Somewhere in a Universal Music spreadsheet, there’s a number with my name next to it. And actually my song-writing partners. £300,000. That’s what the system says I owe. Not because I borrowed it. Not because anyone handed me a cheque for three hundred grand. But because that’s how major label deals have always worked, and…
Everyone in music is asking the wrong question about AI. It’s not “will AI replace artists?” It’s “when AI uses an artist’s work, who gets paid?” Right now the honest answer is: usually nobody. The work gets hoovered up, the value flows somewhere else, and the creator who made the thing in the first place…
There’s a lot of arguments going on as to the relative merit and value of AI-generated art in any form. Not least in music. The arguments range from it being a complete takeover of new content creation to the arguments that ultimately true art is only capable of being generated by humans. Mmm…….
Well it arrived at last, the summer that is! Timely as I had already borrowed a snippet from the legend that is Roy Ayers. As he said, “Everybody Loves the Sunshine”! He called his band Roy Ayers Ubiquity when he released that album in 1976. Ubiquity seemed very appropriate over here in the UK that…
I have been looking for an excuse to pay my homage to the wonderfully eclectic band, The National, from whom I borrowed this blog’s title. The rest of the chorus works quite well for our purposes here: The system only dreams in total darkness Why are you hiding from me? We’re in a different kind…
I had the absolute pleasure of finally getting to see my childhood heroes, Kraftwerk, at the Green Man Festival in 2022. As a keyboard player and wannabe electronic artist at the time this came out, it took me a while to really appreciate that ‘less is more’ in any popular music. In so many ways…
What a chance to restart our regular blogs with a Clash reference! Not least as it is revisiting my youth. Although I am not proposing bank robbery. It may be that it reflects what many artists feel when they experience ‘daylight robbery’! I fought the law and the law won. Umm Well, those who have…
Once upon a time, in the pulsating heart of the music industry, a group of exceptionally talented artists came together to create an album that would redefine the very essence of musical greatness. This formidable alliance consisted of a singer with a voice that could move mountains, a masterful composer, an ingenious lyricist, and a…
Today, we delve into the intriguing world of revenue sharing in the music industry. As the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of a music company, I have witnessed firsthand the transformative power of fair and equitable revenue distribution. In this article, we will explore the significance of music contracts and show why traditional advances from music…