I certainly recommend watching the full video:

In the interview, the company’s founders talked up their means to drive attention and virality on behalf of their clients, who cover all manner of artists across the spectrum (full disclosure: including some the MU is also loosely connected to, client-wise).

In short, the company utilises networks of influencers and (I am concluding from the piece) fake fan accounts to drive a false viral trend response to songs, triggering the algorithm of platforms like TikTok to boost the story accordingly.

And to be clear, it sounds pretty effective: there are multiple instances of the more recent hot bands being clients of this company, suggesting this technique has played a solid hand in driving fame.

Here’s the thing: on one level, I can absolutely relate to the logic being applied here. Everyone is slave to social platforms now, and in turn, reach is controlled entirely by algorithms, themselves coded by the parent companies. In the face of that, attempting to game that fairly irritating bottleneck of control is almost laudable. We’re sticking it to the man!

In reality though, this simply echoes the sentiments I had in my article about fan burner accounts - namely that this all feels like a race to the bottom.

It is telling when you look at the comments on the YouTube video above. Here’s just some:

“Thank you to billboard for confirming that most of these viral songs are botted af”

”That’s so insane they literally just confirm the dead internet theory. None of it is real“

“they outing themselves as scammers and they believe what theyre doing is okay ... simulate this simulate that, recreating inorganically sooo fake...”

“Casually confessing to having a cellphone farm with no shame displays some whopping great ego.”

… you get the picture.

The article appears to have echoed out beyond the trade press too, with fans expressing disappointment that the bands they love have used these kind of tactics - perceived as underhand - in order to cut through.

was one of the first to jump on this all, and since publishing her own article on this last week, she has updated it, noting that Chaotic Good has now changed the wording on its website and that various clients’ names are no longer on there.

Clearly then, the suggestion is that this has all been something of a PR backfire for the agency themselves, in that they essentially admitted to manipulating Joe Public in order to boost their clients’ profiles, in turn utterly undermining the credibility of those artists.

What a mess.

Again though, my (likely unpopular) take is that I get it. We have hit this point where it feels like nothing works, and so opportunities like this make for a highly tempting prospect.

Really, this is the 2026 version of other manipulation strategies in the past, be that buying audio streams on DSPs (2018 to the present), buying views on YouTube (2015 or thereabouts), or simply buying radio plays (1950s-1990s, arguably). There has always been some means to cheat, and a vast number of acts you know and love have - without necessarily realising it - been a part of it all.

In my last piece on the topic, it had been mentioned post-publishing that some of the tactics around fan burner accounts may be in breach of T&Cs of the platforms in question.

This time around, I made some enquiries and the sentiment back was that this is indeed a potential violation of terms of service. TikTok, for example, has this clause:

Deceptive Behavior & Fake Engagement: We don’t allow accounts that mislead or try to manipulate our platform, or the trade of services that artificially boost engagement or trick the recommendation system

I would argue that is precisely what has been going on; in this case, the agency founders literally boast about it in the clip:

“a big part of what we are doing is posting enough volume across enough accounts with enough impressions to try to simulate the idea that the song is trending or moving or whatever you want to call it.”

and

“There are these AI dancing babies that are very very popular. And so it’s insane. Yes it’s insane. And so we noticed that and then very quickly made hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of AI baby pages just for that specific purpose. But we are not like pressing a button, generating a thousand pieces of content, having AI uploaded through the API. We’re not opposed to it. It just hasn’t been that effective.”

Not good.

Really though, what this whole situation once again highlights is the grim relationship - ‘dependency’ would be more correct - the music industry has with social media. The pervading view is that this is the only way to reach fans. Or if it isn’t, it is certainly the quickest way, and as the music industry also loves to cheat or take shortcuts wherever possible (harsh, but true!), that’s the route likely to see the most engagement.

As the corrective measures taken post-interview by Chaotic Good might suggest, the unintentional outcome here has been to essentially damage - or at least bring into question - the credibility of artists the company has worked with.

Think about that for a moment.

Reputational damage is the toughest thing to shake. In art, being derided as fake or (the old classic) an ‘industry plant’ can see your credibility disappear at an alarming pace.

Is that worth gambling with?

I would argue not.

Yes, this represented a quick fix (provided you had the budget) to reach audiences, but I still feel that longer-term and more meaningful success comes via accepting that one has to deploy original, authentic ways to connect with fans.

Perhaps someone somewhere may accuse me of naiveté by airing that sentiment, but I’ll own that. Motive Unknown has been around for 15 years now, and has grown to a thriving company representing some of the best labels (and label groups) out there, not to mention working directly with various management companies and artists. So perhaps we are proof that working authentically ensures long-term results for our artists and labels, and by extension us as a company.

But enough self-aggrandising; really my point here is that as an industry we have to do better - and right now, our number one priority needs to be moving in directions that take us away from utter dependence on Big Tech and its platforms. The music industry was massive long before the internet arrived, so there are ways and means to kick that habit. We just need to look harder and work to effect change here. It won’t be easy, but to partake in these kind of gaming tactics merely accelerates a race to the bottom in which nobody wins. Change is essential.

Have a great day,

D.

Thanks to Emily, Charlotte, and the whole team at MU for both highlighting the article, sharing their thoughts and generally aiding this article being written. 🙏🏻

🎶 Listening to “The Secret Tapes of Dr Eich” by Paperclip People. As Spring lurches into view and the sky shows us that it can be blue again, I returned to this old classic and was once again surprised at just how well it holds up. Carl Craig always had a phenomenal talent for flipping the detroit techno sound, often by applying breaks and other sounds one wouldn’t normally expect to hear in the mix. On this album though, he takes lithe funk basslines and layers on his classic Planet E synths and more, with the final genius being the thunderous kick drums that deliver hefty low end into the mix whilst also sounding like they want to smash your front door down. Genius, pure and simple.

📺 Watching “Chaos in the car industry; £65bn written off, EV projects cancelled, ICE returning. Who survives?” on YouTube. I found this a fascinating outline of just how badly things are going for car manufacturers in the EV space. In short it seems fewer and fewer people are wanting an electric vehicle now that governments are pulling all the perks to encourage sales, and that’s having a catastrophic effect on big car brands.

🤖 Playing with Claude Team. This is the company version of Claude, which allows companies to set up skills and various access levels to empower staff to use the platform as a kind of virtual assistant within the business. It’s amazing. Further proof (IMO) that Anthropic are currently developing the best solutions for AI where companies are concerned. (Sidenote: somehow Anthropic really undersell what the benefits of Team are - trust me, it’s better than they pitch it to be).

Gleefully accepting music recommendations!

I do really enjoy getting suggestions for either existing music or forthcoming releases to check out. So, if there’s something you think I might like, do feel free to get in touch. Always keen to hear the weird and wonderful things going on out there. And, with 6000+ subscribers, I’m happy to spread word on things I’m loving too.

Alongside this, it feels like the industry’s worst kept secret that Concord and BMG are looking at some kind of consolidation. Depending on who I speak to, that may be either a merger or an acquisition. My sources suggest the acquisition part would be BMG buying Concord, but it is equally plausible that the reverse may be the case.

Clearly then, 2026 is going to be The Year of Consolidation. At first blush, I would imagine most may perceive this as broadly negative.

Personally, I am increasingly drawing the opposite conclusion. In much the same way as I welcomed Concord’s acquisition of Ninja Tune, on the basis it was at least keeping the legendary indie label out of the hands of the majors, I feel these consolidations are actually a beneficial move for the marketplace.

A harsh truth I feel we must all accept is that market dynamics with the likes of Universal, Sony and Warner will be much greater if there are substantially larger entities in the marketplace. These consolidations create larger independent power players, and those stand a far greater chance of driving more competition, ensuring the likes of Universal is not allowed to continue with its acquisitions and monopoly-baiting investments unchallenged. (And I mean economically challenged, rather than via trade bodies through objections.)

Granted, it may not have the veneer of cool that a multitude of smaller indies would possess, but at this point you require either a phenomenally well-coordinated network of indies, or a few much, much bigger players to assert any kind of competitive response to the majors. I do not feel the former has come to pass, and so right now the latter feels like the more impactful route.

I think something else to consider is the primary motivations of these businesses. At first glance, one might consider various companies to have very similar constructs as regards size, interests, and even investors. However, what is less clear is the objectives of these investors relative to the end goal for the business. Put simply, some investors may be in it for a quick exit within a couple of years at a significantly greater sales price, whilst others may be in this for annual returns and a long haul.

That difference is not something to dismiss quickly. Success in business and a desire to maintain independence are not mutually exclusive bedfellows. With that in mind, then I feel it plausible - though not provable - that some of these companies are at least more invested in the arts and culture side of music than the immediate exit within a couple of years at 10x growth.

For now, though, we should continue to watch what happens here. These are also not the only companies whose names I see mentioned relative to sales and exits. Whilst music’s value as an asset class remains so high, I would imagine we will continue to see further sales happen. Some will be great developments, perhaps others less so. For the time being, though, it feels like this level of consolidation is actually a good thing for the marketplace.

Could I be wrong on that? Absolutely, but let’s wait and see. For now, I view this as welcome news.

Have a great day,

D.

🎶 Listening to “II” by Paperclip Minimiser. John Howes is something of a genius, at least from where I’m sat. Responsible for the formidable Strokes app/plugin, he is the kind of mind that, were it not obsessive about music, would likely be working at NASA. This album, released on US label Peak Oil, compiles together tracks Howes made almost entirely using his own self-built software - Strokes being one. The end results are formidable: excursions in beats, bass and texture, and they make for a compelling listen indeed. Fantastic stuff - check it out.

📺 Watching “White Lotus season 3”. Granted I’m exceptionally late to this one, but frankly there’s too much TV to watch these days, and something’s got to wait. I’d seen quite a few mixed reviews about this season, but I have to say I’ve been really enjoying it. Although if you’ve seen it, you’ll know what I’m referring to when I say THAT scene with the brothers: ewwwwwww!

📖 Reading “The Chronicles of DOOM: Unravelling Rap’s Masked Iconoclast” by SH Fernando Jr. To say I’ve enjoyed reading this book would be a massive understatement. I didn’t think a book about MF DOOM would turn into such a page-turner, and yet it absolutely did. Chock full of history, not to mention all manner of incredible insights. This feels like the definitive work about one of hip-hop’s most mysterious figures. Eminently worth your time.

Gleefully accepting music recommendations!

I do really enjoy getting suggestions for either existing music or forthcoming releases to check out. So, if there’s something you think I might like, do feel free to get in touch. Always keen to hear the weird and wonderful things going on out there. And, with 6000+ subscribers, I’m happy to spread word on things I’m loving too.

First up, since a few people have asked, I can confirm that yes, Ninja Tune was the label in question that I was referring to in my article from July last year, speculating whether a large indie label was up for sale. At the time, it was a major label’s name that was on the block as a potential buyer, so if anything, the news that Ninja Tune has not done that is a welcome development.

Is Ninja Tune selling to Concord a positive thing? I would argue it is, yes, and for a variety of reasons. Concord also owns Loma Vista (albeit with a majority stake, as I understand it, rather than outright ownership). That label has only gone from strength to strength since that deal was done. The backing has enabled it to sign bigger and bigger acts and invest more heavily into A&R, and from where I am sat, the outcome has been positive. Of course, I am biased because of my background with Run the Jewels and the fact that Loma Vista signed Killer Mike, with whom I worked on Mike’s return solo album, which went on to win three Grammys. But that’s still a massive success, right?

Either way, one might argue that Concord has not simply asset-stripped a label and reduced it to a catalogue function. There is absolutely no reason to think the same would happen to Ninja Tune either. Quite the opposite: this may empower Ninja to chase more aggressive deals and sign even bigger acts, so it is by no means a swansong. For what it’s worth, I also understand that the existing Ninja Tune team will remain in place, which is great.

Equally, we are in a phase of significant consolidation. As I have said in the past, a sale to a major label would be a bad thing in the sense of it only further empowering the three incumbents. Selling to somebody like Concord or another company like Exceleration, for example, is therefore as positive an outcome as one can hope for, short of a sale into an employee-owned trust as Beggars Group achieved last year. On that basis, this just expands the number of power players in the marketplace and that is certainly preferable to further increasing the power holdings of Universal, Sony or Warner.

In summary, then, yes, I think this is a positive thing. Doubtless, some may take a view that an indie selling up to any massive company is bad, but I can only repeat my thoughts from my article of July last year: sales of any business are inevitable unless there is a familial succession plan in place. At some stage (not any time soon I should stress!!), Motive Unknown will quite likely go up for sale on the basis I have no familial succession plan, so it is important to accept that these things are an inevitability. You might not like it, but that’s how it is. Motown was an indie. Def Jam was an indie. Hell, even Geffen was an indie at one point, if I recall correctly. It’s just how these things go.

Last June I wrote about the exit plan for indie labels in general, and I feel it only right to revisit the contents of that article as another label is sold. The catalyst for the original piece was Cooking Vinyl’s sale to Exceleration, but really, it’s not about specifics. It is about a generational wave of independent labels all reaching a point where a sale feels inevitable. Look around at the labels that are all of a similar age to Ninja Tune (or potentially older) and I would argue you have your short list of businesses for whom we should not be surprised at any announcement of a sale, were it to come along.

So, strap in for more of these announcements in the coming years, because they are absolutely going to happen. You might not like it, but it is inevitable.

The real questions I feel we have to ask are the same ones I flagged last year, namely: what does this do to the independent label landscape, and where are the indie labels rising up to replace those selling up or possibly being wound down into purely catalogue functions?

Let’s tackle the latter question first. For some time, I’ve been wrangling with what I feel is a truth, namely that there are not any indie labels rising to the same level of turnover and market competition capability as some of the bigger indies, of which Ninja Tune is a good example.

I think it may be too easy to paint this as a wholly negative development. In reality, the nature of the market is shifting, specifically in the direction of artists and the empowerment that they now possess. However, if we accept that the market will be comprised of a much longer tail of smaller independent operators, I feel important questions should still be asked as to how that long tail is represented in terms of trade body and general negotiating power within the industry itself.

That in turn brings me back to my first question, which is what impact this all has on the independent label landscape. In that regard, I fear the answer is more negative. Yes, technically companies like Concord and Exceleration are indies, but I think it fair to suggest that wholly indie operators such as those comprising the Orca think tank, for example, may not view themselves as being the same type of business as Exceleration or Concord. The aims and desires are fundamentally different, and therefore these companies are not on the same page relative to what they need in terms of trade body representation. On certain topics, such major label market dominance, I would imagine they have many a shared aim, but once you get past that, the perspectives differ significantly.

As I have written about in the past, labels are facing a challenge as to their point and purpose right now. The various moats that they maintained to allow privileged access to things like sales points, technology, or management of IP have all been eroded. This is why artist services companies like AWAL are flourishing so wonderfully.

However, the industry (and arts and culture in general) is constantly evolving, and I do still feel that labels have a role to play as a nexus point for sounds, scenes, and communities. Right now, that value may have been eroded, but I firmly believe that at some point it will come back around, and perhaps when that does happen, the power of indie labels will once again surge.

Finally, if you’re still reading this with a sense of despondency as to what is going on here, I will only say this: all of this business, every last corner of it, is built on the output of artists and raw talent. Artists will dictate the way this plays out in the end, and in that regard I have absolute confidence that we will soon be seeing a shift once more in which artists will find their value once again. In the face of AI and various other challenges, it might not look like it, but equally it is when things get to their hardest point that you see true change really come about.

I feel we are approaching that now.

Have a great day,

D.

🎶 Listening to “Get Fluffy” by Cvche. Apparently Cvche describe themselves as “an Experimental Rural Canadian Techno supergroup” which instantly puts my bullshit filters on high alert, but mercifully the music here speaks for itself, and I’m loving it. Melodic techno is the name of the game, and it’s proven quite the soundtrack to a frenetic working day or two of late. Dive in.

📺 Watching “Tilly Norwood | Take The Lead (Official Music Video)” on YouTube. If you’re not aware, Tilly Norwood is a wholly AI creation that is now being pitched as a music superstar. So far, so cringe. However, don’t feel the need to watch the video, but instead go and read the comments, which are unremittingly critical and mostly hilarious. If you want a barometer of sentiment on the desire to push AI onto Joe Public, look no further than the comment section here.

🏢 Loving… our new office! No, no, you are not seeing things: Motive Unknown, which since lockdown has been steadfastly remote, now has an office bang in the middle of London. We’ve taken up a space on Dean Street in Soho, and frankly it feels wonderful to be back in the thick of the action. For what it’s worth, we remain a remote company, and the office is there for staff to use as and when they wish to, but I’m loving being back in town again. I am hoping we will also have some big announcements soon regarding events at that space as well. Stay tuned!

Gleefully accepting music recommendations!

I do really enjoy getting suggestions for either existing music or forthcoming releases to check out. So, if there’s something you think I might like, do feel free to get in touch. Always keen to hear the weird and wonderful things going on out there. And, with 6000+ subscribers, I’m happy to spread word on things I’m loving too.

As AI continues to develop at a dizzying rate, it is interesting watching any tech platform announcing that they are layering AI onto the service in order to provide more functionality to you, the end user. Where data insight used to be a process of logging in and looking at static graphs, you now have AI chatbots explaining everything to you to save you thinking for yourself. Equally, within fan management, you are now getting AI systems to manage communications and reporting for you. In the space of CRM, AI is being layered on to add anything from general insights to management of advertising or more.

On paper, some, if not all of this, may appear interesting. However, this is the thin end of a wedge that I feel is taking us down a worrying path where AI is concerned.

In short, everyone wants to use AI to expand everything they do, to swallow as much of their competitor’s business as they humanly can.

You might be reading this thinking, “But that’s competition, and that is good.” In principle, you are correct, but competition was previously limited by human capability and the costs of employing and deploying that resource through business. Now, with AI, the costs are being essentially reduced to their lowest possible point, and that is enabling everybody to fight for the same space.

A perverse irony, especially where technical platforms are concerned, is that ultimately AI will swallow the platform itself. If you follow AI’s evolutionary path, the end result may well be the death of mass usage platforms, on the basis that everyone will simply be able to create a solution for whatever problem they are currently facing. Most technical platforms exist because somebody has built something to a level that you are not capable of building yourself. What AI brings as a shift is a complete removal of those barriers altogether.

Let’s take CRM as an example. For now, people may use anything from OpenStage to Laylo to Mailchimp or any of the multitude of solutions out there. I’ve no doubt these platforms will soon be incorporating AI if they haven’t already, and they will be expanding their offering to try and chip into the various other spaces and services that businesses are paying for.

Ultimately though, it seems entirely plausible, if not inevitable, that one will be able to create your own equivalent of any of these platforms, such that these platforms themselves are no longer required.

In the meantime, this also presents two problems for businesses in the recorded music space. First is simply staying across this all. As all these companies layer on AI, they will be keen to tell you and try to secure your business. But everywhere I look, we are seeing increasing evidence that AI is not actually making life easier but is making things much, much harder for businesses, thanks to the time being allocated to keeping up with this all. This video perfectly illustrates the situation.

The second issue is strategically deciding which platforms are best to invest into. Historically, businesses have remained in quite niche spaces. A CRM provider, for example, is unlikely to expand into broad-level fan data insight. Now though, as connecting these processes up gets easier and easier, we are hitting a point where, in time, every business is going to have an almost absurdly wide range of capability.

Of course, that also leads to a subsequent point, which is that when everybody is building these things using the same two or three AI platforms, they will become homogenous. Hence the quote titling this piece (taken from Disney’s Incredibles film of all places): “when everyone is super, no one will be”.

Against all of this, I am concerned that the music industry is buying in to the notion of AI as the only path to improving or fixing the current state of affairs. Taking social media as a case in point, we are seeing more and more AI tools emerge to enable creation of content, management of posting etc. The sales pitch is that you will be able to increase your frequency of posting and therefore be more present and visible on social media. However, if everybody is playing to this same strategy, all that’s really happening is the signal to noise ratio becomes ever more imbalanced, and everything is just awash with low quality slop.

For that reason, then, I think it is incredibly important that we are pausing to consider the much wider strategic implications of how we all engage with AI in the context of the services we buy into for our day-to-day operations.

I have to be clear on this: I am absolutely of a view that AI has a multitude of potential uses within our working lives. What I am less convinced of is this idea that AI is the answer to every problem out there. In fact, I would take that one step further by suggesting that arts and culture are collectively on a fool’s errand if they believe technology is the sole solution to whatever problems they face at present - but that’s an article for another day.

I would take a bet that by the end of the working day in which you are reading this, you will almost certainly have received an outreach email from a company announcing that it has integrated AI and can now offer you so much more through its platform. It is increasingly important that the music industry stops to ask where this is all going, whether these things align with a broader strategy and how much time and money it is prepared to invest into those spaces in the meantime. Right now is a tipping point in which everyone wants you to buy into this narrative of AI as the great fixer. Should we collectively do that, we are once again relying on big tech all the more to guide and steer the way arts and culture evolves (or not) and reaches audiences in our lifetime. Is that the future we want?

Have a great day,

D.

🎶 Listening to “Struck Off” by The Solid Doctor. If like me you are of a certain vintage, then The Solid Doctor should be an artist’s name with which you are familiar. His track “Lights on the Vibe” was a permanent presence on my stereo for coming down after a hard night’s clubbing at 4 am in Brighton. Even now, I’d swear it has an immediate effect on my parasympathetic nervous system. Ergo, when I was made aware of a new album, I jumped in, and I’m glad I did, because it is absolutely fantastic. Go take a listen, grab a copy and thank me later.

📺 Watching “Kasso” on YouTube. This one is an easy pitch: Ninja Warrior, but on skateboards. This Japanese TV show sees various skaters completing obstacle-like courses in order to win cash prizes. It’s every bit as compelling as it sounds. Dive in!

🤖 Playing with Claude Cowork. Per my comments above, the entire AI space is getting absolutely exhausting. If there is one area I would suggest spending some time in, however, it is Claude’s Cowork system. At the very least, this can allow you to undertake tasks that were normally boring and repetitive with alarming speed. As you learn and grow from there, the sky’s the limit. In general, though, if you want to keep up with the most important things going on in AI, I would suggest that Cowork is probably the best place to start.

Gleefully accepting music recommendations!

I do really enjoy getting suggestions for either existing music or forthcoming releases to check out. So, if there’s something you think I might like, do feel free to get in touch. Always keen to hear the weird and wonderful things going on out there. And, with 6000+ subscribers, I’m happy to spread word on things I’m loving too.

Job Hunting?

Our friends at Blue Raincoat Music are looking for an Audience Development Manager. Responsibilities include:

• delivering integrated digital marketing campaigns

• working with marketing managers and the product team

• generally ensuring campaigns are insight-led, audience-focused and culturally relevant

• maintaining strong relationships with digital media agencies

Full details on the website here. If you’re interested, take a look!

Piracy never went away, but one might well argue that for a period, Spotify et al simply made it feel pointless on the basis you could access everything through DSPs’ platforms. Why download when you can stream instantly?

The problem is, with streaming feeling increasingly messy and enshittified, the “revive your iPod” movement seems to be growing daily. Not in a manner that would have shareholders of SPOT worried, granted, but the momentum continues to grow. Alongside that comes something of a “what’s the point?” view from artists (some, I note, not all), with “being on streaming earns me so little as to be pointless” opinions being aired across social media.

What really blew my mind, however, was how modern piracy works. No P2P, no Soulseek client needed. None of that; just a browser. Hit up any of the many websites out there, and you can select your DSP of choice, before tapping in your artist or album name and simply downloading it, right there, through the browser.

I won’t claim to be the most technical person, but it would appear these sites are somehow using DSP APIs to access music and the FFMPEG command line encoder to then extract or convert the file.

Some testing on my part suggests that one can easily access the music in FLAC (i.e. lossless) format, which requires one to select either Apple Music, Qobuz or Tidal in order to do so:

With that choice made, I can then search for any artist or release - or even a playlist - and grab it for download. I decided to therefore take the least legally questionable option for this article, and pirate my own work:

By clicking a download icon in the top-right corner, I find myself downloading the files in no time at all - and in FLAC lossless audio quality too. Ironically, they sound better than Spotify’s default setting. Take from that what you will.

Worth noting too is that Soundcloud and other sites also feature here; any music site offering streams appears to be fair game.

As subscription fatigue sets in, the readiness with which one can download files illegally is alarming. I would think it will only get worse as Agentic AI further empowers non-technical folk to find whatever loopholes possible to spin this kind of thing up.

I have seen many people outraged at the Anna’s Archive leak that saw Spotify’s entire repository of music pirated in full. In reality, the means by which that access was gained is still achievable, and in the most mundane of ways too. Ostensibly, grabbing this music for free is not harder than firing up your DSP of choice and hitting play.

We have already seen that suing Anna’s Archive has proven pointless; the piracy group simply ignored everything and - for now anyway - has melted into the background.

The same could be occurring here, wherein the tools to access and therefore rip music from DSPs become cloned and shared via Github (one platform already does this, I note) such that the same whack-a-mole game resumes as was the case with P2P clients like Limewire.

Obviously I am not going to name sites here, though one doesn’t need to work hard to find them. Again, the fact this can all be accessed through the browser only highlights how simple this has now become.

It got me thinking though; for a lot of artists, there’s a sense that DSPs pay them nothing anyway. Indeed, for those with less than 1000 plays, it literally pays them nothing in the case of Spotify and Deezer. With that in mind, how much would artists care if people are pirating their music rather than pay for it?

Granted, that’s me baiting the audience here, but at a stage where so many artists are struggling to generate meaningful revenue, I could certainly see a logic wherein they accept that they make nothing from people streaming their music anyway, such that reaching audiences and upselling on physical, experiential and other product types all becomes more interesting to them than any kind of streaming play.

A stretch? Perhaps. But even on the most basic level, people are hitting a subscription saturation point. If I am paying for multiple video streaming services and an audio service, and one can simply download those albums straight to a cheap MP3 player, which service am I going to cancel? Not Netflix or Amazon Prime.

I will be interested to see how this all pans out. One would hope that after the Anna’s Archives leak, a significant crackdown would occur. As things currently stand, the opposite is happening: grabbing your music, in lossless quality, for free, has never been more simple.

Have a great day,

D.

🎶 Listening to “Peace & Love - Wadadasow” by Dadawah. Shouts to Alec at Brassland for turning me onto this absolute gem of a release from 1974. Four tracks of hypnotic, repetitive reggae. Roots in style, minimal more than most. Just wonderful. I sent it to a friend suggesting he lights one up and relaxes deeply to this. I stand by that recommendation for any of you.

📺 Watching “Bad Eggs from Joe Kent-Walters” on YouTube. If you blended Mighty Boosh and The League of Gentlemen, you’d wind up with this pilot from Joe Kent-Walters that has that dark, surreal, highly creative touch. I loved it. Here’s hoping C4 commission a series.

🤖 Playing with Claude. Binning off Chat GPT for Claude feels a bit like moving from Apple to Amazon in terms of ethical righteousness, but either way I still feel better doing so. One thing I particularly liked however was this tool they built to allow you to port all the memory from GPT over to Claude. Clever.

Gleefully accepting music recommendations!

I do really enjoy getting suggestions for either existing music or forthcoming releases to check out. So, if there’s something you think I might like, do feel free to get in touch. Always keen to hear the weird and wonderful things going on out there. And, with 6000+ subscribers, I’m happy to spread word on things I’m loving too.

Let’s dive in…

Re: yesterday’s “Death by a thousand bots” post:

After sending out yesterday’s post, which revealed an AI MCP allowing a means to create music and publish to DSPs, all without human input, it was suggested by one of our readers - with a link to the respective post on X - that Lee Parsons, CEO of Ditto Music, might have been responsible for that MCP (see comments below the article for the link).

Since posting however, both Lee’s post and the MCP itself have now been deleted. It is possibly a leap to suggest that it was my article that caused this, but knowing the breadth of industry people who read Network Notes, I don’t think it absurd to suggest that this may have contributed somehow.

Another reader also sent me this - Claw FM, a radio station playing music made and submitted by AI agents. Honestly I can’t quite see what the point is, but suspect it is more of a proof of concept than a serious commercial venture.

Finally, I remarked at the end of the post that Martin Mills had suggested a $1/mo levy might combat the AI slop problem on DSPs. To be clear, his suggestion was just $1 per annum, which if anything makes this even easier to implement, one would think.

Re: the “Universal/Downtown - a few thoughts now that it’s going ahead” post:

The main feedback on this post was less about the acquisition, and more various general sentiments on the wider picture here.

One recurring sentiment was a view that the indies dropped the ball on this deal. I suspect that will cause some in positions of power to bristle slightly, not least because hindsight is a wonderful thing. Could more have been done to prevent this happening? Possibly. Honestly though my own view is that there’s no use crying over spilt milk at this point. The deal is going ahead and that’s that.

Other speculation also came in as to what other moves might happen. I mentioned in the piece that Distrokid is up for sale, and there has been speculation that one of the majors - not Universal - might swoop for that. It would certainly boost market share so I don’t think it takes a genius to unpick which major would benefit most from such a move here.

Re: the “Fan burner accounts: music’s latest dirty secret” post:

One comment made by someone well-placed to give such insight was that artists, labels and indeed anyone engaging with this space needs to be mindful of the degree to which such accounts are breaking ad/sponsorship rules. In short, running a fake fan account amounts to undisclosed promotion, which the likes of Meta and TikTok might well take a dim view of.

Could that mean there is a crackdown coming? Tough to say, but I certainly can see the logic that these accounts are potentially breaking T&Cs, as that’s something we’ve seen a fair bit of action on among reality stars here in the UK. Granted, promoting flat tummy teas etc without declaring that you’re being paid is somewhat different, but if both exist to promote something without declaring that the account is owned and operated by management or label, that’s still a potential problem.

Re: the “The ever-growing management/label push-pull” post:

This post yielded a fair bit of response from managers in particular. One respondent - who is actively dealing with UMG - suggested that it was not absolutely clear (at all) that Universal had rights to artist voice and likeness so as to train Udio on it. The suggestion is that Universal believes they have the right, but that “believe” is not the same as “absolutely, demonstrably possesses”.

In short, it feels murky to some, and if that is the case, we might yet see more issues here, particularly as we get closer to Udio 2.0 launching.

I also had feedback from labels, who felt that the “artists don’t need labels” argument only holds water once that artist has reached a certain level of success (Gorillaz, in the context of this piece). I think that’s a fair comment, and I think something I did not say in the piece (but should have) is that I personally feel labels can still act as nexus points for a scene, sound or movement. Go back through the years and there was always a label as a nexus point, be that Mo’ Wax for the nascent trip hop sound (not that Lavelle would appreciate that term!), Sub Pop for grunge, Warp for IDM (again, sorry re: the term!) and so on. So IMO, this was a fair point to make.

Re: Jeremy Sirota’s move to Suno:

A few readers asked me what my thoughts were about the news that former Merlin CEO Jeremy Sirota has accepted the COO role at Suno. This was something I was tempted to write about, but CMU’s scathing article on the development did such a fine job that I feel I simply cannot top it.

To be clear, I know everyone has to make a living and it is easy to sit in judgement of others, but I think the reason this specific move has generated so much chatter is just because of the sheer shift in moral standpoint that seems to have occurred. The indie community would appear disappointed by that u-turn, and I think that is understandable. Money talks though, and much as we all like to hold a moral standpoint, I wonder how much those criticising might also take that pay cheque if the offer was large enough.

That’s it! This is a new thing I am looking to do maybe once a month (depending on how much happens post-publishing), so let me know if this is something you’d like to see more of.

I was also contemplating an “Ask Me Anything” segment maybe once per quarter, so again, let me know if you might enjoy reading. To be clear, the logic here was not an egocentric one; it is more that I feel questions from the readers here might give a barometer of what people are worrying about, what they are thinking and so on, which might in turn be beneficial to everyone.

It would be great to hear from you all what you think though.

Have a great day,

D.

🎶 Listening to “Suntory” by John Carroll Kirby. This landed in my inbox yesterday, and after a tough afternoon that left me a little frazzled, this was a true aural tonic. Save it for the back end of the day when you feel worn out, and let this soothe your soul. Wonderful.

📺 Watching “Living on Longships Lighthouse during Storm Goretti” on YouTube. If you had “video diaries of a lighthouse keeper” on the recommendations bingo card for this week, tick that off now. This is a stunningly shot film, showing you what the lighthouse keepers do in the modern age. It’s super relaxing and beautifully shot. Enjoy.

🤖 Playing with Claw FM… though “playing” might be a stretch. I do find things like this interesting, though more as a weird demonstration of what’s possible. Equally though, there’s a whiff of “know your enemy” here too.

Gleefully accepting music recommendations!

I do really enjoy getting suggestions for either existing music or forthcoming releases to check out. So, if there’s something you think I might like, do feel free to get in touch. Always keen to hear the weird and wonderful things going on out there. And, with 6000+ subscribers, I’m happy to spread word on things I’m loving too.

Last week I became aware of this, a music MCP that allows anyone to generate songs, distribute them to DSPs and then monitor that release across platforms, all without human intervention.

(For those unfamiliar, an MCP is essentially an AI-centric programming interface in which AI agents can then interact with existing platforms in a manner not dissimilar to a human.)

In this case then, it simply means that I could leave a machine creating endless Gen AI music and then have that automatically uploaded to DSPs through a distribution platform, after which I can monitor them for monetisation. Prior to this, the upload process at least required some kind of human input.

Not any more.

If you are wondering which distribution platform is making this possible, it would appear the answer is Ditto Music, which evidently has some kind of API that ensures this is all possible.

To be clear, I do not know if Ditto are aware of this MCP and its usage, or whether such use is a breach of its T&Cs. I would imagine however that in the new age of AI, any system that has an API allowing automated distribution, including (one assumes) the creation of the account for distribution in the first place, is going to see this problem occur.

Ultimately, the news that we now have agentic AI both creating and then delivering music into DSPs should not be a shock to anyone. This was always going to happen, and it’s something many people have talked about for some time.

The bigger issue is what this means for DSPs and indeed the music landscape in general. After all, if systems are allowed to flood DSPs with AI slop, there surely has to be a tipping point in the signal-to-noise ratio wherein everything just becomes a cluttered mass of uselessness.

This long tail play from whoever is engaging with it clearly works for the person in question, but absolutely does not work for streaming platforms. Consequently, this highlights just how important it is going to become for DSPs to be able to separate a mass of low quality AI slop from either entirely human-made, or at the very least, “human-guided” music that stands a solid chance of generating a significant number of streams, acting as valuable content on the platform.

For this reason then, the issue of provenance around music - that is, whether it was created by AI or by humans - is going to become a burning issue that DSPs face.

One platform I have seen that certainly seems to be taking the right approach is Genotone. What this aims to do is provide a fingerprinting system allowing artists to declare their work as human made when uploading it into DSPs.

To be clear, this does not have anything to do with piracy; the aim is not to track music and its use. It is more a verification system allowing DSPs in particular to understand which music is certifiably human and which is not, at the point where it is being ingested into the platform.

To me, the appeal for DSPs seems obvious. I would imagine hosting costs for one are only spiralling upwards as more and more slop gets uploaded. Consequently, whatever the cost of a service like Genotone (within reason), it stands to reason that savings would be made relative to hosting alone, if not streaming bandwidth and more.

Doubtless the same types of questions ultimately present themselves regarding where the line is drawn between what is AI and what is not. I feel this is where Genotone carries value because it would clearly speak to artists who are honestly crafting their art, versus the kinds of people using the music MCP I linked to above to just churn out endless amounts of crap.

All that being said, I have seen simpler solutions mentioned previously that feel equally effective. I believe it was Martin Mills who suggested that if there was a simple low cost to keep a track on DSPs each month - let’s just say one dollar a month - then that would succeed in eliminating the lion’s share of AI slop from these platforms.

Any which way, we have now crossed the Rubicon into a space where agentic AI can flood DSPs with endless amounts of rubbish in a “monkeys and typewriters”-style attack, all presumably with a view to making money with the odd success.

Let’s hope the industry collectively gets a handle on it ASAP.

Have a great day,

D.

🎶 Listening to “An Actor Is The Only Person...Who Believes In The Words He Says” by Kirill Matveev. This is my kind of spatial, dub-infused techno, released on the perma-reliable Vuo Records label from Finland. Definitely one of those labels where you find yourself on a deep dive into the catalogue, almost all of which is absolutely superb. Check it out.

📺 (Finished!) watching “Small Prophets”. Mackenzie Crook’s latest comedy is about a man growing prophesying homunculi in a bid to find out whether his missing girlfriend is still alive. That might sound bleak, but the show itself is a warm, wonderful, easy watch, which fans of Crook’s last show Detectorists will be all too familiar with. It’s the best show I’ve watched in a long, long while. Make time for it.

🤖 Loving the Ableton Note update. For those unfamiliar, Ableton Note is the company’s mobile app that allows you to sketch tracks together with ease when on the go. The smartest aspect is the way you can sync that to the cloud and then import it into the main desktop version of Ableton Live to flesh out the song. In this latest update, though, Ableton Note introduces a load of features around audio, including slicing, stretching and more. Very smart; I’m keen to see where this will all lead.

Gleefully accepting music recommendations!

I do really enjoy getting suggestions for either existing music or forthcoming releases to check out. So, if there’s something you think I might like, do feel free to get in touch. Always keen to hear the weird and wonderful things going on out there. And, with 6000+ subscribers, I’m happy to spread word on things I’m loving too.

I get the sense a lot of other people felt much the same way, as news of the deal going ahead was not really met so much with outrage as a sigh and a roll of the eyes.

So what now? For one thing, I would imagine Universal will have to consider any further acquisitions rather carefully. I have made this comment in the past, though, and feel it is notable that Universal has a habit of quietly extending its tendrils into other spaces in a manner that can evade scrutiny. A good example would be its stake in NTS radio, for example.

Even so, with regulatory scrutiny on the company in general, I would think any further moves it makes would have to be exceptionally well thought out.

I did briefly wonder whether the music giant would swoop for DistroKid, which is apparently up for sale. In reality though, I’m not convinced Universal is all that interested in the kind of exceptionally long-tail business that DistroKid operates, valuable though it is.

But what about artists? In some respects, this development is a gift to businesses that remain fully independent. The likes of IDOL and Absolute leap to mind as prime beneficiaries in a world where not everybody wishes to jump on the Universal bus.

Perhaps a more interesting space to focus on now will be the degree to which Universal attempts to consolidate its power, particularly in light of its new acquisitions. One comment that really stuck with me from the Music Ally Connect event was that of Jonathan Dworkin when he remarked that Lucian Grainge had moved Universal’s HQ to California rather than New York (as originally intended) so as to be closer to Big Tech.

The AI bubble remains un-burst at this point, but you can sense everybody, including Universal, dashing towards it as if it is still a licence to print money. Doubtless Universal will seek to deploy AI wherever it can in the name of benefiting its own investments and artists. The tools that it uses may not be immediately apparent and could even sit out of sight, but I’m fairly convinced that they will now look to implement things at scale that will naturally benefit their ecosystem.

Ultimately, I feel this is likely to be a fool’s errand. I remain firmly of the view that social media is a race to the bottom now. AI tools are being deployed to help us combat other AI tools, and the speed at which slop is filling these platforms is growing daily. To that end then, I see no world in which AI being used to accelerate AI is going to do anything but burn out the entire space. For that reason, I feel like Universal’s desire to buddy up to Big Tech may well prove fruitless in the long run.

I have a quiet suspicion that the acquisition of value through data will also be a focus for Universal from here on. There are a higher number of platforms emerging that are seeking to work with artist data, serving as a central node of collection for the purposes of insight.

Those are exactly the kinds of businesses I could see Universal wishing to swoop for, as the logic feels like a mere extension of the same one that suggested the Downtown acquisition to be a smart move. I have said it a couple of times before now, but I’ll say it again: artists badly need to ensure some kind of clause exists when dealing with data platforms such that all data is returnable to the artist should that platform be acquired.

A comment was made to me earlier that I feel is a very simple truth: when artists sign with genuinely independent businesses, those businesses are answerable to the artist. Universal, on the other hand, is answerable to its shareholders, and artists would do well to remember that before making deals. Lest we forget, as much as Universal likes to crow about empowering artists, in reality it is still taking vast amounts of investment from the likes of Pershing Square Capital. It is like oil and water, in terms of culture versus commerce.

The major is undoubtedly developing a massive power base, but choice remains with artists. I think it will be very interesting to see whether Universal will be able to deliver more through its scale or will simply cave in to a kind of enshittification that will see more and more talent leaving.

I will be watching with interest to see what Universal’s next moves for expansion are. I suspect it will be subtle and quite probably firmly out of sight.

Let’s see.

Have a great day,

D.

🎶 Listening to “Red Rocking Chair” by All Them Witches. This melds that “musing quiet verse” thing with monstrous, copper-bottomed riffage of the kind I love just as much now as I did in the 1990s when the likes of Kyuss were delivering it so perfectly. The kind of music that makes you want to detune your guitar to B, then lay off all manner of dropped power chords until you grow a beard, well, like the one I am sporting right now, LOL. Shouts to Doug for the recommendation!

📺 Watching “Turin 2006 Winter Olympics | Women’s Snowboard Cross Final”. I’ve been loving the Snowboard Cross at this year’s Winter Olympics; genuinely gripping stuff. This final from ten years ago is something else, however. Drama? Tension? It has it all. Absoutely incredible. Extra shout-outs to the commentary, which culminates in what can only be described as Braveheartian-levels of mania. Glorious, every second of it.

🤖 Loving Zorin OS. Like many, I’ve been increasingly exploring alternatives to Big Tech of late, and one thing that caught my eye was this Linux distro aimed primarily at those looking to escape the hellscape that is Windows 11. The way it handles Windows apps is the best I’ve seen; if you run a .exe file to install something, the OS will check what it is, and if a Linux-native version exists, it will point you to that. If there is not a Linux-native equivalent, it then guides you through installation. For me though the main win is just the look of it. Absolutely stunning. Breathe new life into old laptops with this one - you won’t regret it.

Gleefully accepting music recommendations!

I do really enjoy getting suggestions for either existing music or forthcoming releases to check out. So, if there’s something you think I might like, do feel free to get in touch. Always keen to hear the weird and wonderful things going on out there. And, with 6000+ subscribers, I’m happy to spread word on things I’m loving too.

Other bits…

• I recently sat down with Nathan at Rinse FM to chat all things AI. It was a great chat, so if you have time, be sure to tune in and have a listen.

• Big thanks to FFWD for having me last week. I was not in great shape after a family emergency the day/night before, but it was still a great chat about all things marketing. I really hope we’ll see more events from FFWD now; it was clear to me that there’s a lot of people who really benefit from those conferences happening.

In the new age of algorithmic social media, the logic is that by continually pumping out content, one is feeding the algorithm and ensuring that your band/brand is getting continued visibility in the social conversation.

A more recent development is that I’m seeing artists less willing to spend time on social media and therefore more willing to engage with the use of fan burner accounts. Frankly, this makes a lot of sense; it is getting harder and harder to find traction on social media thanks to its increasingly transient nature, all fuelled by the algorithm. As a consequence, it’s easy to see why artists are simply saying “enough is enough” and trying where possible to step back.

Ultimately, this feels like one more development in a race to the bottom. The speed at which social media churns is getting faster and faster. Constantly trying to match that need with an ever-increasing spew of posts is simply accepting that this is still a worthwhile use of time and energy.

For now (and yes, somewhat paradoxically) I would argue that this assertion may be correct. Things are changing, everybody is struggling to keep up, and these kinds of solutions allow both a delegation of intensive time use elsewhere, but also solve a problem that the artists themselves are understandably unwilling to step up to. After all, if we follow this logic, artists would be spending more time trying to create content to feed the algorithms than they would actually spend making music.

Zoom out, however, and an intervention of sorts is required. Time and resource is finite, and the way in which people are spending it may be up for question.

The kinds of fan burner accounts I’m seeing being run are costing out at easily over £1,000 per month per account. These accounts do not generate a meaningful connection with an artist. They insert them into the zeitgeist, arguably, but it is up for debate as to the value of that connection. Personally, I feel it is relatively low.

Alongside that, I have to wonder whether the money being thrown at these accounts -and it is worth stating that often, artists, management or labels are operating two or three of these at the same time - is a smart use of budget.

(Sidenote: this is all before we get into the frankly ridiculous space of agencies selling fan burner accounts back to artists’ management for five figure sums, which, I have to say, feels utterly wrong.)

I need to be absolutely clear on something here: I am not judging anyone for using fan burner accounts. I completely understand the logic, and the pitch for them makes a huge amount of sense.

What I am doing, though, is flagging a concern as to whether we are all simply buying into perpetuating an environment where more and more time and energy is funnelled into things that are of persistently diminishing returns.

In a week in which we’re now seeing the first social network appear, powered entirely by AI agents, I feel it is logical to see an endpoint where agentic AI is “flooding the plain with shit”, to quote a fairly unpleasant right-winger. Social media is already falling victim to gratuitous amounts of AI slop, and now that one can power on a computer and leave it spewing this stuff out 24/7, it’s easy to imagine this only becoming exponentially greater as a problem in time.

(Sidenote: the same could be said for AI submissions to DSPs, but that’s a story for another day.)

Artists and their teams need to focus on connection. Connection is everything. It is where value lives. Forge meaningful connections and you have fans for life. Equally, from a purely business perspective, these are the people who will spend the most on you - and therefore, they are eminently worth spending more money on to acquire.

Right now I would much rather throw thousands at an incredible community manager who can genuinely foster connection and experiences with fans than I ever would throw money at fan burner accounts. I hate to sound like a stuck record, but buying into the fan burner strategy is to buy in to a view that Big Tech and its platforms are the path to your artist succeeding.

I’m sorry, but that’s complete bullshit.

Success comes through connection.

I’ll say it again, connection is everything.

Have a great day,

D.

🎶 Listening to “The Onrush of Eternity” by by log(m) & Laraaji, over on Bandcamp. After my frothing review of the incredible Craven Faults LP last week, my buddy Neil sent me this, thinking I might enjoy it. And he was right. Spacey, loping, dub-infused touches, coupled with that synth sound that seems to figure in the works of Craven Faults, Pye Corner Audio and more. It makes for wonderful music to work to as well. Dive in!

📺 Watching “Suno, AI Music, and the Bad Future” by Adam Neely on YouTube. Adam’s video is a wonderful response to the propaganda of Suno and other Gen AI music platforms who would like us to think that they are bringing us a bright and shining future. Over the course of 90 minutes, Neely carefully deconstructs these arguments with a response to each and every one. It is absolutely fantastic. Please make time to watch it.

🤖 Loving Samply. I will admit that I’ve grown tired of SoundCloud, which feels like a hot mess of a product these days. Whilst looking for an alternative way to host demos to shop to labels, I stumbled upon Samply and I have to say, I really like it. It is very much in the “does one thing but does it extremely well” category of platform, and I’m all for that.

Gleefully accepting music recommendations!

I do really enjoy getting suggestions for either existing music or forthcoming releases to check out. So, if there’s something you think I might like, do feel free to get in touch. Always keen to hear the weird and wonderful things going on out there. And, with 6000+ subscribers, I’m happy to spread word on things I’m loving too.

Prior to my own panel starting though, I was able to watch a fantastic conversation with Niamh Byrne of Eleven Management. In it, Niamh spoke at some length about the shift to a more management-centric world for Gorillaz, whose new album, she mentioned, would be released fully independently. What really caught my attention was when Niamh was asked whether bands need labels anymore. Her answer was a fairly simple “no”, though she did remark that funding is the number one challenge for artists and that labels certainly have a role to play in that regard.

All of this stood in contrast to the tone taken by my fellow panellist James Healy, SVP of Digital Business and Strategy at Universal Music. He was keen to talk up Universal’s role to play in generating more revenue for artists via deals with anyone from Spotify (with the 1,000 plays move) or Udio (with the new AI music platform). From a purely business perspective, when you consider this position in the context of representing hundreds of thousands of recorded works, he has a point.

Ultimately though, what became clear to me was that we have two arguably key stakeholders for most artists - managers and labels - moving in opposing directions.

What is being laid bare is the proximity to the art itself versus the exploitation of the product of that art - and therefore the revenue generated through it.

Managers are solely interested in their own artists and what those artists are seeking to achieve. It is their role to support how they may be empowered to do so, such that they are not only able to express themselves through their art, but to make a living - and ideally a very good one too.

Businesses like Universal, on the other hand, are large-scale operators. Their role is to increase revenue across everything they have an interest in. Hence a focus on DSPs and matters like increasing the threshold at which artists get paid, as they did with both Deezer and Spotify.

Perhaps the flashpoint emphasising the opposing pulling forces is AI, unsurprisingly. As we have been seeing, Universal are very much talking up the possibilities of its partnership with Udio, and at both the panel I was on and a previous day’s panel, mention was made of how great it would be to hear what it would sound like had Jimi Hendrix recorded Miles Davis’s Bitches Brew, for example.

This exploitation, or some might even say desecration, of the artist’s work via the medium of AI is where I would imagine managers are getting agitated. Put simply, they quite probably feel that it is not for a record label to allow this kind of exploitation to occur.

It is worth stressing that Universal have repeatedly stated that if an artist is not prepared to give permission for AI exploitation, they would not seek to enforce it. However, I feel just the space itself exposes the tensions between managers and labels. When you see notable managers such as Niamh Byrne suggesting that labels are no longer required, that should give serious cause for concern as to how the future may look if you are someone like Universal Music. Yes, there is a vast mine of catalogue for a company like that to exploit, but if that catalogue does not evolve with new music, it will ultimately diminish in value and expire, particularly if new and emerging artists are all working independently and eating into that attention bandwidth.

A power shift is very much at play here. I have written in the past that the likes of Universal’s major label model is already in tatters, which is why it is so desperately chasing down acquisitions of independent music companies. As long as managers hold the power though, I can only see them doing tougher and tougher deals with shorter licence terms that ultimately mean this path that Universal is following will soon be cut short.

Maybe the most telling thing here is the degree to which Universal truly feels it is innovating on behalf of artists and just how much of a role it has to play. Is it that essential though? I am increasingly thinking not.

Let’s see.

Have a great day,

D.

🎶 Listening to: everything on the Echocord label. Whenever I get time, I do enjoy going down a Discogs wormhole where I start with an artist I love, then look at which label they’re on, then nose through the other artists and releases on that label. Echocord is one such example, and so far absolutely everything on it is blowing my mind. Mind you, what chance did I have when the label is all about the celebration of dub culture as shot through modern techno?! Fantastic stuff.

📺 Watching Kate Bush’s 1979 BBC Christmas Special. Friday night was a bad night to be a bottle of sake in my house. However, as I sat in a sake-infused haze around 11pm, I whacked this on and it kind of blew my mind to watch it again. My good friend Dev made a fine point, too: at the time this aired, there were only three TV channels in the UK. So the notion that the BBC handed over the best part of an hour to Kate Bush and her modern interpretive dance while delivering songs that range from utterly classic to quite bizarre is truly a thing of wonder. (Also, as an aside, the fact that Kate Bush was only 15 when she wrote The Man With The Child In His Eyes continues to blow my mind to this day. Just incredible.)

🎧 Playing with Outgrowth, a new sampler plugin that Motive Unknown may soon be working with. So far, it’s blowing me away; combine the means to granularise sample points with modulation and you have some incredible means to produce textures for the kind of music I like making. I generally have avoided using samples when making music, but plugins like this (and Bitwig’s own stock sampler, which I adore!) are most definitely bringing me back around to the power within them.

🤖 Playing with my new Samsung Galaxy Buds Pro 3 (good GOD what a mouthful that name is!). It is crazy to see just how far noise cancellation has come, and now when you add in things like AI running to detect whether a noise is something you should pay attention to, I can’t lie, I’m impressed. Crucially though, the sound on these things is absolutely ridiculous. The bass response is like nothing I’ve heard for an in-ear headphone, and I absolutely love it.

Fancy coming to FFWD?

I mentioned recently that I would be speaking at the FFWD conference that is taking place next Tuesday. Final tickets are selling out quick, but if you fancy coming along, click this link, grab your ticket, and I shall see you there, as will other members of the Motive Unknown team. Looking forward to this one!

AI is perhaps the apex point of this argument. We can now generate songs instantly on Suno, or images and videos immediately with Sora. It all takes minutes, and it is all incredibly easy.

Therein lies the problem though. What comes to us easily is not valued, and increasingly this devaluation has been spreading across arts and culture like a plague.

Mercifully, it feels like people are increasingly tuning in to the shallow, unrewarding nature of this relationship. When things are available in abundance and are instantly accessed, we simply attribute zero value to them because we have not had to endure any friction whatsoever in order to obtain them.

Hence, it feels like friction is perhaps no longer such a dirty word. Younger generations are returning to iPods in droves (more on that in a moment!) and increasingly, it feels like people are seeing more value in deeper connections to anything from music to visual arts and beyond.

I found myself in a halcyon days conversation with a friend recently where we were remarking on the good old days wherein one might hear a song played on the radio or in a club, and then spend anything from days to months attempting to find that song on vinyl or in some format where you could play it at any moment of your choosing. The point was simply that being denied these things, having to endure the friction of tracking these releases down meant that when you finally got it, you treasured it and you played it to death.

Ironically, friction is now taking another angle in the world of AI. I read this great article earlier (courtesy of my MU colleague Charlotte), suggesting that there is now increasing value in “showing your workings out”, that is, proving that a sufficient amount of friction went into the creation of something. The example in the article was Apple’s logo in a recent TV ident, which was not made with graphics and AI, but was crafted from sheets of glass:

As you can see then, our relationship with friction, our appreciation of it, is shifting. In the age of AI, friction is now a positive term. It proves that sufficient effort has gone into something, and that in turn is inherently connected with us valuing it all the more.

I wonder if that association with friction as a positive notion will also bleed out into the nature of how we consume arts and culture itself. Put simply, are we going to value something more when we have to work harder to get it?

The immediacy of everything feels like a tired concept now. One might say the same about the attention economy in general. Everything coming easily simply means nothing, and we are finding ourselves thirsting for more friction - and with that, significantly more reward when we finally obtain access to something.

I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see artists exploring this concept more through 2026. I would imagine the bigger acts will explore it first, as they have the audience there with demonstrable fandom, such that friction could be introduced gently and without significant negative effect.

Let’s see, though. Personally, I am excited to see how this will all turn out.

Have a great day,

D.

🎶 Listening to: Craven Faults - Sidings. The fine people at Leaf were kind enough to send me a promo of this, and I’ve been unable to stop playing it ever since I got it. With echoes of Pye Corner Audio, this has that hauntology sound going on, but for me it just totally hits the spot. I think I may even have told David at Leaf that it made me want to “turn out the lights, smoke a bowl, and sit there watching my retinas spewing sail light trails in the dark until I see dead kings.” So, well received, I think we can all agree! 😆

🎧 Listening to Craven Faults on my new Innioasis Y1 iPod clone. This thing is a total joy: a slim, entirely iPod-copying digital music player that works like a charm and cost me just £55. It sports bluetooth, USB-C, and plays MP3, FLAC and most other formats. I’m loving it! I especially like the battery life. In a world where we are used to charging our phones daily, the fact that this has only been charged once since I bought it about a week ago speaks volumes.

🤖 Playing with Monologue. Dictation tools are something I’ve always been interested in, but which have always come up short. Monologue, on the other hand, has perfectly hit the spot to such an extent that I’ve used it to dictate both this Network Notes and the last one. I think what separates it from the pack is that it uses a layer of AI to filter out the extraneous ‘ums’ and ‘errs’ that one can include when dictating, but which also recognises tone depending on which app you’re in. It’s incredibly smart and for me has been a massive productivity booster. Check it out.

Postscript: this article was actually written last week, when I was stockpiling pieces to send out through coming days/weeks. Since finishing it, I was catching up on my own Substack subs, and realised that Maarten over at Music X had also written about friction. I feel our pieces line up well alongside one another, as his takes a deeper dive and perhaps a more philosophical take on the matter. Well worth your time. Have a read here.

I would go a step further and say that Graham’s words ring true on two separate levels.

First, you could receive it as a comment on the state of the grassroots music industry, which in the UK has received yet another damning report from the UK’s Music Venue Trust. That report was very well covered by Drowned in Sound, so rather than repeat the findings etc I would I recommend reading that excellent piece here.

Second, I feel it could be taken as a comment on the state of emerging music in 2026 too.

This is the letter, but I have transcribed it below for readability:

BILL GRAHAM’S FILLMORE EAST FILLMORE EAST CORPORATION • 105 SECOND AVENUE, NEW YORK, N.Y. 10003 • 777-3910

I don’t think I need inform you of the grave problems that exist presently in the rock industry. The cost of talent, along with the existing political strife, has crippled the concert and ballroom business to such an extent that a great number of locations have either filed bankruptcy or closed for the summer months. Those staying open are fighting for their very existence. The Fillmores, East and West, fall into that category.

The intention of this letter is not to ‘cry on your shoulder.’ The industry has been good to the Fillmores; and I like to think that this organization has been good for the industry. However, after five years, I’ve reached the point of exasperation - the unavailability of quality/draw talent. The economics have taken the music from the clubs, ballrooms, and concert halls - to the larger coliseums and festivals. Major groups, as a result of increased record royalties and increasing public appearance fees, are working fewer and fewer dates at larger and larger locations. My personal feeling is that this trend will not only destroy this business but will do nothing to upgrade the quality of shows, or to improve the musical taste level of the mass audience. In other words, the music is being pulled AWAY from, rather than toward, the people. The public is further and further away from the artist.

But that is not the major problem. It’s this: There are not enough new acts coming along to replace the attractions who’ve gone on to bigger and sometimes better things. Who, or what, has replaced the super stars in the ballrooms and concert halls? How can we be asked to expose new talent, the potential headliners of tomorrow, if we are not given the opportunity to do so on shows supported by top quality ‘draw’ musicians?

While I realize that the stars make the final decisions, I feel that you, in the pivotal position as managers or agents, should not only be aware of the situation at hand, (if you were not already) but must do everything in your power to insure against the death of the visible and audible rock scene. The only way that that can be done is for you to make a determined effort in convincing your headline attractions of the importance of keeping the ballroom and concert scene alive. These acts should understand that if it weren’t for these same ballrooms, these ‘heavy’ attractions would never have gotten to where they are today. If it were not for these places, the talent of great non-rock musicians, such as B. B. King, Miles Davis, Buddy Rich, Staple Singers, etc. might not have reached a large number of ‘rock’ fans. (The super stars drew their fans, who then became exposed to the important talent of these artists.) This does not mean that they must forever play the club circuit. This does not mean that they must continue to play the Fillmores. But it does mean that unless these acts do, from time to time, go back, or unless new blood is pumped into the business by means of the emergence of draw/quality attractions, it’s my feeling that the end is near. I do not want to continue operating Fillmores East and West simply for the sake of continuing.

I’m sure, from your point of view, it might be like cowboys and Indians - for every club that closes another one will open. But I think something should be said for the clubs that have worked hard over the years to maintain a 52-week running policy, on a quality basis.

My hope is that you will take it upon yourself to examine the situation thoroughly, discuss it with your associates, and then do what you think is best for your organization and the talent you represent.

The defense rests.

Cheers,

[Signature: Bill Graham]

Is history repeating itself? I have long held a view that history is certainly cyclical, so yes, I feel it is on one level or another.

Whether we feel that is currently a positive or negative thing is perhaps for you, the reader, to decide.

Have a great day - and thanks again Adam for sharing the letter.

D.

🎶 Listening to “w/The Producers” by Paul St Hilaire. Long time readers know of my love for all things Basic Channel, and by extension Rhythm & Sound, so I am surprised that it has taken me this long to check out this album, in which St Hilaire partners with an array of producers for another slice of Berliner dub. Current favourite track is the one with Mala, whose throbbing sub bass is as masterfully controlled as ever. The whole record is amazing though - make time for it.

📺 Watching “OMA - burnt. EP (Live Session) | Instrumental HipHop Beats” on YouTube. How OMA are bigger than they are is a mystery to me; the talent is undeniable. I love this clip though, which plants the band on what looks like a mossy hillside behind a disused factory, from which they deliver a dazzling array of phenomenal, sampleable instrumental hip-hop. That drum sound… 🤌🏻🤌🏻🤌🏻

🗣️ Playing with Monologue. Dictation tools are something I’ve always been interested in, but which have always come up short. Monologue, on the other hand, has perfectly hit the spot to such an extent that I’ve used it to dictate both this Network Notes and the last one. I think what separates it from the pack is that it uses a layer of AI to filter out the extraneous ‘ums’ and ‘errs’ that one can include when dictating, but which also recognises tone depending on which app you’re in. It’s incredibly smart and for me has been a massive productivity booster. Check it out.

And what a start to the year it has been. We are only days in and already it looks like Europe and America may be at war soon, and that Trump is doing all of this just because he’s pissed at not getting a Nobel Peace Prize. I never had “plot out what happens if Europe triggers the Anti Coercion Instrument on the USA” on my list of things to do this January, but here we are. (Spoiler: it’s literally ALL bad.)

Let’s park the politics though and focus back on the music industry, which is the beloved space Network Notes covers.

AI remains the word on everybody’s lips and the year has started with us seeing great examples from both ends of the music industry’s “major to indie” spectrum highlighting just how much of a Catch-22 this entire space has now become.

At the major label end of things, Sir Lucian Grainge issued a memo to all staff at Universal earlier this month, which was telling for the extremity of views, both for and against AI, all within the same note.

On the one hand, Grainge talked up partnerships with the likes of Nvidia and Udio, whilst at the other, decrying firms that “fail to respect artists’ work”. Of course, somewhere an irony measurement machine is exploding, on the basis most people would argue that Udio is the absolute epitome of failing to respect artists’ work, having trained its entire model on copyrighted material.

Ultimately, as ever, it feels as though one could supplement the words “artists” and
”musicians” with “money” in any memo from Lucian Grainge, and it would all make significantly more sense. The company’s moral fibre seems to flip-flop based entirely on whether the pay cheque is big enough, and at the point that it is (cf. Udio), it is happy to strike a bargain, parking all moral reservations in the process.

All that being said, I do have a degree of sympathy for the position that Universal, or indeed any music industry business, now finds itself in.

In short, there is no right answer as to how any music business engages with AI.

In deals like the Suno and Udio ones, a devil’s advocate argument might be that if the respective majors, in this case Warner and Universal respectively, did not strike deals, they may miss out on whatever riches AI might - just might - bring. Conversely, in striking the deals, they are on the receiving end of endless amounts of criticism and moral judgment.

Which brings me to the other AI story at arguably the more independent end of the spectrum. Just last week, Bandcamp announced that it would be banning AI music from its platform. At first blush, one’s response is likely to be “good”. In reality, though, the announcement exposes the difficulties of policing this entire space.

Where does the line lie in terms of a track passing scrutiny for AI content? I think we can take it as read that if I spin up a song on Suno and attempt to upload that, Bandcamp would consider it a breach and would remove it from the platform. However, what if my song contained a synth patch that I had made using my beloved Synplant’s GenoPatch function? Equally, what if I used something like Moises to create a bassline or melody line for a song that is 75% made by hand?

This may appear needlessly pedantic, but I think you get where I am going here: it is going to be impossible to fully police uploads for AI content. At that point, however, one might argue that the announcement to ban AI music rings somewhat hollow.

Ultimately, both scenarios above highlight the “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” position that almost every music company now finds itself in.

I fear this is a fruitless demand, but I shall repeat it nonetheless: in an area that is highly complex, with no simple answers as regards moral or financial position, it is important that we all accept that there is vast amounts of nuance to consider when discussing anything to do with AI and music.

Am I sympathising with Sir Lucian Grainge? Yes, just a little bit, in the sense that, like everybody else, Universal is attempting to navigate a tricky path and is doing the best it can. Granted, it is doing the best it can in the sense of throwing its weight around and claiming to represent all artists when it really represents nothing more than its own financial interests, but I still accept that they have a challenge here.

I suspect in time the finances around AI will ultimately determine the outcome. The simple truth is that AI systems are phenomenally expensive to run and at the point at which VC capital stops propping many of these businesses up, we will see a rapid extinction event, in which only the best and most appealing businesses survive on the basis Joe Public is prepared to pay for them.

Until then, though, let’s try to remember that the topic is a highly complex one and this gravid focus on polarised, extreme views is benefiting no one.

Have a great day

D.

What I’ve Been Enjoying - A Catch-Up Session!

With so much time having passed since the last edition of Network Notes went out, I wanted to do a bit more of a roundup of the things I’ve been enjoying since mid-December.

Albums of the Year:

Two albums have camped out on my stereo since they were released:

Tortoise - Touch
Tortoise’s first album in nine years, “Touch” is something I’ve found myself returning to over and over again. There was always a whiff of krautrock about Chicago’s finest, but here, it really seemed to come through stronger than ever for me. As an affirmed krautrock fan (with apologies to our German readers, knowing the term certainly makes some bristle), this meant it absolutely hit the spot for me.

Weighing in at just 38mins, this also ticks a box in delivering on the “don’t outstay your welcome” vibe, giving it a big repeat-play factor.

Make time for it, and savour it as I continue to do. This one is like the aural glass of fine red wine (or insert your tipple of choice there) you enjoy at the end of a tough day. Truly wonderful. (Disclosure: International Anthem, an MU client, released this album)

Mark Ernestus’ Ndagga Rhythm Force - Khadim
Mark Ernestus is, without question, techno royalty. Not, I suspect, that he’d enjoy my writing that. Known to many as one half of Basic Channel, one might argue his contribution to creating dub techno is perhaps his legacy of sorts. In truth however, he has long since moved on, and his Ndagga Rhythm Force was a bold step into a whole new sound back in 2015.

Bringing together a band of Senegalese players, Ernestus took his own musical style and fused it with that of his band members styles, drawing particularly on Wolof Sabar drumming techniques that I honestly don’t feel I can describe all that easily, hence the video link. (Perhaps think “rolling polyrhythmic patterns delivered on stretched animal skin drums” and you’re partially there.)

The end result however is something I continue to find utterly entrancing, and Ndagga’s latest album, Khadim, is an apex point of that.

I was lucky enough to attend the release/ playback party for this album whilst over in Berlin. Hearing this meticulously crafted album played back on a grossly expensive sound system was, in truth, absolutely exquisite. From there, I was hooked, and sonically it stands alone for me. Eminently worth checking out.

Label of the Year:

If there is one label whose output I caned to death in 2025, it is Cherry Red, but specifically Doctor Bird, the reggae and dub reissues label they started (though other releases came out on differently-named imprints for some reason too).

Put simply, they have dropped so many exquisite reissues and comps that at one point I enquired with Cherry Red (disclosure: an MU client) about them simply sending me every release and issuing an invoice at year end, LOL.

Ultimately I was so blown away by what was being released that I couldn’t resist asking who was curating these comps and album reissues. The answer explained everything: it is Laurence Cane-Honeysett, who for decades was masterminding Trojan’s output, particularly (if I have my facts right) through its Sanctuary-owned years, which saw the label dropping some of the most brilliant compilations out there.

If like me you could happily sit listening to nothing but dub and bass-led music for all eternity, then take some time to nose through their catalogue. It is an embarrassment of riches.

Books of the Year:

Two books resonated with me more than any other in 2025, a year in which I was receiving some ADHD coaching and generally taking back more control of a life that had been somewhat dictated by external forces at a cost to my own well-being.

10% Happier was a game-changer for me. You might summarise it as a cynical man’s journey into learning about meditation, detailing just what an impact that had for him. Meditation is something I have tried before now with largely dissatisfying results. However, after reading this book, I revisited it and found it has brought me enormous comfort and peace of mind. Literally. If you are somebody who feels that they need to make space to slow down, then consider reading this book. It is not a difficult read and in fact is really quite funny at times. Dive in and thank me later. (I note it is also currently just 99p on the Kindle store, so why not give it a spin?)

Similarly, The Brain at Rest is a book that sees a neurologist outline all of the benefits we can reap by simply allowing our brains to do nothing. I appreciate the idea of doing nothing may leave you wondering what the point of reading the book even is, but the multitude of ways in which the author outlines the science behind giving your brain time to rest was genuinely impactful for me and quite a game changer. Whilst your mileage may vary, I personally found that engaging with both meditation and a practice of allowing your brain to rest and tune out significantly improved my quality of sleep. And for me, that improved damn near everything else as a consequence.

Tech of the Year:

In truth, 2025 saw me largely trying to distance myself from an addictive relationship with technology in general, which is something I feel we all struggle with. However, if there is one bit of tech that I think has genuinely been a game changer in terms of how I work and how my team works, it has to be Notion and specifically Notion AI.

I have touched on this a few times in the past, but generally we are finding that by storing all of our company knowledge within Notion, we are now able to use AI to build upon that in a manner which is bringing an amazing amount of efficiency and productivity to all corners of the company and every member of staff.

At a time where AI is subject to ridiculous levels of hyperbole, and far too many companies are trying to convince us that their platforms are worth engaging with, I feel that Notion AI has genuinely brought a significant impact to how Motive Unknown operates, and that makes it eminently worth checking out.

On a completely different note, another piece of tech that brought me enormous amounts of joy last year was this Maxdone wildlife camera. It allowed me to monitor the comings and goings of birds in roosting pouches in my garden and brought me no end of joy. It is essentially like filming a wildlife documentary, but in your own back garden, which is far more fun than you might think. The motion detection means that it only fires when something triggers it and that in turn means it has a massive battery life and is capable of filming in 1080p with superb clarity. Honestly, I can’t recommend one enough if you have a garden into which you can place this!

Other updates and self-aggrandisement:

• I will be speaking at Music Ally’s Connect event this Friday, chatting about Supremium and the whole super fan space. If you’re attending and fancy a chat, get in touch!

• I am also doing a panel at the 10th Anniversay Fast Forward event which takes place this February in London. Full info and tickets here - come on down, these are always amazing.

• I also did a great chat with Nathan Evans for Rinse FM, chatting about AI and the impact of that on music etc. It was a great conversation so once that goes up online I’ll whack a link on the subsequent Network Notes that goes out.

That’s it - thanks for reading, and as ever, if you’re enjoying my writing please consider clicking Like below, sharing it with friends and all that lovely stuff.

Until next time!

Last week I attended the excellent MIA (Music Is the Answer) event here in London. It’s a networking affair, bringing together tech startups, smart people, marketing folk like me and all manner of other movers and shakers. It also has some terrific DJing going on.

At the event I bumped into Tom Vek, someone I’ve been chatting to via email for some time now. Tom runs Sleevenote, and the company’s latest development is a dedicated music player. I’ve seen the blurb about it on the website, but my ears pricked up when Tom mentioned that he had a prototype player with him if I’d like to play with it.

So I did. And I got photographed by Tom whilst doing so:

The device itself is a square, with the artwork taking centre stage as one might expect, given the company’s name. Swipe down and you can see the tracks on the release. Swipe up and you can see your collection, all arranged as cover art, which you can then flick up or down through to find the albums of your choice.

Swipe left and right, and on the four inch screen you see the other artwork around the album - the rear cover art, the sleevenotes etc.

Simple then, and yet something I couldn’t stop playing with.

I think at this point I wouldn’t be shocked if most of you are reading this thinking “meh - who needs another player”, and I think that’s an understandable position to take. This kind of player is - at the outset certainly - something of a luxury purchase. Once it breaks past the prototype run, Tom tells me the price could come down fairly substantially as the economies of scale kick in, which would certainly be positive for sales.

What really stuck with me though was just the experience of this all. I’ve written about my move to Qobuz this year, and how I felt the experience of that was superior, largely due to its uncluttered approach and general design elegance. I would argue the same applies to the Sleevenote player: it is something that, whilst digital, does everything it can to engage you with the artist and their art. In most respects, it’s an update to the era of sitting in your room, 12” sleeve in your hands, nosing the liner notes and generally soaking up the vibe and aesthetic as the music plays. On some weird, deep level, it very much took me back to caring about not just the music, but the artwork and the whole aesthetic being presented. It’s been a long while since that happened.

That, to me, is a powerful - and deeply underrated - thing in 2025. Emily White’s recent piece about the growing (re)adoption of iPods among younger demographics speaks to this, and on a personal level I am seeing more and more people speculate about a more offline existence, favouring ownership and offline access over the convenience of Spotify et al.

Is Sleevenote the next zeitgeist gadget? No; I’d argue it is almost a luxury product of sorts, in that one has no need per se to own one, given your phone can play MP3s, and everyone owns one of those.

But that is to miss the point here. This is about the experience of enjoying music, and what I loved was how it got me admiring the artwork, reading the notes and generally immersing myself back into everything. Bizarrely it got me thinking back to those days of ‘iTunes+’ albums, that featured more liner notes and artwork etc on iTunes-only releases.

In 2025, I find myself craving that connection back to the music in this deeper manner, and Sleevenote really spoke to that. I could see myself playing songs, reading artwork and… that’s it. Not flicking through socials, not checking my email - just listening and enjoying that connection with the music and the art. Less distraction, more connection.

I wish them all the best. It would be great to see this as a mass-produced device. In the meantime, I’ve ordered one of the prototype models. Call it a pre-Christmas treat. We should support things we believe in, so I’ve put my money where my mouth is.

Have a great day

D.

🎶 Listening to “Timeless (25th Anniversary Edition)” by Goldie. I actually bought this a couple of months ago at Raves From The Grave in Frome, Somerset. When I pass indie record stores, I feel a karmic need to go and spend some money in there. This whole industry gave me my career, and I feel that need to pay something back. So, I bought this, further reinforcing that I am an appalling blagger, given Because Music (and until recently London Records) are clients, and I assume procuring a gratis copy might have been possible. But I digress; I still proudly own the original album, and couldn’t resist grabbing this for the instrumentals and remixes. Random fact: I saw Goldie performing this live at a festival in Brighton back in about 1996. The toilets for the event were all around the back of the Metalheadz tent, and as I queued to use the facilities, the sub bass dropped so heavy and hard that a man just fell, utterly dazed, from the metal portaloo as if someone had struck it with a sledgehammer. I was laughing for days.

📺 Watching “Dry The Rain - live on KEXP” by The Beta Band. God I love this band. I love this song, I love the Three EPs comp, I love everything about them. Nothing more to add. (Just realised that Because Music also now own this release too… and once again I failed to tap anyone up for freebies. I’m either a saint or an idiot. Probably the latter.)

📖 Reading “Body of Work” by . Keith was kind enough to send me a promotional copy, which I’ve just started on, and so far I am loving it. This is arguably a love song to the album as a format, and perhaps in that sense its timing chimes well with that Sleevenote player experience above. Pre-order your copy now, and whilst you’re here, consider subscribing to Keith’s own substack. He’s a great writer - to such an extent that he also holds the (possibly dubious) accolade of being the first guest contributor to Network Notes back in September of last year with this gem.

Apologies for the slight pause since the last issue; as ever, December seems to creep up on me like some kind of sneak attack, and before you know it you’re in an insane cycle of Christmas parties, end of year catch-ups and all those deals that people want to get over the line before stopping for the year. All whilst attempting to dodge all the illnesses going around, which I failed to do last week. 😷

As we approach year end, I wanted to look ahead to 2026 and share some thoughts about how I feel things are going to change. Equally, some of those thoughts are about how we need to change within that, because ultimately there are two sides to this; the side that sees us reflexively respond to external developments (e.g. the Universal/Udio deal), and the other side that sees us change how we as an industry are approaching things, thereby influencing the outcome.

In my experience, a lot of people forget about that second element, choosing instead to let someone dictate how history is made.

These thoughts may be a little free-wheeling, so let’s dive in and I’ll header them up for easier reading…

Art, artists and which side of history you wish to be on

Thanks to AI, I firmly believe that companies are being placed in a position in which the way they respond to AI and generative music may prove to be held against them, longer-term.

Universal and Warner have both made deals - with Udio and Suno respectively - that each company feels will allow them to offer up artist works in order for AI models to train on them. Then, within app experiences in both cases, users will be able to create their own (e.g.) Beatles tracks and god knows what else.

Somewhere in a boardroom, this all made a huge amount of sense; the march of AI was relentless, and it was better to engage with this tech rather than attempt to stuff the genie back into the bottle.

The problem with this logic, however, is that it does not reckon with the way in which the artists themselves will view this - and by extension, how they will judge those who chose to side with it.

Ultimately, selling out your artists to AI might stack up on any cold, spreadsheet-informed argument, but it fails to recognise a more basic truth: artists, unsurprisingly, place high value on their art, and will therefore be unlikely to view any company favourably that thinks their work is simply more ‘content’ on which to train a model for profit.

Simply put, by playing their hand and exposing that really what’s craved more than anything - certainly more than the support of artists and their art - is simply profit, even if that means eliminating the one thing that’s been the generator of that profit to date, I suspect that two of the three majors might have wildly overplayed their hand here.

(Sidenote: I read an interesting piece the other day, suggesting that Apple might yet be a beneficiary of the AI race because its decision not to go all in to the extent of others might now mean it is in a far better position, financially-speaking. Investors are apparently looking at it as a much safer bet now. I find this all very telling. Could Sony be making a similar strategic move here? Food for thought…)

The return to small communities and offline-led movements

A theme I keep coming across in more and more conversations with managers, but also in reading about latest trends etc, is that more and more people are craving offline experiences - even offline players to enjoy their music on (a topic that did a fantastic article on recently - have a read).

Much like the majors, Big Tech has overplayed its hand of late, and many have noted that the shift has been from one of great optimism of the 2010s to a more bleak, dystopian one in which the tech is no longer even trying to hide its nastier intentions.

Consequently, people are wising up to this, and thanks to the increasingly negative narrative around services like Spotify, it feels like artists are also sharing that view. More and more artists that I see (and support) are taking a windowed approach to releases, first dropping a digital version on Bandcamp, then a physical version, and only a few weeks after that dropping on to streaming services. Streaming is now the worst path to market for them: a superficially decent number of plays, but with little else to show for it.

Once upon a time, Spotify did a fine job of convincing people it was a force for good, even for those working class artists at the bottom. Now, it feels like artists have seen through that propaganda, and as a consequence are exploring alternative routes to market.

It is no coincidence that we’re seeing all manner of services either really take footing or emerge as entirely new contenders. Artists are desperate to find paths to market that 1) pay them a sensible amount back, and 2) ensure they’re not simply another tiny drip in an ocean of ‘content’.

For the same reasons however, I truly feel we will see returns to niche communities and geographic hot spots for emerging genres. Everyone has tried the hollow, unrewarding world of social media and most have come up wanting, unimpressed by the shallow, transient nature of ‘engagement’ that these platforms offer up. The attention economy is dying.

That death will be slow - very slow - but I think it is already in motion. More and more, I am talking to managers about how to take artists to market in a manner that avoids ‘the standard route’, because that route is viewed as borderline pointless now.

My colleague Tom remarked earlier that he felt streaming might have wiped out the middle class of artist, such that Spotify and co are little more than an updated take on the most commercial radio stations worldwide. I agree with him; artists never got their first breaks on Capital FM and co: they had to spend some time building attention elsewhere long before anyone gave enough shits to play them to their millions of listeners.

A thought occurred to me recently too: the music that’s part of my DNA never came from massive, global scenes. It might have grown into that (grunge being a case in point) but at the point of discovery, these were weird niche spaces that only a few knew about. Equally though, those small communities grew into global movements. Hell, even the record execs took that path: just look at former Warner Music head Max Lousada’s career start with Ultimate Dilemma (which I certainly recall - “Runaways Theme” from the self-titled EP by Runaways was a stone cold classic!).

So historically, everything about my own musical voyage through life was never informed by those big moments; it was the small scenes, the massively niche spaces, whether that was the Camden Lurch scene of the early 90s, the scratch scene of the early 2000’s, Wordsound Recordings, dub techno, or just all 50+ minutes of Sleep’s “Dopesmoker”.

All things are cyclical, and we will be returning to a world of emerging niche cultures that exist beyond public-facing social media.

I remarked earlier to colleagues that if I was investing in something right now, I’d sooner place my money into a network of live venues that support communities and scenes than I ever would a tech startup. With the latter you’re just following the herd. With the former, you could be part of an overdue resurgence - and it will come, of that I have no doubt.

Remember: you aren’t in the music business, you’re in the [your artist here] business.

A quote I am fond of repeating back to people comes courtesy of Rod Smallwood, the legendary manager of Iron Maiden. Someone asked him a question about working in the music business, to which Smallwood replied something to the effect of “I’m not in the music business; I am in the Iron Maiden business!”

Why am I sharing this?

Something I see often is an obsession on those wider developments in music. People talk about the Universal/Udio deal (for example) as if it is the end of days, or perhaps some kind of incredible development. In that macro-economic sense, it might prove to be. In reality however, artists simply need to focus not on the music business as a whole, but on their business.

This is why I love seeing artists like Mia Koden slowly working to build her community, both through smart use of less visible tools like WhatsApp, but also through IRL events. It aligns to a view I have that in order to be successful, an artist doesn’t need to have millions of adoring - but extremely casual - listeners. Instead, they can make a healthy living from serious fans who might be lower in total number, but who are also willing to spend a lot more on that artist.

Look around and you’ll see countless examples of artists who started out at the very bottom, working hard to ascend from there. Doing so required not a focus on the wider issues affecting the music industry, but on their own art, their craft, how fans connected with that and how they nurtured that over time. Yes, it really boils down to that.

Beware the Hot New Tech Platforms

At Motive Unknown we are seeing a lot of interesting new platforms emerging at present. Broadly speaking, there’s some excellent offerings out there too. However a trend we see developing alongside that is a kind of accrued data play, which in turn will inflate the value of businesses and make them eminently sellable to the likes of Universal or other parties interested in further securing infrastructure within the industry.

We are in danger of repeating some critical mistakes - in this case handing over far too much data and insight to companies who can then profit from it.

For the foreseeable future I suspect that will not change, but at some point I would expect to see two potential developments emerge. The first is the installing of clauses determining that, in the event of a sale, all data pertaining to an artist should be returned to them and not be retained by any new owner for the purposes of insight, AI training or market advantage. This prevents companies from being motivated to accrue enormous data warehouses and then parlay that into value for a high-priced exit.

The second development would be the ultimate replacement of most of these services by AI-fuelled DIY efforts. Right now, MCPs - the interfaces that service to connect LLMs like GPT or Gemini to platforms, allowing plain language interaction - are only growing in number, and at some point it isn’t crazy to suggest that we simply will not need these data insight tools - or even CRM ones - on the basis it will prove no great barrier to spinning them up for yourself. Vibe coding is in a nascent stage for now, but how long will it be before we can create our own email sending platforms, or data insight tools? I would think we’re talking 2-3 years at the very most.

Yes, AI present threats - but it presents opportunities too

As with all debates, things are painfully polarised now. There is no nuance to an argument; only extreme viewpoints. AI has proven no different.

I have long viewed AI as being like the synthesizer. Yes, it can do amazing things, and in the right (creative) hands it can deliver phenomenal works. But did synths kill guitar music? Absolutely not, and in that same sense, AI is not going to kill human-made art.

In his magnificent book “Nina Simone’s Gum”, Warren Ellis remarks that people “are ideas waiting to happen. Who and what we come into contact with, in our lives, determines if our better selves evolve”

Humans are many things, but one of them we profoundly underrate is our ability to be completely illogical. We are not as predictable as some might hope. Creative people make art not because there’s a profit involved, but often because they simply cannot conceive of a world in which not creating art is plausible.

Art, therefore, is immutable. It has been here since primitive man drew on cave walls, and it will still be here centuries from now. Culture might rise and fall in cycles, but it will never die off.

For this reason, AI won’t kill off human-made art. It might shift how that art is found, not to mention how it is created, but it is not a replacement and never will be. If anything, it might make us treasure human-made art (though is there any other type?) all the more.

What is going to happen is that AI will offer new and brilliant ways to explore creative process. Considering the use of any AI in a creative process as being unforgivable is once again like dismissing synth-made music as being somehow inferior to guitar work. Just look at how Kraftwerk’s image evolved, from those early days of being dismissed as kooks by some to now, rightly being lauded as pioneers of all electronic music.

Those AI opportunities also exist in your workplace

Music, as an industry, is terrible at evolving. Historically, it has largely waited for someone else to solve the big problems, and then simply jumped in with both feet on whatever that was. iTunes is a perfect case in point, and one might argue AI-generated music is pointing a similar way.

Beyond those frontline areas however is a simple truth: AI is now capable of providing many, many incredible ways to turbo-charge how you work, and in general, very few companies out there are leaning in to that.

Here at Motive Unknown, we have been training an AI on our own internal work and processes for some time now. This has enabled all manner of benefits. We are nearing a point where proposals are almost able to be created by the AI, having seen various meeting notes and fully understanding our vision and how we do things. Similarly, it ingests all our conversations, allowing someone who has been on holiday to simply ask “what key developments have I missed with Client X since I went away?” and have the AI provide a bullet-pointed list.

On a more personal level, I now work with an AI assistant (more on which below) which I find a huge help, as someone with ADHD. I can tell it the tasks I need to get done, when they need to be done by, and how long they will take. All of that info is stored, but I can then ask the system what I can get done in the next hour, and it will suggest jobs to get done based on how long those will take and when they are due. It can also take notes, store ideas and generally be the memory I wish I had when my own is rather more like that of a goldfish.

In short then, AI can deliver much into your business. At Motive Unknown, it has not led to any redundancies. Quite the opposite: we feel it is actually empowering staff to develop faster. So AI doesn’t have to be a threat to employment numbers either: if anything, it should be an empowerment tool to aid development and growth.

And hey, let me put my sales cap on for a moment: if you’re a business wanting to engage with AI but not really knowing where to start, drop me a line and I’d be happy to connect you with our team who can assist with that.

So there you go - just some thoughts as they occur. In general, I remain optimistic about the future. The negative stories get amplified to a ridiculous level and often drown out the more positive things going on, and 2025 has featured a lot of that happening. In general though, I feel the artists hold the power, and in the next 12 months or more, we will see that power coming back into play as frustrations boil over. That is a good thing; it is taking the power back, which is as it should be.

Over the next couple of weeks I’m going to share a few more articles about things I’ve enjoyed, and which either showed more positive glimpses of the future, or got me thinking about how the past is potentially predicting that future. But there are more people out there trying to solve problems and share wisdom than has been around for a while now, which is amazing.

We have much to look forward to. Remember: all problems require solutions, and within solutions lies opportunity.

Seize those; every last one.

Have a great day

D.

🎶 Listening to “Sensemilla” by Dillinger Presents Massive Dub Beats. I remember hearing this track MANY moons ago (and we’re talking turn of the century!) when its fusion of the Jeru Tha Damaja’s Come Clean break with one of the most gigantic basslines in history blew my socks off. Cut to last week and I finally tracked down a copy on vinyl. Heaven!! I also then “robustly” tested the foundations of my house by playing this mofo on a volume best marked “ahhh now you’re taking the piss” as my Irish friends might say. This track would lay waste to any dancefloor if you opened a DJ set with it, and I’ll die on that hill.

📺 Watching “DJing in Ibiza.. What they DON’T tell you” on YouTube. I’m largely oblivious to James Hype as he’s not really my kinda thing, but I loved this video that my colleague Tom shared on Slack, in which Hype breaks down just how much work went into his residency at Hi Ibiza. Genuinely interesting, but I also liked the down to earth tone and realism about it all. Refreshing to see.

📖 (Just finished) Reading “Nina Simone’s Gum” by Warren Ellis. I grabbed this in a charity shop yesterday, and finished it by 9am this morning, such was my love for it. This is a wonderful memoir of collecting things and how we attribute incredible - often spiritual - value to objects that might, to others, have no value whatsoever. In the age of AI, this is a glorious celebration of what it is to be human. It truly filled me with joy. Grab a copy and thank me later.

🤖 Playing with Notis.ai, an AI personal assistant that uses Notion as a kind of database back-end on which to run. This thing can connect to thousands of apps via (I assume) MCP, and you communicate with it via WhatsApp, using voice or text. The outcome is an AI which can send emails for me, find availabilities in my calendar, remind me to do things, set longer-term tasks… the list is endless. Genuinely brilliant.

Spalexma’s “We Are Charlie Kirk” is currently occupying the top spot in most of Spotify’s worldwide Viral charts. I therefore decided to delve into this all a little more using the very excellent Soundcharts. In doing so, all manner of questions pop up.

Let’s get started…

About the song and the artist

“We Are Charlie Kirk” is currently atop so many charts that I had to export the data to a spreadsheet just to round it all up.

Here’s a snapshot of the Spotify Viral charts where it is currently Number 1:

The song itself is an AI-generated one, courtesy of the ‘artist’ Spalexma. Spalexma has released somewhere in the region of 280 songs since December 1st 2024, when its first song, “All Alone on Christmas” was released.

What is interesting is that prior to that, Spalexma had only released 10 songs, in May 2024, all of which were in Russian:

Since then, however, songs have all been in English, and appear to have been released to capitalise on certain moments. So for example, during Christmas 2024, there was a blitz of festive-themed songs released:

Since then, songs have all been religious in theme for the most part, though if one were assuming this was all the work of a devout Christian, I’d imagine this track about Diddy’s Baby Oil might bring that into question:

In the 360 days of this year (at the time of writing) then, Spalexma has released 280 songs, which equates to one song every 1.28 days.

The quintessence of AI slop, one might argue.

So who has been distributing this? It would appear Downtown has been responsible on a limited number of occasions, but beyond that, it seems the bulk have been via Tunecore, which is now owned by Believe. Certainly “We Are Charlie Kirk” is a Tunecore track, confirmed via its YouTube video:

The questions this all raises

1. What does this say about Spotify’s platform and manipulation?

Songs like this, it is safe to say, are not getting repeated plays because the track is genuinely catchy. As with the Dutch situation previously, it feels more like the songs exist as statements. That in turn suggests that users somewhere are looking to make or amplify these statements, and that in turn tends to lead one to think these plays are not happening because people actually want to hear the song, but because they want it to chart higher and somehow ‘send a message’ to other parts of the population. A less intellectual view might simply be that this is trolling, on an epic scale.

Ultimately this reinforces the theory Bas Grasmayer put forward in his article (cross-posted last week), arguing that Spotify is becoming like the readers comments section of the music world. That is, a space for the worst and most negative elements to come through.

If we accept that to be the case, it calls into question Spotify’s own credibility, both as a platform for the artform that is music, but also in the context of its own algorithm, data and insights.

Clearly, the platform can be manipulated, and certain communities, we have to conclude, have figured out how. If the platform is that easily manipulated however, it instantly devalues the insights one is getting from it.

Put another way, would those of us in the “actual” music space genuinely argue that right now, “We Are Charlie Kirk” is a hotter track than something like Rosalia’s “Berghain”? I would argue not.

If we accept that to be true, however, that calls into question Spotify’s own data and insights, and that surely cannot be a good thing - both for Spotify itself, and the legitimate artists and labels using it for any degree of meaningful insight.

2. Where does this leave the “low value tracks” conversation?

Cast your mind back to when Lucian Grainge and others decried the low value tracks that were clogging up Spotify and other music services. At the time, this was referring more to things like white noise, rain sounds and other ‘functional’ content.

Cut to now, however, and we have a platform awash with AI slop, and now that slop is being manipulated to chart higher than the actual music, made by real humans.

Tracks like “We Are Charlie Kirk” certainly pass the “more than 1,000 plays” test that enable it to be monetised, so in that sense, it doesn’t class as “low value”. If anything though, it is a much more worrying proposition: AI-made novelty music (of a sort) that is now gaining more algorithmic traction than some of the major labels’ biggest Q4 priorities.

Much of what Grainge complained about in the MBW piece linked above relates heavily to where we are now, except that things are now much, much worse. So it might be argued that whatever new system was put in place has already been overwhelmed and broken, and that once again, this might all be in dire need of review, if - and it’s a big ‘if’, given Universal’s deal with AI-gen music company Udio - the company genuinely cares about music as a human-made artform and not an AI-gen echo chamber.

3. How does this reflect on the likes of Believe, who own Tunecore?

It would appear most of these tracks have been distributed by Tunecore, the DIY platform owned by Believe. At a point where I’d argue there’s a fundamental divide opening up between real artists and those generating AI slop, one has to wonder how the artist community feels about the fact that a company they might even be in business with themselves is now enabling and profiting from the distribution of this kind of music. I feel this is a fair question to ask, if only because I see a clear “them vs us” dynamic developing between the bulk of the artist community and those generating AI music and swamping platforms with it.

4. How does one address the problem of “culture war” output versus art?

These tracks exist almost as a kind of extension to the kind of behaviour we see on platforms like X, i.e. as highly politicised messaging designed to flood the plain with (almost entirely) right-wing content. Quite what the intentions are is unclear, but again, that is reflecting the current state of affairs - including, ironically, the assassination of Kirk himself, which appears to have been committed not by a highly radicalised political terrorist, but by a highly disturbed individual looking for internet clout and notoriety. It is almost like internet communities are simply doing this as a power move, to show they can wield sufficient influence, all whilst playing it for the LOLs, no matter how extreme and tasteless the ‘joke’ might be.

Within that then, platforms like Spotify arguably have a choice to make: either accept that this content will continue flooding the platform and up-ending algorithms and charts, or put in place some kind of controls to ensure that the service focuses on ‘proper’ music, if we define that as material which is not being played to make a statement, but enjoyed on the basis of its actual merits as a song.

In that regard, I genuinely sympathise with Spotify’s plight… to an extent. The freedom of speech issue once again raises its head here, and I would agree that simply censoring songs because they’re not authentic enough is a risky road to go down that becomes a Catch-22 for Spotify itself. Perhaps a solution lies further upstream, for example in removing purely AI-generated music altogether. Not an easy task by any measure, but a potentially achievable one nonetheless.

Fail to address these issues though, and Spotify continues a race to the bottom, one that will see AI threaten every corner of its business. AI-generated podcasts could easily flood that part of its platform, and similarly AI-made audiobooks could do the same in that respective space too. In no time at all the signal-to-noise ratio is overwhelmed and users are struggling to find anything of use. The algorithms used to address that, but how many will be thankful when Spotify gleefully recommends “We Are Charlie Kirk” in their feed?

(Sidenote: one would imagine there’s ancillary benefits to banning wholly AI-made tracks too - the sheer amount of hosting space they must take up being one.)

In conclusion…

This is a more complex issue than it might first appear to be. There is no simple solution. However as this is now happening repeatedly, it is clearly going to keep occurring until some kind of action is taken. Equally if no action is taken, one wonders whether it will be artists and/or rights holders forcing the issue.

For now though, the problem persists and shows no signs of going anywhere.

Have a great day*

D.

*after someone pointed out that when writing articles like this, that sentence almost feels sarcastic, I can assure you I really mean it!

🎶 Enjoying the Loraine James “Gentle Confrontation” album, as recommended in Cantilever. A word on that: I feel the best way to view Cantilever is not as a music service, but as a magazine subscription. Framed that way, £5 is nothing to pay for some recommendations that, whilst not always my bag, have certainly already got me enjoying a few things I’d otherwise have missed. Another sidenote: Hyperdub’s A&R is simply stunning. If I could subscribe to a label’s entire output, Hyperdub would be most likely to see me doing just that.

📺 Watching “Why the UK’s Doing Better Than You Think” on YouTube. My colleague Tom recommended this, and I needed to watch it, especially after reading through the latest UK budget, which was frankly depressing. This video acts as a (slight) tonic to that.

📖 Reading “Making Music: 74 Creative Strategies for Electronic Music Producers” by Dennis DeSantis. The title makes this sound a bit twee, but I’d argue it’s almost like a more practical take on Brian Eno’s Oblique Strategies cards. That is, 74 tips to help you break creative block, stay sharp in your creations and generally reduce the friction to creativity. A really interesting read, well worth your time if you’re a music maker.

🤖 Getting excited for Notion’s AI Agents. Notion has managed to deliver the kind of AI platform and experience most others have thus far promised but fallen short on. For us, it’s proving a brilliant addition to our software stack, and we’ve been waiting for the agents function to go live for a while now, as it will further turbo-charge what we’re doing. Can’t wait to get hands on with it!

Since publishing, I did mention to Aaron that it might be worth starting some kind of mailing list so that people outside the UK could be notified when Cantilever is available in their territory. Aaron pointed out that Cantilever has its own Substack, so he suggested subscribing to that for updates - including launch dates in new countries - so maybe do that if you’re keen to know when it goes live where you are. And if you’re in the UK, simply visit Cantilever’s website to get the app.

Below is part two of our chat - enjoy.

Have a great day,

D.

🎶 Listening to “Made By Mia Koden (+ friends) Vol. 3” over on YouTube. I was oblivious to Mia until yesterday, but this mixtape has truly hit the spot. There’s much to take in, and none of it misses. Featuring collabs with anyone from Tim Reaper to Dubrunner to K-lone, this is at points soulful, and others heavy as hell. Just how any mixtape should be. Well worth making time for!

📺 Watching ”Flying a GoPro Into a Tornado” on YouTube. The footage here is nothing less than spectacular, particularly when the FPV drone flyer somehow manages to fly right down the spout of a tornado. Breathtaking - make time for it.

📖 Reading “Burial’s Last Interview” over on ’s substack. Much as with the interviews I’ve been reading with Deepchord aka Rod Modell of late, this interview serves as a wonderful inspiration, both in terms of technique but perhaps also in simply doing what one feels to be right. Burial has shunned press and - certainly in the beginning - kept his own creations and artistic identity so secretive that even his own friends didn’t know that their friend was Burial. I love that. In a time where everyone is told they have to live their life entirely online via socials etc, there’s something truly wonderful about the artists who simply let the music speak for itself.

Now, let’s get back to that chat with Aaron…

I have no proof for this, but I get the sense that independent labels would be highly receptive to Cantilever. I think there is an argument - which I suspect people in the independent music industry would baulk at - that indies missed opportunities to fortify their position through the years by allowing other platforms to grow rather than building their own. In fact, there’s an argument that the whole music industry has done that, by consistently allowing somebody else to build their solution, whether it was Steve Jobs with iTunes or Daniel Ek with Spotify, rather than try and build something that perhaps they owned. What’s been your experience dealing with indie labels thus far? How have they received all this?

I would say that they have been really receptive and I also think that one thing that is important to note is the indie labels have multiple cooperative bodies that have allowed us to be able to move quite quickly, such as the Association of Independent Music where one label as part of this co-op is happy to introduce another.

The first group that I pitched to was Beggars group who said they were happy to do a deal once we had a workable licensing agreement. Then I connected with the Domino team through my Substack, after I wrote a piece on Richard Dawson. One introduction led to another from there.

I’m in touch with press teams at labels who have been connecting me with artists to interview that we’ve been suggesting. Unlike Spotify, for example, which might only ever really interface with the operations and digital pitching side of an independent record label, and Cantilever does speak to those teams too, but we’re also very much talking to the press side also because of our journalism angle. We’re talking to a lot of different people who are receptive for different reasons.

It strikes me that what Cantilever is celebrating and really nurturing is that confluence of music and journalism, where the things people write bring a greater sense of connection and understanding to the music. Is there a point on the horizon where Cantilever could become a kind of framework that would embed in other websites, for example? After all, there’s great music websites out there at the moment. If you read The Quietus, it will have an embedded Bandcamp player and a link to Norman Records. Is there a point on the horizon where Cantilever could be the embedded player that pops up elsewhere?

It’s certainly possible, though there’s no current discussions or plans to do that, partly because all we’re doing is just making sure that the basics work and we’re fixing the bugs as they come, but down the line perhaps.

As you say, with the idea of being embedded, assisting in passing over that value, brilliant, but at the moment it is a standalone app and I do think that there is a lot to be said for just how simple and clean are our interface is which makes that experience of, in effect, narrowing down options and creating a kind of space in which to consider a particular release.

When I was writing about Qobuz a little while ago, I was remarking that I found it almost perverse that one of the things I like most about it was that it’s just got music on it, and you can filter it by genre really easily. There’s a wonderfully reductive element to it compared to the likes of Spotify, and I feel it’s the same with Cantilever. It is just doing one thing, really well, and it isn’t trying to be all things to all people. Was that an intention for you, though, when you started?

It was just to keep it simple, basically. I’ve said before now about Mubi, the film streaming platform. In the early days of Mubi, which, I mean, when I first used it, it was maybe 2019 or 2018, it was 30 films in 30 days. Each time we wanted to watch a film, I knew that I could very easily pick a movie that somebody who cares a lot about independent film has selected for me to check out. I would decide whether I wanted to watch that, and nine times out of ten, whether or not I really loved it, I at least had a very interesting experience and something to talk to people about, especially other users of Mubi, because suddenly we’d mostly watched the same things.

When I want to watch something on Netflix or Amazon, you end up doing what we call in my house, a “film tapas”. We’re just looking at adverts, adverts, adverts from different movies or watching five minutes of something, spending an hour choosing but never settling. The wider the choice, the more difficult it is to make a decision and just go into something, I think. And so the simplicity is absolutely part of it. The intention was to reflect the Mubi model. They’ve pivoted away from that now. They have a deeper catalogue. You can search for things. They’re funding new releases that are coming into the cinema. But fundamentally, why I think it worked is because they limited the scope and that’s what made it easy to make that decision.

I’m a member of the Prince Charles Cinema up in Leicester Square, which screens all kinds of mad stuff. You know, classic films, but also weird oddities, like The Room, or some obscure schlock horror movie. I could just pop Netflix on and probably watch half the stuff that they’ve got on at the PCC, but it’s the experiential part of it and the depth of engagement with it which is the appeal, isn’t it? Do you think there’s a wider sense of desire for people to have that kind of deeper engagement these days?

Yes, definitely. I mean, I see it in multiple different ways. You see articles quite frequently about a younger generation who are deliberately getting rid of their smartphones or opting for a more analogue experience when it comes to engaging with culture and consuming in general. I definitely think that there is a turn away from platforms that demand your attention.

Everybody I know complains about their addiction to Instagram reels and short form video. It’s a curse on people. I find myself again scrolling through my feed with zero joy and zero entertainment value. There’s something about that short form sort of immediate access that is basically anathema to how people want to engage with art. It should surely be about giving people a great, durational experience of music and entertainment.

It’s something that I personally look for. I try and read as much print media as possible. I try to go to the cinema as much as possible. And when I listen to music, you know, I’m still buying records, buying digital downloads still, going to shows and so on.

That being said, I still use Spotify and actually I’m not somebody who thinks that all of their recommendations are terrible. I have found some brilliant music and continue to do so through Spotify. It serves its own function in the general way in which I engage with music. Who knows whether I’ll move to a different streaming service at any point.

How do you feel about this emerging landscape of niche music platforms like Nina, Subvert and their ilk?

I think it’s all great. I think that they’re being willingly niche, doing one thing simply that is against that trend, and I like that. And so Nina Protocol and Subvert, I’m all for both of them. I like what Subvert are doing with the physical zine.

That being said, I also still use Bandcamp, so it will be interesting to see whether Subvert is significantly better than Bandcamp in various ways to then actually drive people to use it. Nina Protocol is also great, but currently, when you stream an artist on there, that artist doesn’t actually receive any revenue from that; you have to buy the release to remunerate the artist. So in that sense, we’re very different because we don’t offer digital downloads but we do remunerate streams. All three of these companies are very different in what they offer and so I can see people using all of them.

I would like to see Subvert succeed, but if I have a criticism of it, it’s that it seems to have largely built itself by bashing Bandcamp. And Bandcamp is doing very well.

I think I just tire of it because Bandcamp as a platform is going great. It’s putting out new features, it’s developing. It certainly isn’t stuck in stasis, dying slowly. It seems, if anything, to be thriving. It irritates me that people feel the need to bash Bandcamp as if they’re an alternative.

Do we need a direct alternative to Bandcamp? I don’t feel we do. Which again, is what caught my eye on Cantilever, i.e. because you’re at least not trying to be that.

It’s not for me to say anybody else’s business or anybody else’s thing is lacking in any way. All I want to put forward is that if your entire positioning and credentials are based on saying that somebody else’s business is not working, you have to ask yourself, well, how are you going to differentiate? Because for many users of Bandcamp, they still love it. It’s a fairly weak argument. So, yeah, I agree.

So what does the future hold for Cantilever? Is there a development timeline where you’ll have genre pages and other features added?

Currently, there are no plans for specialising in one genre or another, or allowing people to filter specific genres. For example, I see the value in having an individual who might think that they don’t know current rap or even think it’s not for them, but they listen to the Jim Legxacy mixtape on Cantilever, the latest release on there, for example. I think that would be great.

I think the music industry also historically had, or it seems to me that it has, this kind of youth fetishisation, which is crap. So yeah I do hope that it has a broad appeal towards a general music listener. We’re not going after one specific demographic or another. A wide range of people have got in touch with me to say that they enjoy it and that’s very gratifying.

Secondly, Cantilever was moving forward without the involvement of the majors, a move I’d consider quite transgressive these days. I have seen a lot of services come and go, and one might go as far as to argue that the reason they did not survive for long was that they had needed to pay huge advances to the major labels, thereby ensuring they were instantly saddled with unmanageable debt. Ergo, seeing a service press on without that deal in place amounts to a bold move. Plus, as a man firmly supporting artists and independence, I loved seeing various indie labels stepping up to sign on and support this; it’s great to see something positive come forward in this way.

Ultimately, we are at a point where there is a large amount of frustration around the current status quo, especially for smaller or more indie-focused artists. To that end, Cantilever represents a new approach to offering music, and for that I felt it warranted a closer look and, ultimately, a chat with Aaron Skates, the company’s founder.

As this was a freewheeling chat, I’ve elected to break it up into two parts. Part one is below, and part two will follow in 48hrs time. The service is UK only for now, but if you’re in the UK you can sign up here (and I recommend you do!).

Enjoy!

D.

🎶 Listening to “AK Cuts, Vol.1” by Anish Kumar. Shouts to Oli who thought I might enjoy this - he was absolutely right. This is some of the most obnoxiously funky dancefloor house I’ve heard in years. Sometimes we can think too hard about music; now and then it’s just about playing this stuff loud as hell and dancing like a person possessed. Don’t let track one fool you either; that’s just a teaser. My word it gets hefty after that!

📖 Reading “The EQ and Compression Formula” by Nathan Nyquist (quite the pseudonym there). I’m in the process of mixing down a hefty dub album I’ve made with my buddy Pete Sasqwax, and this book proved a fine, simple reference tome for some guidance on getting the most from the mix. YouTube videos abound on all things music production, but I’m actually finding books a better reference point these days.

🤖 Playing with Vision 4X, a plugin designed by Excite Audio and the wizards in Noisia, who are certainly representing some of the most ridiculously clinical, brilliant mixing in music at the moment. Vision 4X is basically a tool to better analyse your mix and see exactly what is going on. It is formidably powerful, but might also be the most complicated plugin I’ve ever used in terms of wrapping my head around it. I shall persevere though as the insights it delivers are quite incredible.

A quick word about music and other bits: if you have music you think I might enjoy, then by all means feel free to email me (and if you need my email, reply here and I’ll send it to you). I’m definitely up for recommendations from readers, much as with that AK Cuts release above. Likewise anything else you might think I’d enjoy checking out. I can’t guarantee replies to everyone, but certainly enjoy getting great recommendations and am happy to support great things I come across. So if you feel so inclined, by all means fire away!

Right - let’s move on to the interview…

So, let’s start at the basics Aaron. What is Cantilever? I’m conscious that it’s a UK-only service, but I have no doubt people may have read about it that are not in the UK. Could you therefore give a crisp summary of what it is?

Yeah, absolutely. Cantilever is a curated music streaming platform that features only a limited number of albums at any given time. We’re starting with 10, and we’re going to get to 30 as an absolute max for now. The albums last for one month each, so it’s a rotating feed of great albums. Each album is delivered in great context. So a music journalist will write up: “Who is the artist? Why have they made this? What’s interesting about it? What kind of musical or cultural background is the artist coming from?” Or it will be an interview with the artist themselves. We’re trying to bundle together music journalism and a streaming service that pays artists on a user-centric basis.

On that: when I first tried Cantilever when it was in beta, one of my thoughts was, “this is great, but could I not achieve the same thing with like a substack and embedded players?” What do you say to that?

You could, but you have to ask yourself where these embedded players are coming from. Let’s say I’m a journalist and I write a Substack and I monetize it. I recommend an album and I have an embedded player for that album that’s coming from Bandcamp. The artist doesn’t make any money because Bandcamp has a limited preview model, where their “streaming” is actually more or less an advert for a digital download or a physical purchase. Cantilever is providing 70% of all of its user revenue to right holders from the streams themselves.

If you did an embedded Spotify player on Substack, that’s also fine, but once again the streaming payouts are extremely low. So the actual revenue you’re driving into music and in our case, purely independent music, is little to nonexistent. What we’re trying to enable is that you stream there and then, and your money goes to the artist, as well as keeping the platform running.

Are you able to elaborate on the financial side of this, or even better, give some examples? Only I think that’s the that’s the point of difference that really interests me. If I’m the artist, I’ve got a new record and I get a lovely feature on Cantilever and I’m on there for a month, what might that potentially look like for me?

All user revenue is put into one pool and then it’s divided up on this pro-rata model. It’s about percentage consumption of the platform. Therefore, if a massive global superstar gets 1% of all streams, they get 1% of that user revenue pool. And in effect, they get 1% of your individual subscription fee, even if you didn’t personally listen to them.

The user-centric system is that you only ever pay for the music that you actually listen to. If in a given month on Cantilever but you only listened to one song, then your per-stream rate effectively becomes your entire subscription fee, minus the platform cut, because all of your money would go to that one song.

In terms of how much you can expect to earn as an artist, if we get to 10,000 subscribers, we’ll be paying each one of the ten albums, if it was equal consumption, around three thousand pounds, which is roughly the equivalent of about a million Spotify streams.

We’re actively attempting to pass value over to everything on the platform, rather than trying to recreate the winner-takes-all model, because it’s dependent on what our users are actively streaming, rather than having this big dilution that happens with the largest artists. All streaming models are necessarily imperfect, but I think this is the fairest way of remunerating the works that are on the platform.

One thing I noticed about Cantilever is the fact that it’s launched without the involvement of the majors. I’ve been around a long time, I’ve seen a lot of music services come and go, and it was always a caveat that if you don’t have the majors on board, your startup was simply not going to work. Can you talk to me a bit about the decision to go ahead with select indies on board ?

My professional career so far has been in independent music - at independent record labels and distribution companies.

We have to remember that independent music has its own fundamental identity that is different to what the major labels do. I think that independent record labels are able to take very bold, creative risks. So what we’re trying to platform on Cantilever are albums that are part of that kind of creative risk-taking. There will frequently be records on there that a major label would never touch. That’s what indie labels have always represented to me. Growing up, I was a big listener to independent record labels, and I wanted to know about them. I wanted to understand the culture behind them, where they were coming from, and what the purpose was.

One thing that is true is if you were to start a full catalog streaming service and you didn’t sign a deal with the majors, you can’t have Stevie Wonder and you can’t have Bob Dylan and you can’t have X, Y, Z artists. That’s a big problem for those services because so much of what people engage with on streaming - increasingly so - is catalogue music. There was a tipping point where catalogue music far eclipses the consumption of new music on major streaming platforms.

We’re trying to redress that balance a little bit. It’s not a hard and fast rule, but if you look at Cantilever, the majority of the releases that we are featuring are new releases or in the case of, for example, Stereolab, there’s a record on Cantilever from 2004, but the band are currently on tour. So it’s kind of actively participating with music culture that is existing as opposed to catalogue listening for maybe less active artists. Not that there’s anything wrong with that; I don’t want to put that forward as an idea. It’s just that there’s something about directly engaging with what’s coming out of independent record labels, taking these creative risks and trying to give another platform to showcase that.

The phrase “independent labels” has come up quite a lot in this chat. Obviously we’re now in a wider world of artists self-releasing and artist services deals etc, such that even the term ‘indie’ is becoming problematic. Universal are trying to own it, all of which I consider a bit disingenuous. Could Cantilever work with self-releasing artists who are not on indie labels such as XL, Warp, Ninja Tune et al?

Yes. The people who are contributing to Cantilever are writers who have been music journalists for a while and people who have written for places like The Quietus, Loud and Quiet, Bandcamp and Pitchfork. So we ask them, “Would you be interested in writing about any of these releases, or would you as an individual like to suggest a release to write about?”. So there will be some independent artists who are coming directly from journalists and they might not be signed to any label, or may be self-releasing.

The journalism aspect of Cantilever is almost 50% of it to me, because I think if you just had the music on there and just had 10 albums, it would look like a quite an odd streaming service. I have a Substack that I’ve completely neglected called Missed Listens and the idea was not a million miles from Cantilever, in that it was essentially writing about records that I thought were missed classics. So I would write about it, and at the top would be an embedded player, which would say “click to listen along as you read”.

A lot of people, when they were talking to me about it, were saying “I don’t feel we talk about music enough anymore”, which I definitely feel is the case. We don’t contextualize it; it’s all just, “here’s some stuff to listen to”. The journalism plays a key part of this, I feel. To that end though, are the writers being paid what they would term as a respectable rate?

Absolutely. So multiple things to pick up on there, I think. Firstly, Missed Listens is great; I have read it and it’s interesting that you use the word ‘context’ as this is really what we are trying to achieve at Cantilever. I think that music journalism in its most traditional form has neglected to catch up with the streaming era, where we’re still very much in the world of reviews. I feel that the review is an outdated format for music journalism. It was there to help a consumer choice: “shall I buy this £10 CD or this £10 CD?” I read the review, it helps me make that choice. Nowadays, we don’t need instruction. We are able to just listen to any music we want, whenever we want, and so the review is not fit for purpose anymore, in my opinion.

On Cantilever, everything is about the context and the history and the culture and any sort of intriguing details that help enhance that listening experience, rather than saying “Is this good? Is this bad?”. There was this piece I read recently in the New Yorker that said music journalism isn’t critical enough. Personally I don’t see that as a huge issue. I think that it doesn’t need to necessarily be damning or critical to certain pieces of art. At least not on our platform, where what we’re doing is highlighting a piece of art and giving multiple threads to the reader, almost to enhance that or to say something intriguing about it, as opposed to giving a kind of authoritative stamp of, “is this good or is this bad?”

You can celebrate what makes a release brilliant without it turning into a sort of fawning review. There’s a difference.

Yeah I would agree. If you’re on Cantilever, check out the piece that Lottie Brazier wrote about Stereolab and you can see an example of the history of that record and the engagement with the recording process. It’s not an overly technical thing, but it really does help you get into the world of that album, why it was made, what the point of it was. That’s just a great example, so if you’re on a free trial take a look at that one.

But to your question: we pay at parity with the leading platforms of music journalism. We pay at parity with Pitchfork. And we have decided to pay that from day one.

For me, music journalism is very important, and if we’re making a commitment to pay artists on what we think is a fair basis, then we also should be making that commitment to the writers as well.

Amen to that. In terms of funding, you know, where are you at the moment with that?

I’m pleased to say that we’ve hit our fundraising target. We’re talking about a good, sustainable amount of funding that will allow us to get to the next phase. We’re not talking about crypto millions here, which I think is coming into a fair number of platforms that I see emerging. The funding we’ve received will allow us to make Cantilever sustainable, then start growing it.

You mentioned it’s UK only, but soon we hope to expand to the US and Europe, then elsewhere down the line. Currently what those places see will be fairly UK-centric, and so one way in which this could go forward is to start giving some kind of tailoring to the material that you see in each place. Think of a platform like NTS, which has Channel 1, Channel 2. One might be in London, two might be elsewhere. We’d like to do something like that where it could be tailored geographically to a place, but anybody would be able to see it. That’s the idea. So yeah, we don’t have any immediate plans to do any more fundraising. All the plans now are just: build a sustainable business and get value over to musicians and journalists.

… to be continued in part two, published on Wednesday.

Not being a Dutch speaker, I ran the song titles through a translator. Here they are in English:

1. Wij zeggen nee, nee, nee, tegen een AZC – Hardcore Mix – We say no, no, no to an asylum seekers’ centre – Hardcore Mix

2. Vrijheid, Gelijkheid, Zusterschap – Freedom, Equality, Sisterhood

3. Wij zeggen Nee, Nee, Nee, tegen een AZC – We say No, No, No to an asylum seekers’ centre

4. Fuck jullie! Linkse Fuckers! – Hardcore Mix – Fuck you! Leftist Fuckers! – Hardcore Mix

5. Noem me maar Rechts-Extreem – Just call me Far-Right

6. Had Ik Maar – If Only I Had / I Wish I Had

7. Timmermans (Valse Profeet van het Klimaat) – Timmermans (False Prophet of the Climate)

8. Onze Vlag - Official Release – Our Flag - Official Release

9. Nederland United - Anti AZC – Netherlands United - Anti-Asylum Centre

10. Als het je niet bevalt, ga dan! (Anti-AZC) - Hardcore Mix – If you don’t like it, then leave! (Anti-Asylum Centre) - Hardcore Mix

11. Wij zijn er klaar mee! - Hardcore Mix – We’re done with it! - Hardcore Mix

12. Dit is Voor Nederland – This is For the Netherlands

13. Nederland in Verzet – Netherlands in Resistance

14. Als het je niet bevalt, Ga dan! – If you don’t like it, then leave!

Listening to some of the tracks, they bear all the hallmarks of AI slop, though I’m happy for someone to prove me wrong on that point.

Any which way, this raises all manner of questions. How are these songs getting platformed? Why is Spotify not noticing that its own viral chart is now full of far-right content? How can it not spot that these are also AI-generated? Also: where were these created?

It amounts to an apex moment of all the worst things colliding at once: AI slop, far-right/racist content, and all played out on the world’s most popular music streaming service.

I assume that Spotify remains oblivious to this all, given all tracks remain online at the time of writing. However it certainly leaves one wondering just how much the company is policing its own platform.

It also, of course, raises one final point: are these songs getting streamed legitimately, or is someone using bots to deliberately get the songs to go viral?

I cannot help but feel some kind of bot net is at work here, unless the Netherlands - and its music streamers - has just lurched all the way into Nazi territory, politically.

So that’s the problem; I guess the only question to ask now is what Spotify plan to do about it.

Have a great day,

D.

* quick update post-publication: to be clear: the tracks at numbers 2 and 6 are legitimate, and NOT right-wing, AI-generated slop. Whilst I did say “almost entirely” I didn’t specify which songs, so apologies if anyone was confused there.

⛔️ Recommendations will return on the next edition - putting anything next to this story just felt wrong, sorry… (but I do have one hell of a music release to recommend!) Actually, saying that, just go play this. Thanks.

The new service will “transform the user engagement experience, creating a licensed and protected environment to customize, stream and share music responsibly, on the Udio platform.”

Sounds great, right?!

I have various questions, so I thought it would be worth laying them out here, as I suspect most of you might be having similar queries. So let’s dive in…

Whose music is this being trained on?

The entire issue around Udio, just as with its rival, Suno, hung on the music both created sounding like relatively weak copies of existing music. With relatively little effort, one could spin up songs that sounded like whatever you’d described.

With some kind of deal now in place, does this mean Universal is now providing access to its catalogue for the purposes of training AI? We have to assume so based on the press release, but have artists unilaterally signed on for this?

It brings to mind the issues we once saw when artists sued labels for deducting breakage fees on downloads. Breakage fees, for those unaware, were costs held back relating to physical product, originally to handle product getting smashed or otherwise damaged in transit. Ergo, it made no sense that breakage could be charged on digital products… and yet labels still attempted to do so, resulting in various lawsuits from artists who had clocked the subterfuge. More on that here.

So have artists explicitly signed something stating it is fine to have AI trained on their music? Certainly I’d think any artist signing a deal in the last two years conceivably might have, but what about prior to that? It seems unlikely, unless it is covered by some kind of catch-all clause.

Equally, where are the lines drawn with that AI training? Are artists running through Virgin on licence deals part of that? Are labels distributed through Universal part of it?

It would be good to get a clear understanding of that, if only for transparency and fairness.

How exactly are Udio paying Universal?

Now a deal has been done, one has to question exactly how Universal is being compensated. In the past, deals have been done that afforded Universal (and other majors) shares in a business. Those shares, however, became contentious issues when it became clear that - until they were called out on it anyway - the majors had little intention of passing any benefits from those shares back to the artists whose music was powering the platforms in question (Spotify being the biggest example, of course).

Being some kind of joint venture, it feels logical to conclude that Universal will own shares in this business, but I am yet to see a clear declaration that any benefits from the company’s growth will be shared with the artists whose music AI has been trained on to power it.

Equally, has any kind of advance been paid on this deal? Because advances often get paid out on businesses, only for those businesses to then fail. In this case, I would argue that the likelihood of this failing is very high, but in the event the business falls over, potentially before even seeing a launch, where does that advance payment go? Again, is it shared with artists, or does it simply apply to Universal’s bottom line?

Is this even a product people want?

One comment I keep seeing over and over again is that the Achille’s Heel of AI is that Big Tech and investors are all wildly overestimating demand for these platforms.

I have said repeatedly that whilst these generative music platforms are capable of spitting out novelty songs, or “what would Oasis sound like as a 70s soul band” type scenarios, they have yet to prove remotely valuable in delivering anything of lasting value.

To me the reason for that is simple: music is about so much more than just the songs. People latch on to artists because of who they are, what they stand for, how relatable they are etc etc. AI simply cannot step up to deliver on those fronts, because it is fake by design, and if it lacks all authenticity, it is fatally flawed from the get-go.

So why create this platform? I suspect part of it is simply the logic that AI is here, it is not going away, and that therefore all music companies should engage with it.

One can see the reasoning, but again, this makes all manner of assumptions that consumers give even the tiniest of shits about this stuff. Are Suno and Udio making billions in profit? Of course not: they are coasting on VC investor cash, and they’re burning through that at an unprecedented rate. Will consumers sign on? Some, maybe, but when the underwriting from VCs runs out (more on that in a mo), the costs of this will spiral upwards. Sure, you might pay £4.99/mo to make daft AI songs, but will you pay £15.99 when the realities of the computing and hosting costs hit home? I think not.

Will this become another victim of the AI bubble?

It was ironic to read Universal’s press release on Wednesday, only to then have Meta see over $200BN wiped off its market value when, after revealing its latest financials, Wall St got seriously cold feet over the unprecedented levels of cash the company is burning through.

They are not alone either; as outlined in his article “The Bubble Just Burst”, Oracle has also seen its share price swan dive, dropping $60 per share, and overall, Big Tech is currently investing $30BN per month to earn $1BN back.

Make no mistake: investors are now terrified, because if the AI bubble bursts, the impact on the US economy will be catastrophic.

With that in mind then, is this platform even a smart idea, when there’s little evidence to suggest that consumers want this enough to even pay for it?

I would argue not.

Again though, this circles back to the previous point: arguably, Universal could just be doing this deal to take Udio for millions of dollars, knowing that this will all blow up before it even gets off the ground. So will artists get a share of the advance money?

Will this have a wider impact for Universal?

To say AI is a contentious topic where artists and creatives are concerned would be the understatement of the year. Only this morning I was reading this interview with Guillermo del Toro, stating he would “rather die” than engage with AI in his film-making - a sentiment I’d say is echoed by many.

But if AI is loathed by the creative community, what kind of message does it send when a company like Universal is so keen to turn its artist’s work into something to be cloned and commoditised in a manner they never signed on for?

One has to wonder if this might be a move that will, in time, be a catastrophic one for the music giant. It is easy to see why Big Tech wants music, arts and culture in general to be something it can churn out and keep people happy with. Win that space and you’ve got it all in terms of influence. This is now something I have come to expect from Silicon Valley and those adopting its mindset.

Universal is not a tech company though; it is meant to be in the business of music, of arts and culture.

So will history remember this moment favourably, when it decided to align with Big Tech and favour a space where technology will do its best to replace artists? Is there even a logical end point where Universal believes it can phase the humanity out of music and simply become a creator of endless AI-generated music? The company might strenuously deny it, but moves like this one certainly suggest otherwise.

Have a great day,

D.

🎶 Listening to various Halloween FX playlists by Nightmare Soundworks, AKA LVCRFT. In a few hours we’re going to be inundated by Trick or Treating kiddies, and this year I’ve elected to hide a Sonos portable speaker in a cupboard next to my door, so as to provide spooky soundbeds. Where better to look than LVCRFT’s own YouTube site, where all manner of playlists exist for just that purpose. Perfect. If you need something to add some ambience to your party or just your front door area, look no further!

📺 Watching “Phone Sleep Collection” by IKEA on YouTube. I feel like I should hate this, but I can’t. The furniture giant is now making little beds for your phone, with the idea being that this should somehow encourage you to use your phone less before bedtime. I struggle to see that part, but I can’t fault the smarts behind the concept as a whole…