So first off, let me set this straight.
I actually like GenAI music. It offers me a way to er… “create” tracks that resonate with a particular moment in my life. It’s more personal and relevant than anything most artists produce. But that’s where it ends - I don’t want to hear GenAI mass market slop. Heck, I don’t want to hear MOST folk’s AI Generated stuff. That’s for them. The music I generate is for me.
Moving on from that - I primarily use Spotify currently for music discovery, and up until a few months ago it’s been the most reliable way to find new Artists that might interest me. Their algorithm, while not perfect, generally hooked me up with artists that were in the ballpark of what I like and were REAL.
Today, about half of my “Release Radar” is AI generated slop. Some of it is published under their own names and labels which is fine, but others are transparently attempting to dupe listeners by imitating or outright impersonating known bands. However, even in the “nice” case of well labeled and non-impersonating AI tunes, it’s significantly getting in the way of finding new stuff.
I think I’m done with Spotify, recent statements from the CEO has me thinking that they don’t consider this to be a problem. They aren’t looking to fix this issue, and aren’t even pretending to.
But the problem is, none of the other music streaming services are in a better situation. None have sought to deal with the artist impersonation problem or general labeling of AI generated music.
I feel like I have to go back to CD’s and word-of-mouth like back in the “old days” - at least if I’m to be sure that the music was actually made by a human. But how long would it be before we start getting CD’s with AI generated music on them? My hope is that the fad is too “low effort” to bother with pressing vinyl or burning CD’s.
How are you discovering new (human) music in this rapidly changing landscape?
For discovery, check out https://rateyourmusic.com/! You can rate music and then use automated suggestions, or better yet, go on albums you like and check out profiles of people that made reviews that resonate with you for other stuff they like. It’s old-school, based on humans! You can look into charts by genres as well.
Instead of collecting a physical music library, you can consider DRM-free digital as well. You can buy albums in such formats at Bandcamp, Qobuz, 7digital. Of course you can sail the high seas as well once in a while. Personally I’m proud to support artists, but I have much less scruples concerning copyright over music made by musicians that have passed away.
Yup, I do that where possible now. Usually only for albums though.
I also buy a lot of band merch these days and try to go when they play locally.
I only take to the high seas in the event I can’t find a particular hifi release or something equally niche and eBay is no help.
CD’s have a nostalgia appeal to it for me, and since I’m finally financially stable I’ve been wanting to get back into collecting physical media. It’s just hard because not many new bands bother with physical media at all anymore. At least outside of limited run releases.
As an aside, I don’t get the resurgence of tape players at all! Tape being lower fidelity coupled with the shorter lifespan was something I thought people disliked.
UPDATE:
RYM is awesome. Thank you!