Since music became free of charge, it was over.Back in the day, the record companies had a monopoly. Fortunes were made. Napster was the beginning of the end.

I’ve experienced this first hand within this past few months. Some of my workload as a studio musician was doing orchestral sessions (film/tv stuff, church music…etc) Much of that work has diminished due to AI programming.

Aaah the ministry of guitar. The only political office I respect

When the musics over..turn out lights. Whole shit is done .

This video actually helps me to understand what’s going on. I write a lot for my job (I’m a therapist), and I’ve been using a fountain pen since 2008. That’s not how most people keep notes or keep track of files. It’s all electronic. However, I don’t even see clients in person anymore-it’s all virtual. Therapists could be completely-and successfully-replaced by AI, I believe. At church, I played in bands, but with click tracks and stems and in-ear monitors which have been standard for over 10-15 years. I’ve been playing guitar for over 50 years, and bass for over 30, and I went to GIT/Musician’s Institute over 40 years ago: a lot of time and study. This video helps, because it makes me realize that I’m not irrelevant as a musician, and it’s not that no one cares about skilled, knowledgeable players anymore, it’s just that things are changing. There is grief and loss in it, but people are still creating. They’re just using different tools. Time marches on.

We're already here. If you ever watched one of Beato's "Top 10" song videos, you'd see over half the songs are using the same computerized 4/4 reggaeton beat. No musical instruments played by humans are being used to generate over half of the most popular songs in the world! The only way we can push back is if the general population becomes more interested in music played and created by humans than all the artificial music that's popular today.

As writer/thinker Robert Anton Wilson was fond of saying: "Maybe". One thing I've learned over the last four plus decades; people will predict and prognosticate, but they are practically always wrong. No one knows how things will turn out, what the future look like. My sense is, even all the predictions about AI are totally mistaken. The future remains unpredictable. Humans could completely destroy our environment and throw us back into an agrarian state of existence. We could have massive solar flares that totally destroy electric grids and render electricity non existent. Who knows. Anything can happen, and it usually does.

Punk rock has no worrys.

spotify already has plenty of its own fake musicians on their streams

Orwell's Versificator has become a reality.

There's an element to music and musicians that is completely overlooked here. It's the cultural facet. Music has always produced larger than life, eccentric and sometimes very loveable and enjoyable personalities. Liberace, Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Frank Zappa, Prince, Little Richard, Janis Joplin, Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney, the list goes on endlessly. In many cases, live performance is about the music *and* the person/people delivering it. Many people want or need that. There's also the experience of live music where something bigger than the band and audience emerges. The Grateful Dead were the best example of this, but there also were others to a lesser extent. The early Allman Brothers, King Crimson, Tedeschi Trucks band and so on. Then there's that AI can't create a unique musician out of nothing. Neil Peart for example. One of rock's greatest drummer. AI can imitate that, but it can't develop a totally unique musician with its own idiosyncrasies. That is the result of genetics, lived experience, memories, and other elements. Peart continued to evolve and develop over his career, going to study with Freddie Gruber in the 90s. As a result, his feel changed noticeably. Will programmers or AI itself have any urge to seek to improve itself? What's improvement when you (AI) can literally do *anything* without having to study or practice? People are expecting far, far too much from AI, the same way people did when computers began to become readily available in the 80s. There's a lot more to this equation than the mere economics of it. A portion of the general population will tire of perfectly produced music (it's happening already) and once the novelty wears off, people will demand music that has all the weird little imperfections that make it what it is. You can't quantize everything.

I think what you’re missing is that AI can only create what’s already been done. So if music companies just want to rip off other artists, AI can do it for him. But AI can’t create somebody that unique like a Jim Morrison, or Prince. It has to take from them already to create a knock off version. It’s not capable of coming up with something totally new and unique like they were.

Some eye-opening insights here, Utkarsh. I love how you mix business and economics into your topics. Keep these great videos coming!

On the other hand, due to KZfaq leveling the playing field, there are outstanding guitar players, singers, piano players. Tutorials unlock the secretes of the great musicians of the past. Much more creativity today.

Throughout vast majority of music history, mainstream music has been controlled by higher powers. The church, aristocrats, corporations, etc. “Folk music” has very rarely been mainstream. Folk music meaning music made by normal people. Normal people make music because it’s a human thing to do. If you don’t care about making it big and just make music because you enjoy it, AI means nothing to you.

Saddens me to acknowledge you are not wrong…well stated.

You would be surprised as to how many people still use fountain pens. There are writers that still use typewriters for their nostalgic charm.

I’ve thought about AI’s impact on musicians and the music business as a whole for the last year, and this man is absolutely correct. If you love making music and playing an instrument nothing is getting in the way of that. Enjoy it! But now we know with almost certainty the ability to earn a living as a musician or becoming a big rock star in the future is going to be close to impossible. It is what it is.

Your content is great, just be consistent and your channel will boom soon

It's not so much that the music industry doesn't need us anymore, we also don't need them. Never did. They have only stood in the way by gait keeping things that the average player now has access to.

Despite the fact that nowadays powerful psychos run the world and want to immortalise themselves through AI, consequently wanting every aspect of human activity and expression to be exclusively assigned to AI technologies, the majority of these people are missing the point. Nobody can simply erase humanity, no matter how hard they try. It's simply beyond their power. Humans will always be around, they will always be uncontrollably creative and therefore will always make human music. AI music to them is going to be junk, not just on an ethical/theoretical level but most importantly on a sentimental/real level. Music is part of the human nature.

Make more videos. I really enjoy them.

Very true thoughts and music is now a hobby item. I do see a market for ethnic music that is played at weddings or other cultural events.

Will the guitar go the way of the knit sweater. In a way, I believe it already has. Community orchestras with no hope of becoming massively profitable still exist for the joy of their musicians. In the band setting, similar organizations have already popped up in the us to facilitate full grown adults to feel the joy of playing, with no promise of financial success. But so long as there's people paying to go to concerts for live music, it shouldn't fall off the face of the earth. Even yet, so long as people enjoy strumming strings in their bedroom without anyone listening, or even singing in the car by themselves, musicians themselves will continue to exist. Unlike perhaps the modern t-shirt, joy in music can also come from its creation as much as its consumption.

Great discussion. In the surf instrumental community, there has been quite a bit of discussion around this topic recently, rightly so, for all of the reasons you mention. Rick Beato and Ted Gioia Recently had a very interesting interesting discussion on the topic, and although the short term prognosis is the same, his long-term expectation is more positive than the short term expectation. One other interesting thought - Since AI can only compile from patterns that are already known, at least on an abstract level, might not AI created music technically be considered copyright infringement? Live music might be a little bit of a different thing, and I think most music aficionado can tell the difference between an AI generated track at this point and one generated by humans, due to the cool imperfections and unique characteristics of the latter. But for background music in a movie or TV show or whatever, it's hard to imagine, a studio assembling an orchestra, or even regularly paying for new or existing music if they already own it or can create it.

Also, loved the stock footage, very Spiffing Brit of you!

Excellent video

Keep up your blend of music and economics analysis. Greatly appreciated.

For my years listening to music I've never been a fan of the singers/artists, I always been a fan of the song.

Sad but true. Although, when one door closes, another door opens.

Upcoming? I've been a jazz drummer and piano teacher for over 40 years. it started ending around here when Wall Street crashed in 2008!!!! No gigs; No Students for almost a decade now....for nobody.

Hi Utkarsh, right on. I have a similar background in business and have been a hobby musician for 50 years. This new world has arrived in business some time ago, e.g. Marketing will be automated that way. However, I believe that the missing of the human factor, that hole we digged ourselves, will create tons of opportunities for people with their quirks, irregularities, idiosyncrasies and outright emotional turmoil. I have worked in the IT world for 30 years and never did a computer/software/algorithm surprise, love or cuddle me😂.

It does not have to be a part of the industrial economy. Industrial anything (film industry, music industry, food industry) is just a sign of cultural decadence.

The camera moves are much better! Thank you! Editing video content is a craft! Speaking of which, do you see the tools getting to the point where the youtuber will also be replaced? One person will be feeding prompts to a system for multiple channels and everything will just be generated. That'll be a sad day, I can't see myself wanting to watch that.

Really cool viewpoint. And a decent explanation of why diversity is leaving the top 100. Looking for an upside I am thinking that it may give a chance for really innovative artists to shine through the dross. Having said that there is no getting away from the fact that Music IS a business and bottom line is all important. It will be interesting to watch the next 5 years of ‘’chart success’’.

It’s all fine till people want to go see a live show. Your fav singer actually singing and a guitarist playing a guitar

You are right 100%.. Times have changed and so has the way people listen to music... FREE music is everywhere... Artificial intelligence is just another way for big Tech companies to strip away 🤔 copyright Protection from artists, musicians and writers

Even this ' muzak 4.0 ' will not be the end of authentic music by creative people. The people who consume contemporary electronic music may not note the difference though

"What do you do when a random musician comes to your door?" "Pay him for the pizza and send him on his way." lol

Because it is an actual industry in every sense of the word, they need to make every person involved as replaceable as possible while using marketing to persuade the public that each performer is offering something entirely unique. The music industry never was and never will be immune to the socio economic trends of society at large.

It's always been tough to make a living playing an instrument. I think it'll get tougher, but bands are still gonna want real musicians at least for live performances. I started playing guitar in the late 80's. My friend played bass, so I played guitar. We came up with our own songs and started a band. By the time we got out of high school in the mid-90's, most commercially successful music had already moved past using real instruments. They used drum machines, synths and samplers. Some of the biggest pop bands were already heavily computerized. They might record a few of the instruments in a traditional way, but it was already rare. Go listen to the top 100 songs from 98. There's like 3 songs with a real guitar in it.

There’s a lot of alarmism here

I sincerely doubt AI will make things any harder than pay-to-play made pursuing a music career 25 years ago.

"Late-stage shareholder capitalism" - totally. Philosophy has a branch known as "aesthetics", the study of beauty and artistic taste. So, I happily subscribe to a channel that has the awareness to see the bigger picture as it relates to music in the modern age, rather, and moreso, observations on life in the digital modern age.

we need a small guitar organization...

I want to take part in the live performance dept of the ministry of guitar. First thing first, we need to study and research every live performance of the Butthole Surfers from 1987.

A lengthy video and I watched 2/3. Acoustically, a CD recording can replace a live music already. Yet, people still want live musicians. Suppose a live musician engaged with the audience; how will AI engage?

Cruise ships don't use full bands anymore. One guy singing with a drum machine and computer and his one guitar and small keyboard sounds like a full band.

I can relate to your knowledge of the intersection of business and music (I am a business professor). Here come the AI bands with their associated AI music created by executives for their key demographics - perfect for TikTok distribution and no need to deal with pesky artists. If people cared, it would not be an issue, but obviously that is not the case.

Robot Rock 🤖 As long as the manta is “undercut” music will never have a standard..some things shouldn’t be compromised

Yes the sad truth is man is determined to replace man with AI/Robot. Maybe it’s the definition of Stupidity? And The state of the music industry sucks, yes. That’s hardly in dispute. But I believe people like and will always want to see and hear other ‘People’ perform. It’s a human thing. The whole AI/Robot might have an attraction to some, especially in the beginning it being new etc. But I can’t see it taking over from humans for live music and entertainment. There are changes happening everywhere all the time and jobs that are at risk, that’s for sure. But I don’t think live music is one of them. I for one would not be interested in going to see a bunch of robots play. Obscene. There needs to be a demand to warrant the supply and I don’t believe there will be

Interesting perspective, which I've heard elsewhere....but I'd tend to take a slightly different view....I think AI music will be a an "AND", on top of "standard / existing music". It may be a very big "AND", but I don't see standard music going away.....it's too fundamental to human existence

I insist that it is something relative. Some people won’t give a cr*p if what they listen to is artificial, they will consume it. Some others will reject it immediately. Those will have their own niche.

Notebooks/pens are still used. Not everyone likes an iPad for note taking or can afford one. It was the same thing with typewriters. Did typewriters replace fountain pens? Edit: same with manual watches. Electronic watches failed to replace luxury watches (Rolex, Omega, AP, etc.). Only a minority of deep pockets collect quartz watches.

Humans playing => Music business => Business emulating music.

If you're hoping to just cook up original music in your bedroom that others will buy, it's not looking good. But if you're a good live band I think you'll still find plenty of work, particularly if you do good covers of mostly classic tunes for weddings, corporate events etc. That seems pretty AI proof.

Alarmist for sure. Most people are alarmist where it comes to the current supposed AI. Anyone who's tried it. and knows how it works see all the limitations and impressed to a point. But certainly not worried about it. You can always see or hear the primative mechanical ways it works. You can hear the exact music it was trained on and regurgitating. All these sysrtems do is regurgitate, the do not come up with original ideas.At least the current LLMs

Getting heard doesn't pay the rent. Btw...I hear that 1 mil songs are uploaded in Spotify daily Abandon all hope. Playing live is where all the (peanut) money is. I'm talking about young artists. The days of the million dollar contracts are gone.

Time will tell how viable this new economic model works. This is only one part of a complex story with a huge shift in demographics comming to many countries, changes in resource needs, especially energy and minerals, and climate change. The world of commercial music for the masses is as new as radio, tv, and streaming. Music was for the wealthy, the church, folk music and much individual music. Now corporations are running the show. Live music just can't compete except with the addition of light shows, backing tracks, dancers, computers. Autotune etc. how many singers just stand in front of a mike these days. Just the opinion of a geezer.

With streaming you also have more homegrown musicians getting a fanbase who don’t have big money.

Liz Mitchell and Marcia Barrett were actually singing in all of the songs of Boney M.

In my humble and small experience most of us playing guitar will never experience the ROCK STAR Status because right now it is pretty much dead. I mean everyone is listening to pop, mumble rap and electronic music on a commercial scale. That is not to say that rocker- heavy metal fans are few, we are many but the industry is not what it was 25-40 years ago. I find composing music for fantasy games is a good outlet to share your music and getting somewhat payed.

You are talking about basic level music. Art Music cannot be replaced by AI simply because AI is based on what exists and Art Music always contains a small ingredient that is generated by human spirit. Technology will not replace human spirit because it keeps changing, whereas technology, cannot add an element that does not exist. It can only create variations based on existing data. Throughout history until today, 2nd of June 2024, new innovations in music have always contained that small portion of human spirit which came to be recognized overtime as genuine artistic creativity.

It will go stale just as fast. It’s the attitude of the new artist that people gravitate towards. So yes this is right for the near future. People invest in the legend not to song

The producers use past data to predict the future desires of the audience. People change. People are not one dimensional. You can like more than one current genre of music. What about new music? AI will produce musical sterility. We see this now on the internet, KZfaq, Netflix etc. You view one thing and the algorithm gives you more of the same.

Whether one may view this as pessimistic or alarmist; tis true, nonetheless, and all the more. [the question for us real folk {being moved by that which carries or drives us toward Ideals and Art, rather than imitation and approval, as our end} is always: What now? Which can only be answered in praxes. As success in such is found in effect, not fairness. & certainly not in theory. This has always been the conundrum for both the scientist & the artist. But history and our consciousness {as well as error} in appraisal of such, only increase in complexity and the tension between them waste precious few vital years, which used to be open to channeling, rather than as a necessary challenge prior to meaningful entry. {given the proprietary difficulty of modernity's hurdle} Our work, therefor - is heavy, high, hard, slippery, & [immediately; seemingly} unrewarding {given worldly standards} but as crucial as any other ends sought per the Sciences & Humanities. Particularly considering the odds that Music and awareness, combined, create, {or destroy} given the ends championed. The compromising effects of these odds have to serve as a means to synthesis, either which way.] Or, we are, as it may seem: F#$%d

Speaking of manufactured artists, I think the best example that people, at least my age, would remember is Milli Vanilli.

I think our future AI overlords will demand real humans making music because they will recognize the special spark in us. I think SKYNET got bad press due to James Cameron's movies.

Whelp, back to tape -> tape trading again!

I can purchase a mug from a store… a six pack of mugs for 12 dollars… made in China by a machine. But then I purchase for 38 dollars a mug made by an artisan, and proceed to use it every time I drink coffee. Why is this? Perfectly good cup made in China. And yet… and yet…

eventually AI will come for the music industry executive's job as well 😂

I remember when I was a kid in the 80’s getting into drums hearing “in x years there won’t be acoustic drums, everybody will be playing electric drums”.

Let us call it - the "Death of all careers" UtKarsh . I say this because of the death of "Intellectual property Rights" as a result of all this Technology.

I disagree with mrtruefifth. If people are out of work then they will not be able to pay for the stage musicians.

Rock is dead.

Nah, not going to happen because live musicians will always be preferred in general for musical entertainment over anything that is fake. Especially the human voice. Humans playing instruments with human variation on the fly is much more impressive than fake musicians that are dancing around on stage to perfect set music. I'm not interested in fake musicians and like Milli Vanilli, if we find you out to be fake, your done. Game over. As far as communication, the logical progression of your main argument is transmission of thought directly via mind control. No keyboard needed anymore. That is also so ridiculus at this moment in time its just not going to happen so there is nothing to worry about. Sure things will be automated that can be automated. Commercials are not live entertainment, so that's not a good comparison. No one wants to see fake musicians pretending. Again, if they are found out, their done. Live music and musicianship and a performing artist is a human thing that humans relate to. It's not just the music itself, it's the human creating the music on the spot without regard to exact repetition of sound that makes a live music performance so enjoyable in the first place. If all I wanted was to listen to the music or have it forced on me by a commercial, that's not artistic at all and everyone knows it. Now studio musicians, that's a different story because they are simply creating a recording and not a live performance.

Are you Raj from Big Bang Theory? Can't get it out of mind .. I'm waiting for a joke. Lol

“I’m not a pen historian” lol

dont wanna play guitar anymore 😂

Player pianos died for the same reason AI can't replace human performance and emotion. We don't connect with machines.... we connect with people. The AI revolution in music will only make seeing musicians performing live even MORE popular. Like autotune or lipsynching, AI will be seen as cheating if not reproduced live by humans. Perfection will lose to emotions & flaws (i.e. Son House performing 'Death Letter Blues') because AI and robots can never replace the human experience. As an expert in Machine Learning/LLM/AI & musician of 40yrs, who's attended over 500 live shows (so far), I say with confidence you are wrong here. Punk was the answer to perfectionism in the 70's and we'll soon see the answer to AI.

You miss the point of human performance. Nobody will want to watch robots perform. Just look at Chess, more popular than ever, because what's interesting is not how good computers are, but how good humans are. So don't sell your instruments, just make sure you know how to perform on a stage, and you might have a job opposite all those with fine educations, that will be laid off because of the very argument presented in this video. If you can entertain - you're safe, buddy!

the writing is on the tablet.

Nah...mechanical music will run its course and people will want sloppy old human music again.

But here is the thing... I listen to music for the same reason I go to the bar. I go to the bar to talk to people, not so I can drink a beer for $14. If I went to the bar and had to pay that ridiculous price just to have a robot pour me a beer and sit there alone next to the robot as I drink the beer? Nah... Yeah, it might make music, but who cares. AI can talk to me right now. That doesn't mean I sit around talking to ChatGPT instead of humans. You know what I mean? ChatGPT can sit there for hours talking about love, history, whatever I want. So why do I bother talking with humans? Because, at the end of the day, I couldn't care less about talking to ChatGPT unless I'm trying to make a profit (get some work done). I don't sit around talking to ChatGPT like it's a he/she person. And I doubt I'll want to sit around listening to its music, which would be an average statistical breakdown of music-the most widely heard. Computers can already play music now, yet symphonies still exist, and orchestras still exist, still using instruments. Music isn't about a machine; it's about conversation-with humans. Try a world where the only creature you converse with is ChatGPT. I assure you, it would drive a mind mad if that were the case. Do you want to live in a dead world automated by machines pretending to look like the dead humans? Not the world I want to be in.

If you’re playing music to get-rich & not because of a burning passion to make-music; please quit.

Pirates used to sail the seven seas. Piracy still exists, but in different forms. The same will happen to music, but remember: Boney M and Milli Vanilli were the outliers. The public today doesn't care about the source as much as previous generations, and that trend will continue. Miku is loved by millions: a pre-AI "musician". It's already happening.

I have two points.1 so it's probably best to stop making guitar's.2 just think Metallica bots 😂

What threat can ai pose to music already recorded? I don't really care anything whatsoever about new music coming out. The output of new music could completely cease and I would be just as satisfied as I am now. IMHO creativity is pretty much a well run dry. In music, movies...entertainment in general. Humans are tapped out. May e the lesson here is not about pessimism, defeatist or any such thing. Instead...why do we want for more??? Why can't we be satisfied with the enormous catalog of music we already have available to us? I know I am wasting my thumb movements.

Your claim is more likely for Western nations. You live in Singapore 🇸🇬. Your claim will be slow 🐌 to come true in Eastern nations. The Philippines 🇵🇭 is one such nation. Autotune does not go heavy there.This I know because I travel there often enough, for 40 years and counting! 😎 Backing singers and musicians may be replaced by backing tracks 👣 or sequencers. But lead singers are irreplaceable. Dennis DeYoung formerly of Styx acknowledges these events. Don Henley is learning the hard way with that lip synch nonsense.

Like it or not AI is coming for you.

I'm a 74 year old bass player. Spent 17 years playing full time. I feel sorry for today's players. In the late '60s thru the early '80s I was able to make a half assed living. First part in a successful club band. The night clubs in the northeast were plentiful and mostly controlled by the mafia. So with the the right mafia agent and a good group of musicians we worked steady. Then the band got a gig for a pretty famous oldie/R&B singing group. After that it was freelancing and some theater gigs in San Francisco. I don't think that I would survive in the latest edition of the horror show called the music biz. Still playing though. I have a little home studio, working on line with my best friend of 55 years. I'm retired and living in the Philippines with my family. Life is good. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/mMeIZKqlzp-6eaM.htmlsi=WiDZWi7wE3-vvrIN

Thats probably why the best artist I know today is here on youtube lol, this guys from Miami and his music is from another planet I swear and the videos are incredible! his names Gran Hechi something haha lemme just get you a link I never spell his last name right kzfaq.info/get/bejne/p7Cgeqagv5rIpKc.htmlsi=dOrAqIHzxpw-Xg4q CC is English! Cheers!

I find this to be a problem only when miss-represented, like in much else in business and life. Anything AI generated in terms of "creative arts" should be labeled as such, and labeled very clearly at the start. By law, just like dangerous drugs or alcohol. To do otherwise dilutes the humanity of everyone. Creativity is part of the human spirit, those of us who DO play know this intuitively, particularly if you have ever played in front of an audience live. It is just another form of corporate theft of our reality and humanity for profit. Many will not care if it is free, they are often the clueless majority anyway who have no connection to anything not commercialized. They love the bling, the brag and nothing more. But many will want to be be able to listen to exclusively human created works of music and performance. Even if we become a minority in the world. (We may be already, if through ignorance of the rest of humanity alone.)

I’ve experienced this first hand within this past few months. Some of my workload as a studio musician was doing orchestral sessions (film/tv stuff, church music…etc) Much of that work has diminished due to AI programming.