Keeping warm on a caturday afternoon.

The trees are inspiring as they stand sentinel through the cold winter winds. Sure, they look forward to spring’s blooming but this time is theirs too. Waving hello as I walk by and sheltering the smaller creatures as they can.

Firestone Farm Fields are looking beautiful in the snow today. (Photo curtesy of my wife.)

Speaking as both a (largely wildly ‘unsuccessful’) musician and a corporate strategic consultant type, the conclusion I’ve come to of late is that the music industry can only ethically exist if it de-emphasises product/content/output as a determinant of value.

When you refer to the de-emphasis of artists via playlisting, I think of it as the logical culmination of a trajectory that began as far back as with early blues releases (if not further) and was only ever going to lead to AI slop - detaching the mechanics of value from the origin of the output. It wasn’t the artist that was valuable, it was the specific art. And, now, we move to ‘it’s not the specific art that’s valuable, but the vibe’.

But, in refuting that, I think we often fall into the trap of affirming the product-focus approach - ‘the artist is valuable because they create art’ - and continue to keep the creator’s value detached from their actual function. Because, the value of art has never been in how good or bad it is but in the people it connects. This is the function that art performs, in terms of social, health, economic, and community benefits. It is a mechanism through which we commune, reflect, connect, and decide upon our world’s values. And, that’s where the economic focus should be - supporting that mechanism.

It’s why I find the AI art and tech world mostly amusing. They’re refining and investing in recreating the product. But, the product is the least valuable part of the whole equation. You want to churn out a polished song in a couple of minutes? You don’t need AI - I (and lots of other people) can do that. The difficult part is getting people to come together. And, the more you detach a human investment from that process, the harder it will be to accomplish that. Especially if you don’t realise THAT’s the important part.

So, I think the solution is - forget content, embrace community, disregard all who prioritise the former at the expense of the latter.

• Mjoneillnoisier, a comment on a Verge article

I’ve been chewing on this comment ever since I stumbled upon it. I feel like it describes a perspective that I haven’t heard as much in the AI vs art debate. A lot of harm is being done to both artists and audiences when people increasingly give away their agency to passive streams of plesant sounds they barely pay attention to. What’s insulting is that ad companies like Spotify infect this harm into something that used to stand for the opposite: mix tapes.

The mix tape, the mix CD, and human curated playlists were originally mediums of personal musical taste created for people to connect, commune, and reflect over. I’m old enough to have mixes from old friends that I still listen to. They are experiential reminders that take me to people, places, and life events. It sucks when corporations conspire to eradicate a vibrant part of our shared culture.

It’s -6° F! 🥶 (Feels-like -14°)