Each week, I first summarize my adventures in making music. Lately, I have been composing tracks for the Disquiet Junto, the Naviar Records Haiku Music Challenge and, this year for the first time, Weekly Beats. I also have other projects and collaborations I will share occasionally.
I also bring together the perspective I shared in posts on social media (currently Mastodon) about the music industry in the section: Music + Tech + Law. These thoughts are intended to come from me as a consumer of, and participant in, the entertainment business. However, I cannot completely separate the thoughts I generate from the part of my brain I use for my day job as a lawyer experienced in technology contracts and intellectual property.
My Music
I submitted a track for Week 4 of weeklybeats that you can hear on my Weekly Beats profile and on SoundCloud. I asked my daughter to help me name it. She said I should call it "Tycho." He is one of my favorite artists and we do listen to him at home and in the car as a family from time to time. I guess my influences are apparent! I asked her for a different name and she gave me "Bloom." I liked that one! This track does have an arc that feels like pushing through the winter months to spring.
Music + Tech + Law
The news of this settlement involving the estate of the Notorious B.I.G. comes at an important time for publicity rights during the ongoing conversation on how to protect them in the context of AI training data. Modu’s photographs, as well as pictures of his merchandise, are undoubtedly all part of the training datasets used by generative AI companies. It is possible some estates of famous individuals will start lobbying for updates to the law, and maybe even reaching out to AI companies to talk settlement terms.
Setmixer announced a significant round of funding. If you have not heard of it, Setmixer is a company streamlining the process of publishing live recordings directly from the mixing consoles at music venues. If I were to leave a concert and by the time I got to my car I had the opportunity to pay for a decent AI-mastered recording of the show, I can absolutely see myself listening to the show on the way home and keeping access to the recording as a memento. Speaking of which, what I wouldn’t give to have some artifact of all the shows I’ve played at small clubs. I only have one that someone made with a handheld recorder.
I had not heard there was a trial going on involving the tattoo artist, Kat Von D, and the rightsholders to Miles Davis’ name, image and likeness. A quick search for “Miles Davis tattoo” turns up dozens of results on the first page alone. It’s safe to assume each of these was based on a photograph. It was my understanding that this is common practice in the tattoo industry, but the plaintiff argues he has licensed the Miles Davis photograph to at least one tattoo studio. To me, the more important fact here is that Kat Von D used images and video across social media essentially as advertising for her tattoo services.
The young creatives in this article describe the many ways AI tools can assist music makers, and not just in the actual composition and recording of songs - but also with business matters, like writing emails, artist bios and similar tasks. They will also likely be interested in services like this one offering virtual “managers” to help them with business planning. Technologies like this could allow artists to spend more time on their craft.
My opinions are not my employer’s and this material does not create an attorney-client relationship, is not intended to convey legal or ethics advice, and does not guarantee the same or similar results in all cases.
Miscellaneous on Music
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