✘ An expansion of possibilities: generative AI from a musician’s perspective
A special guest edition by Songcamp's Mark Redito.
Hi everybody,
It’s been a while since I’ve sent out one of these and today I’m doing that in the role of an MC to support a surprise edition penned by Mark Redito.
For those curious about what I’m up to:
I’m writing a little less, or rather, I’m working on something long-form that I haven’t quite worked out how to share in a newsletter format.
Have started bringing COLORS’ iconic A COLORS SHOW format ‘onchain’ by launching a new platform called COLORS COLLECT.
Am still speaking at conferences and recently did this Songcamp Convo podcast with Mark about how we’re in the end game of the recorded music era.
But now let me introduce Mark Redito. Mark is an amazing artist & technologist based in LA, whom I first got to know through his community leadership at web3 artist collective Songcamp. He is sharing with us his reflection on using AI as an artist in a piece that provide a wide angle covering general developments, but also hands on examples of his usage and experiments.
To top it off: 5 links and a great music recommendation, so dive right in!
Follow Mark Redito here: twitter | markredito.com
Love,
Bas
An expansion of possibilities: generative AI from a musician’s perspective (by Mark Redito)
Mark Redito is an artist, technologist and community designer. He is currently Head of Community at Songcamp, an artist lab and collective.
As 2023 unfolds, the generative AI space is buzzing with a vibrant medley of cultural moments, echoing throughout the music industry like an electrifying riff. Alt-pop cyborg Grimes, for instance, boldly invited fans to remix her voice, while an AI-fueled deepfake collaboration between Drake and The Weeknd emerged from the digital shadows. Opinions, like contrasting musical genres, are diverse. Some in my circle envision a dystopian future where musicians are out of work—although, I contend that this dystopian idea has long been upon us. Stories such as these, understandably fuel concerns that creativity's curtain call is imminent.
As a lifelong music enthusiast and a producer since 2013, blending music with cutting-edge technology has been my passion. When I first discovered Jukebox and Musenet in 2020, the idea of generating music from trained data struck me like a thunderous crescendo. Holly Herndon's 2021 release of Holly+, her AI-trained digital twin, only amplified my awe. By the summer of 2022, as I tinkered with Stable Diffusion and Midjourney for image generation and IRCAM RAVE for sound, it dawned on me— these innovative tools hold the potential to enhance and amplify an artist's creative expression.
As an eternal optimist, I propose this thesis: Generative AI is revolutionizing the music industry by expanding creative possibilities, democratizing the art, and making advanced tools more accessible to musicians. Rather than predicting the future, I seek to explore the vast array of possibilities that lie on the horizon.
LINKS
💡 The creativity of AI art (Emergent Garden)
“…some significant piece of our creativity is contained in our art and language in the data and thus in the model I argue AI is creative because it is trained on human creativity the model is good at exploring image space because artists are good at exploring image space. They've been doing it for thousands of years. Human artists also learn through imitation which builds their creativity.”
✘ This video was like a lightbulb moment on the whole 'Creativity and AI' thing! It totally sparked some inspiration and gave a cool new perspective on how we can look at AI as a legit creative buddy.
💼 Lifers, dayjobbers, and the independently wealthy: a letter to a former student (Max Alper)
“Knowing that the game is rigged is liberating! Just because the music industry lacks meritocracy doesn’t mean you can’t blow these assholes out of the water through your craft. Your experiences outside their bubble will only foster more creativity as a result.”
✘ So, what's your artist vibe? Are you all in, living the dream 24/7? Maybe you're juggling your passion with a day job? Or, lucky you, already rolling in the artist dough? No matter where you're at, this essay is packed with real-world advice and a hefty dose of pep talk to help all you musicians navigate the road to sustainability.
🎛 AI and music-making part 1: the state of play (Angus Finlayson)
“Generally speaking artists we cherish are those that deviate from the baseline for one reason or another, and there will be great artists in the AI era just as there have been great artists in any era.”
✘ This is like the first slice of a killer 2-part series pie, loaded with wisdom from the brainiest peeps in the music and AI game. Their insightful nuggets have totally amped up my thinking about generative AI, and I'm totally digging it.
🧠 How to do great work (Paul Graham)
“…choose a field, learn enough to get to the frontier, notice gaps, explore promising ones. This is how practically everyone who's done great work has done it, from painters to physicists.”
✘ This read is a marathon, not a sprint, but boy, it's packed with gems of actionable wisdom. It's like a treasure map I'll find myself unrolling time and time again.
🥇 Frank Ocean, ChatGPT, & the non-effort eating music alive (Alex Siber & Danny Dwyer)
“It’s not just “write me a song, GPT,” it’s about introducing it into your problem-solving patterns. That said, yesterday in a co-writing session, my collaborator wrote one stanza in a verse and he was struggling with the other one, so he asked me to do it. I plugged his stanza into GPT, explained the concept of the song, and asked it to spit something out that mirrored the first stanza’s cadence and rhyme scheme. It was great. I copy and pasted it into our shared note. My collaborator goes, “This is genius!” He still doesn’t know GPT did it.”
✘ This lengthy read is studded with golden insights, and Danny Dwyer's passion for learning and perfecting his art really shines. It's a masterclass in dedication.
MUSIC
Drenched in the heart-pounding beats of jazz fusion, layered with the infectious groove of energetic basslines, and dusted with the tantalizing tang of Latin influence, this classic album has carved out a permanent spot in my daily soundtrack. Listen to Robson Jorge e Licoln Olivetti.
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