogue of music is to make the rights and cost of licensing flexible enough for people creating these new worlds to access the music. Currently, the most challenging part of using music is still the clearance and there is a big opportunity for someone to make themselves the preferred partner for web3.
https://songcamp.mirror.xyz/mkb-m9GWUCLByETAvCigJ0JIpz4XH8bwNDBtUJBPeFc
AI & Copyright
After last week’s feature on the advances of AI-generated music, I flagged the risk to production music and now a perfectly timed webinar has landed titled ‘AI and Copyright: What’s next?’ from University College London. Featuring speakers from PRS, Google, and the UK Intellectual Property Office. TL;DW Anything you train your algorithm on will have an impact on the copyright of the music created and the laws probably need to be rewritten. Production libraries, you can stop sweating for a while.
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/laws/events/2021/jul/ai-and-copyright-what-next
Khalid Soundtracks Space
I discovered this via someone’s horror on Twitter that anything can be turned into a marketing activation. Alongside the special edition Land Rover, Khalid debuted his new single as the test flight returned to earth.
Let’s hope this doesn’t expand into a live performance because the last thing anyone wants is to be stuck onboard a spaceship with Khalid for the whole thing.
Anne Marie’s AR gigs
Although I do love Anne Marie and I’m sure this paid well, the whole concept is a bit of a flop and the technology looks like something from the 90s TV show knightmare.
From the demo/concept video they’d released, it looks like we will be expected to hang around on a random street corner, leaning over someone's garden fence to point our phone at a billboard.
More next week!
Nick