Over twenty years ago I saw The Fun Lovin’ Criminals. You know, ‘Scooby Snacks‘. They were already past their peak then, but I had never seen them and they were playing in my own city – so go. I don’t remember much about it, so it wasn’t very memorable (a look at Setlist.fm learns that no one remembers much about it), but I did remember one thing: the drummer played over a tape, not with his tape. He was miming.
The funny thing is that I didn’t mind that so much. Of course a concert must be live. Why didn’t it really bother me that this autumnal percussionist was trying to get his paycheck together? Drum yourself, or don’t drum, right? But because the decorative drummer was also banging along a bit, it was charmingly messy enough. The act of those charismatic, sweaty New Yorkers did the rest. And oh, fun-loving rascals, of course they don’t color within the lines.
I was reminded of this last week when Spotify appeared to openly get involved in AI music. The Swedish streaming market leader struck a deal with Universal Music Group to offer a type of AI mixer. Users will soon be able to mix and cover songs for an additional fee. Maybe you can have Alicia Keys sing a Pearl Jam song, or a Beatles song in the style of André Hazes.
It’s a guess, because we don’t yet know exactly how that will work. But there is a risk that the Spotify library will soon fill up even further with AI music – even further, because around 44 percent of the streaming services are already made with AI. Universal Music Group is the world’s largest music label, with artists such as Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish and Sabrina Carpenter, and sub-labels such as Def Jam, Decca, EMI and Top Notch.
Slop or shit
We know why: ‘Anything is better than slop’. That is the actual argument that Spotify chief Alex Norström gave this week The Guardian. Slop is a nice word for shit. Soulless, predictable, slick shit. So the bar for Spotify is now shit, and anything just above that is apparently a bonus. As a music lover, even though I apparently have a soft spot for charismatic not-so-drummers, I think that bar is quite low.
But money has to be made in Sweden and they look for it from ‘super fans’ who have money to spare for just that little bit above the bar. A sign of this search for peace of mind is that since the previous ‘investor day’ in 2022 almost a quarter of the staff has already been laid off (more than 2,300 people) and that all subscription prices have been increased – in May the premium subscription went from 14.99 to 17.99 euros per month. And for superfans (people who are willing to pay even more), the ‘personal podcast’ is also being rolled out, with which personal podcasts composed with AI agents can be listened to in Spotify. The idea is that you can, for example, have your personal work schedule summarized in a podcast, which you can then listen to in Spotify.
And then there’s ‘reserved’, Spotify’s gateway for concert tickets and subscriptions. They call it at Spotify, writes the Financial Timesthe era of generation. The user experience on the platform must be personalised. Of course, this does not apply to artists, whose personality will soon be completely at will and will shift to something else.
Money
Money money money. Abba already sang it, that’s what matters. AI slop sucks, but if you can make something out of it, they can forgive you. For the time being, Spotify is profitable for the first time, and after the announcement of the deal with Universal, the share shot up by 16 percent. But that’s after things had sunk deep in the past year. First 40 percent down, now 16 percent up. I wouldn’t have T-shirts printed yet.
AI music is already taking away part of artists’ revenue on both sides: first by having the models train on their music, then by taking an increasing share of the revenue from streaming. Universal’s deal notes that only music from artists who give permission can be used in the new tool, but how voluntary is that? Is it included in contract negotiations? Do artists see how they will soon no longer be included in relevant playlists on Spotify, in favor of the new mixed drinks?
Super fans
Spotify has never closed the door on AI. Unlike the small French streaming service Deezer, which profiles itself by combing AI music and announces how much of the uploaded music is made with AI, Spotify does not do that. Spotify has recently offered vignettes to real artists, but that is ad hoc and perhaps the opposite. The AI artists don’t have to do anything, the real artists just have to make themselves known. And who is going to pay for this?
Of course everyone wants to try it once, including me. ‘Scooby Snacks’, but with the rhythm of Bob Marley’s ‘Exodus’ and the voice of Billie Eilish, let’s go. But I have yet to encounter those paying superfans that Spotify counts on. For example, if you are a super fan of Taylor Swift, would you like to cut up her music with someone else’s?
We knew AI was going to change everything in the music world. It is becoming increasingly clear which way this is going. I would ten times rather have real music played poorly than perfectionist just-not-slop. Give me a drummer who works hard to keep up with his own band: imperfect humanity over perfect inhumanity.