🔵 Between a bot and a hard place

Christ, am I sympathising with Sir Lucian Grainge now?!

Greetings everyone, and if it is not too late to offer this up, Happy New Year!

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.

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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.

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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.

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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!

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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!

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