The Warholization of Music
“In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes.”
Andy Warhol, 1968.
Since it first exploded onto the music tech scene in 2022, the majority of investment in the music space has in some way involved AI. Yes, the apple of every VC and angel investor’s eye at the moment quickly overtook its predecessors Blockchain and Web3. The majority of the startups being funded involve music creation tools. Ways to make music creation easier, faster, or more “pro” sounding. The result of which is multifaceted. On one hand, more people can make music that sounds “good”. On the other hand, if there is more “good” music out there, this can at least perceptually mean less “great” music.
Recorded music is the new photography
With the advent of the double-digit-pixel mobile phone cameras, photography as an art-form has changed forever. It would be incorrect to say it’s no longer an art-form, but it’s one that almost anyone can “master” to their friends and family at least. In music, we are now at a phase where music creation has been simplified to the level of having the option to have AI compose and track recorded music. And for five bucks a month, novice musicians can throw their masterwork on every streaming platform in existence.
Is this a bad thing? Absolutely not for most people looking for a fun, creative outlet. Companies like BandLab have made the recording process inexpensive and much lower on the learning curve, veritably eliminating whatever barrier to entry that had previously existed to novice wanna-be music producers. But for true music artists looking to build careers, AI is not going to make their life easier. Quite the opposite as you’ll certainly hear if you ask a professional photographer how the cell camera changed their business model.
Music as a side hustle
While the developments in AI-driven music creation tech have been promising for those looking for an easier way to make music, it remains to be seen how they will help career artists who have to-date distinguished themselves with development skills and performance talent. Already the streaming services and labels are having a hard time handling this new boom of uploaded music tracks. Certainly, there will always be a place for talented artists to rise above the noise and become career artists. However, that is already a very minuscule percentage of all the artists who are trying, and for the vast majority of them, more competition for a fan’s listening attention is not a good thing.
As a result, there are now and will continue to be more artists making small amounts of money off their music. Twenty years ago, a band playing 1000–1500 cap rooms might actually sustain themselves financially. That’s not the case any more. Most people would be surprised how some of their favorite artists have day jobs. Touring is more expensive today and most tours don’t generate the same profit margins they once could.
AI vs AI
To really understand how TikTok works, you need at least a basic understanding of how their viewing algorithm works. (which is an entirely separate post). Essentially, their algorithm feeds content to each viewer based on all collected metrics about that viewer’s activity and preferences, and aligned to various Tiktok economic incentives (eg paid advertising and placement deals).
On the creator side, you now have AI-generated content — and in response TikTok has implemented algorithms to detect and label in order to differentiate (and in some cases) prioritize human-created content. But there is a coming battle between AI algorithms to game the other side — its not clear whether generation or detection will win. Eventually, we believe there will likely exist a symbiotic relationship between the two with TikTok being the governance of what ultimately wins out and what you the viewer is fed. This is beneficial to AI companies and TikTok all of whom profit, but not good for human content creators.
Andy’s take
As content becomes more temporary and disposable, sadly, so will artists. As Andy Warhol predicted almost sixty years ago, everyone will have their fifteen minutes of fame. And AI as it’s currently used, will be a big part of that vision coming to fruition, although 15 seconds might be a more realistic amount.
The artist’s recourse
If you are an artist and you are using TikTok or any other social media platform as a means of fan engagement, the most important thing you can do is understand how the platforms work and ideally, for you perhaps there is a way to turn your music into something so compelling both visually and musically that it creates virality. And if that happens for you, it’s also important for you to understand that your relationship with anyone who follows you as a result will only exist on that platform unless you do something to migrate the fan to a place where you can own that fan relationship.
Most music artists won’t be so lucky as to be able to use these AI-reliant platforms to cut through to their target audience, if those people are even on the platform. As we move forward into the world of AI-integrated technology, it’s imperative for real human artists who want to support themselves to find a way to connect directly with real, human fans.
Launching this summer for all human music artists and creators, ArtistVerified is the only artist-to-fan platform that will feature profiles for nearly every established artist and give fans the opportunity to receive the messaging from all of their favorite artists consistently and unfiltered by any algorithms or AI. ArtistVerified gives ownership of the fan relationship to any artist who claims their profile and verifies their identity.
