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In Loving Memory of Eliya Iluz
Will AI Empower Music Creators? Or Will It Kill Today’s Music Industry? 🎵🤖
Let’s face it, musicians have always been screwed over by intermediaries. Whether it’s the record labels, event organizers, tour managers, or in the last decade, the streaming platforms, music creators are constantly being handed the crumbs. Of course, those crumbs become millions when you’re a multi-billion brand like Taylor Swift, but the remaining 99% of musicians barely make a decent living from their art. To add insult to injury, Daniel Ek (Spotify’s CEO) recently stated that “the cost of creating content is close to zero,” angering many musicians, most notably Deadmau5, who threatened to pull his music from the platform: [Source] Ek has a point, though. With today’s AI generative platforms, music that was once the product of decades of musical education and daily dedication in the studio can now be emulated in seconds with a simple prompt. But where is the creator in all this process? How do we reward not only the writer of the prompt but also the original music that served as training data to produce that new piece of music? If you’ve been trying out music generation platforms like SUNO, you’ve noticed that their output sounds pretty commercial, almost as if it were trained by a historical set of Billboard’s top 100. This has led to a recent lawsuit filed by major labels like Universal, Sony, and Warner against SUNO and UDIO for copyright infringement: [Read More] SUNO recently announced a $125 million raise, but if this lawsuit were settled as filed, at $150,000 per infringed work, it could mean that if they used 10,000 songs from their catalog, the lawsuit would amount to $1.5 billion! More than 10 times their raise: [Read More]. The big question is: “How do we enable AI music generation to thrive while ensuring that human musicians and artists are rewarded and still incentivized to create new music?” A recent approach pushed forward by Roland and UMG, supported by 50 major MusicTech companies, has been to establish some basic principles for music creation with AI: [Source] **The seven Principles for Music Creation with AI are as follows:** 1. “We believe music is central to humanity.” 2. “We believe humanity and music are inseparable.” 3. “We believe that technology has long supported human artistic expression, and applied sustainably, AI will amplify human creativity.” 4. “We believe that human-created works must be respected and protected.” 5. “We believe that transparency is essential to responsible and trustworthy AI.” 6. “We believe the perspectives of music artists, songwriters, and other creators must be sought after and respected.” 7. “We are proud to help bring music to life.” While I appreciate the approach and support the principles pushed forward by these companies, they still fail to address the key issue with AI-generated music: “HOW DO WE REWARD THE CREATORS FOR NEWLY GENERATED AI MUSIC?” This is precisely the problem we are trying to solve at Soundwork. SUNO refuses to disclose which songs they are using to train their model, making this a black box, where we can’t know with complete certainty who to reward for a newly AI-generated song, even though it sounds very familiar to a famous artist that we know and love. The idea of Soundwork’s Sound NFT Standard and its novel reward mechanism is to approach the solution through an incentive mechanism, instead of the “stick” approach the music labels are taking. All the sounds, loops, and tracks within the Soundwork Marketplace have a unique creator, which has a public and undeniable footprint on the blockchain. Therefore, when our AI Music Maker uses these sounds to produce a new track, we know exactly who to reward and which revenue model to follow since this was set by the creator at the time of minting. By limiting our model to the sounds being minted within our platform, instead of making our training data a black box like the AI-generating platforms we use today, we can allow our model to be open and transparent. This approach ensures that artists and labels can adopt this model confidently, knowing that regardless of how their music is used for new creations, they can claim rewards fairly and without intermediaries. This is what Web3 was created for! And this is why we believe in it so strongly at Soundwork.io. If you’d like to know more about how we plan on preparing the music industry for the AI generation wave that is upon us, feel free to read our whitepaper: [Soundwork Whitepaper]. And if you like what you see, join us and become part of our journey. If you enjoyed this read, please give it a like and share it with your network. It means the world to us and it can help empower other MusicTech enthusiasts like you. 🎵✨ #MusicTech #AI #Web3 #NFT #Blockchain #Soundwork #FutureOfMusic #MusicIndustry #AIinMusic #DigitalTransformation #Innovation
Will AI Empower Music Creators? Or Will It Kill Today’s Music Industry? 🎵🤖 Read More »
What is Soundwork?
What is Soundwork and How NFTs & AI Can Revolutionize Music Creation By Jonathan Ganor tl;dr NFTs and Music NFTs hold the potential to revolutionize the music industry across multiple fronts, offering artists new avenues for empowerment, deeper fan connections, and diversified revenue streams. One significant impact is fairer compensation for artists. Unlike the minimal earnings from streaming services, NFTs enable direct sales to fans, ensuring artists retain a larger portion of their earnings. Programmable royalties on NFTs also facilitate ongoing revenue whenever the digital asset is resold. NFTs also provide transparency and verifiable ownership, ensuring fair royalty distribution and clarifying rights management. This transparency builds trust and fosters a sense of true ownership among fans. Furthermore, NFTs democratize music distribution by empowering independent artists to reach audiences directly, bypassing traditional gatekeepers like record labels. The musician Grimes made headlines in 2021 with her highly notable and successful NFT sales. Her “War Nymph” NFT collection, featuring digital artworks synchronized with her music, generated approximately $6 million in revenue on Nifty Gateway. Notably, a one-of-one music video from the collection fetched nearly $400,000, showcasing the immense value and demand for music in the NFT space. Newborn 4 from War Nymph Collection Vol 1. What is Soundwork? Soundwork is a decentralized platform that seeks to revolutionize music production and redefine the music industry’s supply chain. Using blockchain tech and AI, Soundwork introduces a unique ecosystem that incentivizes music producers, beat makers, recording artists, and enthusiasts. At the core of Soundwork is the concept of trackable ownership, ensuring proof of ownership for creators. This innovative approach, coupled with reward mechanisms, empowers creators to track their sounds wherever they are utilized, providing transparency and fair compensation. Soundwork extends beyond creators, welcoming music lovers, fans, developers, and curious individuals into its community. Through applications developed on top of the Soundwork Marketplace, such as the flagship AI-powered music-making app, users can interact with sounds minted on the platform. Soundwork gives creators broader exposure and also introduces an engaging element to music creation, making it enjoyable for all. The Current State of the Music Industry The current state of the music industry is characterized by significant growth driven primarily by streaming services. With a projected worth of $30.7 billion in 2024 and an estimated growth rate exceeding 8.5% to reach $45.65 billion by 2029, according to Mordor Intelligence. Streaming platforms like Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music are key contributors to this expansion. Factors such as internet penetration and mobile device usage continue to fuel the adoption of streaming services. Mordor Intelligence Research & Advisory. (2024, February). Music Market Size & Share Analysis – Growth Trends & Forecasts (2024 – 2029). Mordor Intelligence. However, some challenges persist, particularly regarding streaming payouts for artists. Ensuring proper rights management and combating piracy remain ongoing concerns in the digital era. How Soundwork Leverages NFTs Soundwork operates through the Soundwork NFT Standard (called SNFTs) a pivotal tool integrating blockchain technology with music tech. SNFT empowers musicians to create unique sonic landscapes like sounds and beats, immortalizing them as NFTs. The platform categorizes Sound NFTs into individual sounds, packs (collections of sounds), elements (including MIDI files, effects, etc.), and tracks (full songs). These NFTs are transferable and listable on the Sound Marketplace and other compatible platforms. Each NFT type has specific attributes, such as name, format, media files, tempo, genre, author details, collaborators, availability, and more, ensuring comprehensive ownership and transactional data. The Soundwork Marketplace serves as a hub for buying, selling, and leasing music NFTs. Users can connect their wallets, create listings, set prices, participate in auctions, buy, make offers, manage offers, and claim revenue. This marketplace operates through a Smart Contract that facilitates secure transactions, licensing, and revenue sharing among creators and collaborators. Soundwork’s Marketplace Soundwork also offers an AI Music-Maker app for creating music on iOS, web, and Android devices. The app supports sound selection, modification, sequencing, mixing, and NFT minting, enabling users to craft full tracks ready for the Sound Marketplace. The SOUND Token, a central driver for incentives, drives governance, utility, and marketplace functions within the Soundwork ecosystem. The Potential Impact of Soundwork and NFTs The potential impact of Soundwork spans across multiple facets, promising a transformative shift in the music industry’s dynamics for artists, fans, and the industry as a whole. For Artists, the impact is profound. NFTs offer a pathway to fairer compensation by enabling direct sales to fans, bypassing traditional intermediaries like streaming services and record labels. This direct connection also translates into sustainable revenue streams, as NFTs can incorporate royalty structures, ensuring artists earn a percentage from secondary sales. Additionally, exclusive content bundled with NFTs deepens fan engagement, fostering a stronger bond between artists and their audiences. Moreover, independent artists benefit from the democratization of distribution, bypassing gatekeepers to reach a global audience. For Fans, music NFTs bring about a paradigm shift. Fans can directly support their favorite artists through NFT purchases, gaining unique ownership of scarce digital assets that represent the artist’s work. This ownership extends to exclusive benefits such as access to private content, communities, or even participation in creative decisions. NFTs can also introduce new ways to experience music, with offerings like virtual concerts and merchandise tie-ins. On a broader scale, the music industry stands to gain significantly from the adoption of music NFTs. These digital assets create new revenue streams for artists, labels, and platforms involved in NFT sales. NFTs ensure increased transparency, enhancing rights management and royalty distribution. Furthermore, the NFT space fosters a more interactive approach to fan engagement, leading to the discovery of new artists and a more diverse musical landscape. In conclusion, Soundwork is set to transform the music industry’s traditional supply chain. Soundwork empowers music creators to receive their rightful earnings and recognition by utilizing NFTs to ensure trackable ownership and fair compensation. As Soundwork continues to innovate within this space, it stands on the brink of setting a new standard in the music industry, promising a more equitable and transparent model for
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