I don’t think that Rick Beato is completely honest about being all that “sick” of AI. He generates a lot of Youtube AI related content, and amasses a large number of views dissing all things AI. Like a lot of AI negativity, after a while it comes off as a form of virtue signaling. All high and mighty on artistic purity --but in reality he isn’t exactly dying on that hill.
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It’s kind of double-edged for him - he does continually talk about learning to play “properly” and has courses on it so if everyone just used AI prompts to create music it wouldn’t be good for him… but at the same time it’s a nice source of revenue making easy videos about it to his large base of subscribers! For the most part he’s preaching to the converted - I’d imagine the crossover between people who stream AI slop from Spotify and also like Rick Beato is pretty small!
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I agree with you for the most part except for the slop pejorative. Not all AI is slop, as not all threats are existential (as seems to be similarly over used).
I used to be a subscriber but unsubscribed and de-hit that notification bell about a year ago.
Rick is obviously talented and knows a lot about music. But to me, he is more interested in complaining than anything else.
He constantly complains about today’s pop music, using the same type of criticism that can be used (and was used) with pop music in the last 60 years.
He keeps complaining about today’s kids not liking music, including his own, failing to acknowledge that they might have different legitimate interests. If he’s not able to make his kids appreciate music, then what does that say about him? Maybe if he’d been more positive…?
And he complains about short-form content and its creators, emphasizing that he is different. When in fact, just like everyone, he found his main audience and is is feeding them the content they want.
(I’ve censored myself a couple of times during the writing of this post to not offend anyone that might read this)
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What bothers me about AI is.
I can’t tell real from fiction. imho, that’s a pretty serious problem.
At this point, and I think it’s just gonna get worse.
If I don’t personally experience it, whatever ‘it’ is. It is subject to possibly being fiction and not being real.
That is gonna turn the world upside down imho. And not in a good way.
I think I’ll play my acoustic guitar. What I play in my home is for sure real! Including my mistakes. No gimmicks involved!
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So someone or something is gaming the system, Spotify is pushing music for which is doesn’t have to pay royalties, and people are listening to this stuff!!! Let’s lump it all together and label it AI: an easy sitting duck bogeyman. Rick Beato has lost me recently over this reactionary old man get-off-my-lawn stuff. Other channels admit that the music industry is welcoming AI in all sorts of ways, but not Rick.
The music industry has always been a seedy business, so there are plenty of things he could complain about, but obviously this new-fangled AI-thing is what people really want to see getting a kicking, and he can do it ad nauseam.
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This is exactly what Beato is complaining about in this video, and rightly so. I’m glad he raised this. He’s not complaining about people creating sounds using AI, he’s complaining that Spotify, the most popular music streaming service, is not making it clear whether the content is coming from AI or humans. I strongly hope legislation is enforced about this.
I’m sure many people will want to listen to AI sounds, but some people won’t and they have the right to be informed.
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Serious, really? I would need to be convinced that this is a serious issue. It’s a preference, which you have a right to, like so many other musical preferences.
I just finished my afternoon playing time. During acoustic, I played “Murder on Music Row” by George Strait and Alan Jackson.
“The almighty dollar, and the lust for worldwide fame
Slowly killed tradition, and for that someone should hang.”
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I’m Team Rick on this one.
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I do mostly agree with Rick on this one for all I said above about videos like this being easy money.
On the surface it shouldn’t matter how music is created if I enjoy listening to it. My preference though is to support actual musicians and that’s where his point about platforms not tagging AI music appropriately is important. Spotify knows that if they do tag music in this way that many people won’t listen to it so they don’t tag it. I do foresee a future Beato video when there’s a day when most of the Spotify top 10 is AI generated
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It certainly becomes serious the moment it leaves the musical arena and turns up in newsfeeds, social media etc.
Whether it’s serious in a musical context is perhaps more nuanced.
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It seems the only way you can do this these days is to go to gigs. The figure being tossed around these days is that 75% of musicians are losing money trying to promote themselves through online distributors. Anyone consuming music that way is lining the pockets of the middle men and further compelling desperate musicians to ‘invest’ in promotional packages that do no more than set them in competition with each other in a lose-lose game. AI is not the enemy here.
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There’s some truth in that, although I’d phrase it more as AI in not the only enemy, it is part of the problem though
Here’s an interesting perspective from an “active” professional producer, who recently began working in Suno. It’s not expected to change any one’s mind, but may provide some context as he uses the tool pretty much the same way that I do.
Musicians Are Panicking About This New AI
EDIT: The comments in this video are very enlightening.
I like that he gave us a methodology for making an educated guess as to whether the artist is AI generated or not.
I don’t really want to keep harping on about thus, because I’ve said my piece already - but I do think we are vicariously echoing the complaining elites, and tilting at windmills on their behalf.
In the old days, struggling bands would routinely be asked to play for free, so that venues could ‘assess’ how good they were. So a band would have to foot its own expenses, such as van hire, corral its friends to boost the audience size and the spending on drinks, which is the only thing the venue owners were really interested in, and pay for their own drinks anyway! Even when we were paid, the money was barely enough to pay our driver and we’d feel lucky if we pocketed £1 each. Of course, we’d spend more than that on drinks most nights. Sometimes the management would send a crate of bottles to the dressing-room. Such nights were rare delight indeed. So, yeah, I’m totally unmoved by complaints that AI is ripping off struggling musicians.
As for labelling music on the basis of its AI contamination: define AI. Let’s not kid ourselves, it’s already prevalent and label regulations are only going to be a dog’s dinner of definitions and circumvention. And if you cannot tell the difference just by listening to the music, you’re on a hiding to nothing.
Who would “the elites” be?
Historically, people have always tried to exploit one another. Only the rule of law prevents us from doing so (to some measure). Yes, music venues, big labels, etc, have been exploiting musicians. Now that exploitation becomes hyperscaled and global.
I guess different people are moved by different things…
Agreed, AI definitely is more and more prevalent in music, and that’s why we need regulation to enforce proper labeling of content for those who care. I do care to know exactly what’s inside the food I’m eating, and there’s regulation that guarantees that. Similarly I do care to know where the music I’m listening to comes from (as Beato puts it in this video)
Define AI? In music, easy. Did a human being physically play the instruments and/or sing?
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AI analyzes data and improves its performance over time. My DAW’s non-human generated sounds, loops and drummers are static (with some configurability) and therefore are not AI.
Musicians and people in the industry who are happily making quite a lot of money now and would like things to stay the way they are. Names not important.
No, the point is that you and I are not being ripped off by AI and are not likely to be in the foreseeable future. We don’t have anything to fear as musicians because we have so little to lose. It might actually stop us wasting money.
But if there is no difference in content, you’re talking about a far more nuanced question.
Come on. This didn’t even work as a definition 40 years ago! As soon as MIDI arrived it was possible to create music without having any skill or instruments.