Show Notes
A sneak peek at what's coming this season on Light Box, the new show from PRX's Radiotopia. Launching September 15. Host and creator Mark Henry Phillips is a professional composer who accidentally opened Pandora's box by experimenting with an AI music generator. In this teaser, he shows his wife what he's gotten himself into. The first two episodes drop next Tuesday (September 15) and then a new episode comes every week. Subscribe now! Questions / thoughts / comments — write us: [email protected]
More from Light Box
AI music is supposed to be what ends musicians’ careers. For James Hinton, aka The Range, it might be what saves his. For a decade, he made his music out of strangers’ voices on YouTube, until he couldn’t anymore. On paper, this is an episode about the past, present and future of sampling. But really, it’s about loss (and friendship). Write us: [email protected] In this episode:
For a lot of people, Udio was the AI music app where they finally got to make the songs they’d been hearing in their heads for years. Then one night last fall, Udio settled its lawsuit with Universal Music Group. Downloads were switched off, and the new fine print said the songs users had made weren’t theirs anymore. After talking to Udio users all over the world, Mark realized this story wasn’t just about Udio. What happened to them could happen to any of us. Write us: [email protected] In this episode:
A year ago, I was driving my daughter home from preschool when Spotify autoplayed a song that cut out mid-note. It was AI, and whoever made it hadn't bothered to fix the ending. So I tracked down the 19-year-old behind it. That was just the start of a trip down the rabbit hole. It turns out there's a lot of slop out there. Is it going to ruin everything? Or am I looking at it all wrong?
Marc Ribot has played guitar for Tom Waits, Elvis Costello, Norah Jones, Robert Plant, and about a thousand other people. He's also one of the most outspoken critics of AI music. He calls Suno and Udio plagiarism machines. And for him, the whole thing comes down to consent: nobody asked the musicians. I caught him on the phone somewhere between Milwaukee and Minneapolis, driving to a gig. Of all the conversations I've had about AI music, his might be the one I keep coming back to the most. Sign Marc's "We Need a Union" petition. Music in this episode: Marc Ribot, Map of a Blue City Marc Ribot, Saints Marc Ribot y Los Cubanos Postizos Also mentioned: Liz Pelly, Mood Machine For more info go to www.LightBoxPodcast.com Email us! [email protected]
A producer with 13 billion streams posts on Reddit about how much he loves making music with AI and... gets banned. We have the conversation that wasn't allowed there.