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?
As a producer and an artist, AI is a scary thing. In my opinion, singing and songwriting is such a human artform. Lyrics and performances come from the soul – and knowing that there is an AI technology out there that can fool anyone into thinking that it was an authentic song written from the heart is sad and confusing. However, seeing how artists, songwriters, record labels, publishers, etc are banding together to enforce regulation is a step in the right direction. Technology is always evolving.
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?
I definitely have seen an interesting and welcomed shift over the last few years in the industry and especially at VML. During COVID, there was a push to work remotely with other offices around the country and the globe — but once COVID was on the decline, this new way of collaborating became the new normal. I really love how I can be working with creatives based in Kansas City, client engagement folks in Miami and a producer based in Chicago. My creative network has expanded — I have made so many new connections and friends, and I’ve been able to tap into resources that may not have been available to me before this new way of working was implemented. It has made me a more well-rounded music producer and has really helped to sharpen my skills to foster working relationships with people remotely versus being in-person.
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.
Before I go into this, I do need to be upfront that I am someone who loves to work — to be a part of a team … and if that means keeping insane hours, that’s what I need to do. In general, I find that especially working for a large agency with offices all across North America and beyond, sometimes the challenge becomes making sure the team is working with the right track in quick-turn edits. We have some clients where the demands are hot and the needs for great music late at night or over the weekend are even hotter. I never want my team to come up short, but at the same time, I understand that the rest of the music industry may not be working around the clock like us agency folks. Not so long ago, I had to come to the realization that I must prepare as much as possible in order to deliver. If I know of a fast-moving production, I work with my team to prep as much as we can, knowing that labels, publishers, music houses, etc., may not return my Saturday-at-6 p.m. email — and that’s fine.
But on the flip side, as much as I love to work, I do need to find balance. And recently, I started implementing “do not disturb” time in order to refill my cup so I can be my best for those crazy fast-turn requests!
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?
I recently had the honor to work on the latest Colgate campaign called “My Smile Is My Superpower,” where we produced an amazing music video, “The Beauty of Gaps,” featuring Katy Perry’s modern classic, “Roar” — covered through the beauty of whistles. This campaign celebrates being your authentic self and encourages kids of all ages to accept what might have been traditionally thought of as a flaw (i.e., gap teeth). This work really resonated with me in so many ways and being able to license “Roar” and help lead music production to reimagine a song that I wish I personally wrote is definitely a highlight of my career at large.
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?
With a lot of these prized music catalogs being sold, I think we are going to see more and more “premium” music being licensed for less-than-premium work. At the end of the day, the publishers are going to need to recoup as much money as possible — and if for some reason there are no approval rights needed from the writers themselves, publishers will be able to approve music usage any chance they get. While this could be cool in certain cases, we could also start seeing the creative value of music declining in order for the publishers to stay afloat. I wouldn’t be surprised if this continues to lead to more and more mergers and acquisitions to make up for lost revenue.
