On April 1, more than 200 music notables (including Billie Eilish, Stevie Wonder, 3 Balvin and Jon Bon Jovi) of the Artists Rights Alliance issued an open letter warning against the “predatory use of AI” in the music industry. The letter cites AI’s capability to steal professional artists’ voices and likenesses, violate creators’ rights and “destroy the music ecosystem.” The letter further calls on tech companies, AI developers and digital music services to pledge that they won’t develop or use AI-powered technology the undermines songwriters and artists or prevents them from earning compensation for their art. What are your views and/or concerns relative to artificial intelligence and its impact on music and sound?
We as music supervisors stand on the shoulders of the people who create music. The ever-breathing artists, songwriters, producers, composers, arrangers, sound engineers, and editors, provide their organic art for us to place in media. Their art has a soul, pulse, and DNA. We cannot sacrifice the artform just to cut a corner, save a buck and/or make a deadline. You can use a music library to do that.
We have to continue to feed into our music community by giving them the opportunities, the fees, the accolades, and the creative fingerprint – not AI! The people need to continue to be paid for their hours of genius, not AI.
I am an advocate for them. I once had to provide food for my family through the music I created and especially for the indie music community, that source of revenue has literally saved lives.
On April 1, more than 200 music notables (including Billie Eilish, Stevie Wonder, 3 Balvin and Jon Bon Jovi) of the Artists Rights Alliance issued an open letter warning against the “predatory use of AI” in the music industry. The letter cites AI’s capability to steal professional artists’ voices and likenesses, violate creators’ rights and “destroy the music ecosystem.” The letter further calls on tech companies, AI developers and digital music services to pledge that they won’t develop or use AI-powered technology the undermines songwriters and artists or prevents them from earning compensation for their art. What are your views and/or concerns relative to artificial intelligence and its impact on music and sound?
For the projects that I currently have a hand on, it hasn’t factored in much, however, there is an increased interest in attaching brand campaigns with trending artists who have influencer caliber and artists who have a footprint in the NFT, Web 3 and the gaming space. I‘ve been able to kick around some cool ideas with colleagues who are in the early stages of creative marketing.
For VR/AR It all depends on the creative and the campaign. Some of the more social driven campaigns tend to lean more towards the trending influencer-artists who have a high number of streams and a big following. It’s all based on the brand’s creative team and if they are moving in that direction in order to catch a targeted audience.
The industry is continuously changing and adapting to new streaming platforms and technologies that open new opportunities for us in advertising. It’s really an exciting time to be on the music side of advertising now because we’re getting to experiment, play and evolve in the changing landscape
How has your role–or that of your business or company–evolved in recent years? What do you like most about that evolution? What do you like least?
My role as music supervisor is constantly evolving. I had the chance to sit in as a Clio juror last year and marveled at how creative boundaries continue to be stretched when it comes to placing music in marketing and ads. It’s absolutely amazing and fun to continue to be in this space.
What’s disheartening to see and hear is when a brand hasn’t tried to understand their audience or hasn’t tried to explore the music landscape to its fullest potential when aligning it to a campaign.
What was the biggest creative challenge posed to you by a recent project? Tell us about that project, why the challenge was particularly noteworthy or gratifying to overcome, or what valuable lesson you learned from it.
There’s not one particular instance, per se. Music is always subjective when choosing the right track for a campaign. There are always a ton of decision-makers at the table.
It’s so gratifying when I can bring music options to the forefront that haven’t been explored or options that weren’t thought of. It’s an amazing feeling when the creative team is receptive to my recommendations, open to listening and putting them into play. I know I’ve done my job if I’ve added to the creative vision and sparked new ideas. My music options don’t always make it to the final cut, but I know that they’ve inspired ideas that push towards an amazing end product.
As a music supervisor, you’re constantly having to prove yourself with every campaign you work on. When you can validate your skillset and earn your team’s respect, that’s the win. You have to put your ego aside and focus on the team’s success and let the rest fall where it may. Hopefully you end up with an epic project!
What recent work are you most proud of and why? Or what recent work (advertising or entertainment)–your own or that of others–has struck a responsive chord with you?
There’s a ton launching soon – stayed glued to your TV screen!
A growing number of superstar artists and songwriters have been selling their music rights/catalogs in megabuck deals. What will be the ripple effect of this on music creatively and from a business standpoint relative to the advertising, film, TV and streaming platform markets?
I’m familiar with a handful of music houses that have played in this space. It’s super fun and exciting! Depending on the structure of the buyout, the music house could get really creative with some of the legacy catalog’s music that they’re picking up. Creative in the sense of doing remixes and alt versions to a classic song. I’ve heard cinematic/trailer remixes to some of the tracks in these catalogs and they’ve been insanely dope. This could also bring the forgotten older deep cuts on an album to the forefront and resurrect a career. We’ve seen and heard of this happening on so many occasions in the past year or so. It’s a good move!
