The Death of the Middle-Class Musician

Well, AI is here and I give it a high chance than in a few years all the music streaming platforms will go the way of the mastodon. Even recorded music in general may take a hit. I'm already skipping tracks in YT-music that I suspect they are AI-generated. When I find that the majority of the tracks are AI-generated, I'll start looking up individual producers and getting back to maintaining my own music collection in a harddrive and an MP3 player. Maybe I'll even buy a ticket and go to a concert, something I've only done once so far in my four decades and counting.

You may say that people just care about the music and not the musician, and that thus an AI-generated track is as good as any. Perhaps. But when I was a kid, all my pals developed their musical taste by word-of-mouth and I-want-to-be-cool-like-you-and-listen-to-Rammstein. Can't imagine all edgy teenagers will fall in love with an AI model.

Disclaimer: I work in the pro audio industry and have decades of experience with this industry from the perspective of a developer of instruments, tools, and so on, specifically for creatives.

You see, I firmly believe that music, itself, is a form of currency.

So exchanging that currency for another is the problem.

However, I can say with a great deal of certainty - having observed musicians for decades - musicians make money when they make live music.

Not all music can be played live.

But live musicians are the future of music.

It’s one thing to be able to conjure up whatever you want with AI.

But, do it live, in front of 1000 people.

Or, even 10.

I can walk through my city today and encounter 100 (easily) musicians making money every hour, plying their wares into the stones of the streets and pedestrian bubbles.

But yeah, it’s hard work. Why not make an AI do it?

What do you mean by: music, itself, is a form of currency?

I really am missing some context here.

You get up on stage in front of a bunch of people, and you deliver a performance that they find compelling enough to contribute their own acknowledgement of your work in exchange, and in this process there is a current that flows between the artist and the audience, which - when properly motivated - increases in value over time.