AI Will Disrupt TV/Film Sync Licensing (Prepare Now To Find Opportunities) 

I think there are two camps in the AI world. First is the tool side with programs like Izotope Neutron and Sonible SmartEQ. Then there’s the creation side like MusicLM and Beatbot which can literally create the song for the client. While I love using the tool side of AI, it’s the creation side that I think will impact us negatively the most. Creating music as a musician might just end up as a hobby while we use the creative side of AI as a way to make an income and right now I don’t know if that’s bad or good.

Library / sync composers make their living right now from a gig that barely existed 20 years ago, at least on the scale it’s at today. Reality shows were still the minority compared to scripted tv, until the early 2000s (a writers strike in 2001 sped that up). Things change, sometimes dramatically, and there are always winners and losers with that change - the losers usually being the ones reluctant to move with the times. When AI can finally deliver pro level production value, and music that moves a human being, (not to mention the legal issues are straightened out), that change will be bigger than probably anything we've seen in this business since radio was invented. I still can't believe the rate of collapse of the royalty free / stock music website business. We went from the 2000s where a composer could quite easily make $2000 a month, to it reduced to mostly subscription based sites by 2020, and now used to train AI as datasets. Up until now AI had nothing to do with all that though - it was all about a saturated market and a race to the bottom.

19:36 we have already a lot of productivity, or maybe to much. What we don´t have is skill and idea. Our art is basically a collections of saturated recicled ideas.

Thanks Jesse. Great presentation! All of this reminds me of when the internet came online for the masses back in the early 90's and people were either really freaked out by it or super curious about it. I've only dabbled with a couple of AI tools to make images and am super curious at where all of this will go. At the moment I'm in a space where I can see myself doing a mix of both making music the "old fashioned" way and with AI. I will always love making and playing music because I see it as a way to express and process emotions but if there are tools that will make the process easier or open up new avenues for creativity, I'm all for it even though none of us have any idea of what to expect. Thank you for breaking all of this down and presenting it in a real way. I really appreciate it!

Jesse here’s my take on it! Just like those of us who have DAWS……. the very second that a producers AI Composition is rejected by a library……THEY’LL QUIT😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

Thanks for sharing! Nice to know there’s a community to turn to about these developments. Brave new world.

I like the idea, because it's a great tool. I already use AI tools create my art work. I am using them along with other softwares like photo editor tools. I don't depend on just the image that it produces. There other things that you can add to these images. In music with what ever audio you can alter the sounds. Distort, or even add more sounds. The possibilities are endless.

I’ve been playing with AI tools in my studio for a few years now. After my initial gut fear reaction I began to think about it as an assistant (which I can’t afford to hire) or just another tool to move things along. That mindset change was the same way I used to think about VST synths vs hardware. Now I’m using a combination of the two. One to scratch the itch of hands on play / tweaking and the other because sometimes I don’t need to make a new synth bass. 😂 Unison drum monkey is one of my favorite “assistants”. Create a beat. Spit it out as midi or audio. Keep moving and chop / change the same way I would with a drum loop. But without spending however much time finding “the perfect loop” cause there isn’t one. I’m gonna chop it apart anyway. I’m also stoked for vocal plug ins. Been experimenting with them for a long time and cannot wait until they actually work well. Perspective is key. If you think you’re a victim. You already are.

Thanks for this video. In my opinion good music has a soul...whatever genre or use the music is made for. The AI-created music I heard until now doesn´t had this soul - so, a real human with a good musical taste will become more important than before.

Great stuff Jessie! I am super stoked by all this new tech. I want to see what ai plugins are going to come out in the near future. That Synthesiser V looks promising for vocals and can wait to see whats next!

Thank you for your sober honesty and truth telling Jesse. It is a powerful and relevant presentation, right on time for the changes coming. Good to know the drums 🥁isn’t it🤓

Thank you for covering these things Jesse. I feel like I can continue doing my thing, while still staying up on these changes through your channel. Very helpful! Thanks!

You nailed it! I agree with everything you said, and I'm glad you are going to cover it thoroughly. We have to step up.

Thanks again Jesse for explaining Al because as a songwriter learning to be a composer and now adding more challenges that I’m willing to learn technology changes by the moment

HUGE. So grateful Jesse you continue to be on the ball with the inevitable waves of change..I've been tracking and very aware of AI with all these insane tools and I couldn't agree more the idea of a super charged music producer that uses these tools to GREATLY enhance production and presence amongst the static. I believe we are on a major convergence and opportunity!! -Mike Hook

Thanks for this Jesse, There’s no doubt about it, AI is here to stay.. I can’t say I’m feeling optimistic about it, at least not yet. We don’t know when but it’s clear to see that it’s just a matter of time till everyone has access to super high quality ai music generators and once that happens, It’s hard for me to imagine a world where AI and music composers like us can co exist. As scary as it is to think about, all I can do is stay curious and trust and hope that new opportunities will arise from it.

It's a new shiny toy, and humans love new shiny toys and everything that give us a chance to drift further away from ourselves. Anything that can help us become more lazy, we embrace with open arms. But I think we should not ignore what Stephen Hawking said about AI a few years ago.

That motivational Hip Hop track would be acceptable by almost all libraries. I'm worried now.

Am glad you are going to continue covering this topic.

Wow, my mind is kind of blown. Best to go into it with eyes wide open. Thanks Jesse.

This isn't unlike how ChatGPT can write computer code. If you think about this a bit like people leaning into samples to create tracks it kinda changes the way you look at it. So, process automation becomes a whole thing. I feel like looking at prompt engineering applies here. A trained photographer can prompt MidJourney with more focus than the lay person. So, there's a consideration. A trained musician might ask for a theme in Lydian where a lay person might ask for something that sounds "sci fi", for example....

Hol’ up 😂 That fireworks beat was 🔥

Thinking about this further; I think to begin with AI will be a friend and then become a foe? Will the publishers/music libraries just end up making good enough generated material , and do direct deals with music supervisors , will music supervisors just have their own AI and generate what they need with little effort, and not need to look elsewhere as much. I think it might be important to get your work (using AI as it develops) into libraries ,and hopefully used, ASAP. Digital phones have more or less destroyed traditional photography .who buys a camera and film these days? On the flip side I do believe human inspiration/skill can always compete with anything software can produce . Bottom line is lets hope the industry sees the storm coming and makes the right decisions to protect what already exists .

Maaan, that little "nothing special" melody is one of the most famous Italian songs Bella Ciao! It's even written there ;) Just a detail ;)

Heard someone say recently, "If you can't get out of it, get into it". I think that applies here.

It's just pushing it through a GM sound blaster audio card from the '90s, when it shoves it through komplete 15 watch out!

This is completely mind-blowing! I can't type at the rate that I'm thinking. I DO know that it's only going to get better and better (all forms of AI).

I don't think AI will be able to fully replace DAWs at least not for a while, but I really think it's already able to enhance the workflow and productivity of working within DAWs, making it much easier to skip tasks like composing over the same 2-5-1 progression that you would use anyway, saving precious time

Really appreciate the mature and honest approach of this video. Thanks.

Fantastic - thank you Jesse! 👏🏽

I think this more of fear of the unknown and a fear of missing out all in one at least for me. We as creators dont want to see things change so fast that we dont know what to do and where to go to try and catch up. 2023 has started this AI revolution it seems even though its been here for a while everyone is talking about it now. i feel like we are heading toward the people that are on the movie Walley were everyone has nothing to do but float on chairs and eat. I totally agree with you on the 2 tools you showed in the video they are getting really close to what we can to as creators with little effert. You have convinced me to prepare for this new wave of tech. Thanks for the video.

Honestly, I'm highly considering now to study and start a career in AI and stop making music in the time being using the old DAW method if that's the case. I am actually a former IT engineer for 19 years so I am not new in the tech world and shifting now rather than later is crucial. My sample libraries aren't going anywhere and will stay in my drive. Who knows! maybe after learning and working in AI, I'll come back to integrate AI with Cubase (steinberg will certainly release an AI API if it's not here already) and write music in less than 2 mins or something. Music is gonna wait but AI isn't gonna wait if I don't catch it early. I actioned the decision by downloading a complete study roadmap (basics, ML, DL, Python, R , math, statistics, BigData, data science) to start my journey. In fact, your second point is the most scary to me "The DAW method of creating music will soon be optional or slow" which makes me feel obsolete by using the glitchy non-perfect kontakt and Cubase. What a loss and super waste of musical time! this is depressing for real !

Hello, Jesse! Very very interesting video. I just wanted to share a bit of my point of view. Long story short, I'm 28, and I started stock music 5 years ago. I've always felt like I was in a middle ground with big changes in the stock music industry year after year. My career therefore began in this constant need to have to adapt, with each new level of success, a change arrives, and destroys almost everything. I see in these AIs, a way for people like me, those in between, who have never arrived at the right time, to perhaps glimpse new opportunities, and a reshuffling of the cards. I am not especially for, nor especially against. I learned to evolve with this sense of adaptation. I can't wait to find out what will happen, not out of joy, but just to start making decisions. I can't take the "in between" anymore !. I think it's been like 3 years we are all feeling it, the price dumping, the subscription model, decrease everywhere, even for top authors etc, something was planned but we were all blurry. Now we can see, this change will come with AIs. For everything in life, as " musician entrepreneur" we have to keep our brain flexible, and ready for everything...

Well what will happen to publishers and music supervisors who have so much composers in there libraries? They will be affected as well. I believe it’s bigger then us composers that it will affect. And thank you Jesse for your dedication on this.

I think once AI can create great tracks, composers have no place. If I am Netflix I have my own AI and don't need composers and keep that extra money

I’m not sure what to think, so I’m gonna go write some music.

What is your opinion about AI potentially replacing production music libraries? If you would, please do a video on that. Thanks.

It's really an invasive technology and it's not too long before everyone uses this. Not just in technical field but also including creative industries. There are even bands out there using AI image generators like Bluewillow to create their album cover.

Great video. Thanks Jesse.

A tree that cannot bend will crack in the wind. But a tree that’s not rigid will survive. That’s how I view things when it comes to AI coming into this space. All I can say is “If you can’t beat em, join em.”

Great presentation! I 100% agree with you! AI opens up lots of new chances and opportunities for those who are open and willing to learn new things. Those who are just always complaining about this new technology will be left behind. We are stepping into a great time for musicians and producers who are just starting in music business, and I am very much looking forward to your upcoming videos! By the way, the melody this guy is humming reminds me of an Israeli song I know...

Be careful what you ask for peeps, Tech does NOT go backwards. Additionally, these Generative AI's have "scraped" the internet for it's machine learning, without compensating the musicians/creators it scraped from. Huge legal implications if you submit AI music for Sync etc. Great video as always

I think you are absolutely correct about keeping the latest gear at hand a part of your music making and service based process. So, my question is anyone know if a midi track is created as well so we can score a soundtrack with that same AI generated music? Because I can see a great benefit with "Collaborating" With Ai. Downside is that all music will eventually hit that creativity threshold because lack of human cunning and ingenuity. But Progress, Necessity & Creativity are indeed the mother of invention, or Intervention... LOL

I'm curious about copyright. The AI has to pull from existing music made by people. Could people get sued if a song sounds like something? What if it contains samples of existing songs?

I'm on the waiting list to try GoogleLM on Ai test kitchen for over a month but no reply :( I appreciate your attitude and message on this very complex topic tho

Okay, first a little backround. I'm 68 years old, have been a full-time musician for 50 years. I've seen a lot of new technologies, a lot of disruption and also a lot of people come and go. I can say one thing with absolute certainty. Every time a new technology came along and put musicians out of work, those new technologies ultimately created more jobs and opportunity than existed before. However the opportunities were only available to those who were willing to adapt, grow and change. AI is no different. Music has always been a business where the players had to reinvent themselves every ten years. So again, this is nothing new. Over the course of my career this is what I have always done. As a result I have been fortunate. I've never struggles and have always made a good living from music. As a veteran, I would say to everyone, just relax, go with the flow, and enjoy the ride. It's gonna be bumpy but fun!

Did MUSICLM rebrand into MusicFX as a part of Google's AI test kitchen?

Hm...I wonder when AI will be able to extract stems from AI generated tracks...Thanks for the videos!

It’s just time to evolve 💯

Jesse, You forgot a big point on the "What is certain" presentation. We don't have to worry about fairness, bitterness, adapting, etc, because PUBLISHERS will be using the technology. Not people like us. When this tech gets really good, people have to be crazy if they think WE are going to be using it. Publishers, Editing bays and production crews will be using it, totally bypassing guys like us. Call me bitter but it makes no sense to pay royalties when the tech gets good enough. I'm an optimistic person but realistic too.

Thank you for this! I agree, I think AI will be an enormous help for music producers in the engineering part of music production. I am less sure about AIs ability to replace a good composer though. A piece of music can be excellently produced technically, but still not be a very appealing composition or melody. How do you think AI will affect the composition part of music productin, which in my mind is perhaps the most important part. Will AI be able to completely replace good music composers (like in classical music for instance, but really for any genre), or will it rather be a great tool for composers to use to enhance their productivity and creativity, but you would still generally need a human composer in the process to create the most appealing melodies and songs? Would love to get your opinion on that.

idk, i think ironically, this will also make "human made" music go bigger. don't get me wrong, i've been embracing AI since gpt3 was released at the end of last year. it will most definitely disrupt a lot, but from the beginning i thought, and still think that anything niche is safe. AI will not replace live music, concert or DJs. maybe "mainstream" clubs (where djs play pre-recorded sets), or even those weird headphone parties, but anything that is niche should be fine for plenty of time to come. AI will not replace djs that play techno, deep house, dnb, basically anything that is more underground and has a scene. names bring people to a place, both in terms of business, while also acting as a filter of people with similar tastes to come together. i don't see gpt5 headling a concert and that bringing in people. most followers of any scene, who actually know the producers/beat makers/musicians/singers they follow and listen to (as opposed to just following the main popular playlists on spotify, and listening to whatever is there), will for sure make sure that new music they discover is also "human made". probably this will start a wave of even some casuals looking up "human made" music. and maybe even willing to pay some $ more for it, via sites like bandcamp. (just like ie. more and more people continue to seek out organic food) i don't consider people that are ok with listening AI generated music, the people that i'm trying to reach with my personal music anyways, and i think this applies to plenty. i feel that those that are here mainly for the business side of things have more to worry, because being outworked by AI is definitely a reality. of course unreal engine and unity will both have their AI music generation soon, as well as probably every major network and their subsidiaries, with royalty-free music sites following shortly after. i'm sure hans zimmerman will be fine though lol And i believe that these complete AI generation tools will overshadow AI plugins supposed to help producers, so even with AI help, the business side is messed up. If production houses can avoid using one extra person, they will so yeah, my opinion for now is, bad for business, good for musicians/producers personal careers

Thanks for sharing your thoughts and insights. The technology is groundbreaking and will definitely change a lot lives or jobs. Generative AIs like Bluewillow is here to stay and will be part of the standards in the future and are now even semi-autonomous. Hoping to see you help people with AI soon!

Should really help us with creativity and inspiring new ideas and ways to make music. Like anything it’s a tool. The best AI is gonna based on the best of humans!

Smart!

It's easy to think about AI from our own 'bubble', but here's a thing. Let's say you're worried that a Music Supervisor will be able in the future to use AI to create music for their show and so won't need musicians. The people who make the show are also worried that AI will in the future create a whole TV show and so won't need Screenwriters, Music Supervisors etc etc. In other words, while we're worrying about Netflix using AI to replace us, Netflix are worrying about the 24 year old ( That Jesse mentioned) replacing them. What if on a computer we could use AI to create a whole virtual world? It's weird, intriguing and scary at the same time!

Composers and producers are killing themself selling their dataset to train these ai.. basically they are selling their experience and all the hard work they have be done fo pennies.. great job 😅👍🏻

I hope you're right to be optimistic. I do know one thing: if I were in the business of creating content like videos, games, ads etcetera and I want to save a lot of bucks, I'd go for the AI generated stuff. No reason at all to work with a real composer if AI gets the same results, faster and for less money. In the future, I think composers will only create music _as an art_ again. Sorry to be so grim but that's how I see it at the moment... if you can change my mind, please try 😅

I think there will be a good side and a negative side to AI disrupting the music production/composing space. On the good side, I do think that it will allow people to be more creative. I can imagine using AI to be the best writing collaborator and session musician I could ever need, being my partner who can help me put together music faster and better. But in the grand scheme of things I do think that it will make the business of music much harder. By making it easier for everyone to produce great music, even without years of experience on a musical instrument, or background in recording, mixing, music production ... it decreases the value of original music overall. I think its going to make it harder for people to make money creating music, but will make it easier for them to create that music. So it has me thinking, ... where CAN I add value as a musician and music creator and coexist with this new AI-driven world? I don't have an answer to that yet.

Danny elfman was a Hummer.

can it spit out the tracks? can it change the mix, change specific things?

Can it express what I, Emanuel, feel about the world?

Time to go back to recording more real, acoustic instruments. AI is impressive, but I can still play my double bass better than a computer can. The day this is no longer true, I will consider flipping burgers at McDonald's...though by then that will also be done by AI.

I also hope it is going to be a “great awesome new chapter in history.” Jesse. There is a reason why Elon Musk and some other original AI creation experts are calling to put brakes on to slow its development though. Music and art is trivial compared to the big threats that AI pose. Social/political manipulation, cyber security, cyber attack, spying, weapon enhancement etc. That’s the kind of thing that could cause horrific wars and blow up our DAW’s for good, and is why I’m not a fan of AI. Is it a friend or foe? It will be both, unfortunately. A friend for nice little things that we can easily live without, but satisfies our human trait of laziness, impatience, or greed, and a foe for truly horrible things that won’t go away. We’re stuck with it unfortunately

I'm trying to be optimistic, however, when looking at the way the music industry has operated since the invention of recording equipment (a handful of companies owning a oligopoly over popular music, minus maybe 1% of that total market for people like Russ), I can see a lot of depressing scenarios. What if a company like google creates an AI that completely replaced the need for music writers, producers, mixers, and mastering engineers. What if they trademarked it so that only those who work in Googles music department have access? All of the sudden one of the most powerful companies in the world could use a couple hundred employees to pump out more music than all of the major labels combined! How would one adapt with that?

It sounds like recicled junk, the rests of what is saturated. This will probably be the substance of what is coming next but with a better package.

We will be replaced just like horses by cars. Sure we will be super productive but unneeded.

AI is inevitable. 😮

Maybe human generated music will become a premium.

Will AI also affect Royalty Free music as well?

I'm interested in any AI that I can add lyrics to ,or a basic guitar/ vocal and create a song. I create 'whole' songs through lyric writing and pay for them to be produced . In fairness this has led to being published and getting some T.V cuts...but it's not the cheap way of doing things!

I'm excited about AI. Not just for production music, but project managing, writing, planning, learning new ideas.

You said the key phrase. "An Individual could disrupt and put a huge company out of business like Google". THE POWERS THAT BE, WILL NEVER LET THAT HAPPEN, THEY WILL DO ANY THING THEY CAN TO KEEP THE MONEY FLOWING!! Its always follow the money man. It will not happen it our lifetime. NO WAY!! It would be suicide and there would be no reason for people to exist. But AI will do some amazing things. It will be interesting to see where it goes. If big companies will lose money, THERE WILL BE LIMITS!!

AI can IMITATE, but it cannot INNOVATE.

It's going to kill sync. Will kill a lot of mainstream producers and "background" genres like Lofi and ambient. Won't impact independent artists as much because people listen to them because they relate to the ARTISTS directly along be with the music as well. Key is to focus on building an audience authentically to build a borderline para social relationship.

Once ai music sounds good enough virtually all commercial music will be created by this, even club music. Live music may survive but that's it. I don't believe there will be opportunity , ai music will be too cheap to ignore. As far as creative empowerment to the masses, the internet has given everyone the ability to learn and create so much but everyone chose to watch skateboarding parrot's and pornography instead , you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink.

If everyone can do it there is no small percentage. Why pay you for productivity when we all have it..???

I just got paid like a hundred bucks by Pond5 to put a bunch of my songs on some AI learning dataset. Feels like blood money.

An A.I. ( createt by Humans) can not be creativ!! It Is a Maschine, who learned to use the creativity( trough Algorithmen) from Biilions of Data. We createt " Frankenstein"!! In the the future, for the most people, there Is No need to learn something, just ASK the A.I.!! In View month, every Body can by producing or creating Art Like the great ones!! But it Is the A.I. who creates this because of the Data they we're feeded. This ist real a good Outlook for US human!!

ai needs data to work. its machine/deep learning. it will never be completely creative. humans will ALWAYS be able to think of things that ai can't and vice versa. for example: ai never would have created dubstep if it hadn't been done A LOT before. It can mix and mash what has been done, but it will not replace human creativity. it WILL be spitting out songs for people that need specific stuff. that will be hard. we should learn how to use it with our knowledge. we, the musicians, will be the best users at first. we will be able to speak the language, change things, ect...

Yes not now …… but it time! We will have an AI BETHOVEN !

I’ll worry when they write an algorithm for feel and emotions and pure creativity…until then AI may draw more attention to the more unique creatives out there that the machine overlooks because it’s too “experimental” to transact in an environment where entities are more interested in maintaining the status quo…

Not gonna lie... my anxiety was going up waiting for the completed AI tracks... :(

But that’s not creating

I feel that AI is like a modern digital “plastic” it can be very useful for everyone but without a proper and responsable use it could “contamine” all the digital content. Idk

Honest opinion: AI shouldn't quit it's day job. Seems many want to believe in AI capabilities so hard, but it is essentially a fast internet browser which can gather and arrange the collected information for you. It's not what it's cracked up to be imo. What I hear is the midi-synth music that everyone hated back in the 1990s. Back then, that was really the main reason media started to pay big money for being able to use real music in their productions. With AI in this stage, seems we have to relive that horrible midi sound again for a decade or two. If they use this shi* (and I think you're right, they will), I believe media will throw their popularity overboard in no time, and end at rock bottom where music is now. Give the newborn kids real instruments, make them learn how to play, and in two decades the demand will hit the roof, because no-one can stand this crap by then. I think the impact will be that low budget productions will try this (and ruin their stuff), which means the penny business for indie musicians goes away (Hipgnosis and the likes will take over the sync business). It will create a big leap between low budget and elite productions (which will still use real music, but only from top names). Good job putting this video together.

Respectfully and most definitely I disagree. Firstly there is no such thing as Artificial Intelligence. The two words are a clue. Intelligence is a human characteristic - and some animals. A computer program is not human and can never be human. Information can be presented to the user from the stimulus of an input string to access a look up table - or a tagged database of images or text. A computer program has no idea what a tree is. It can show you an image or piece of text (that a human wrote) that was tagged with the text string "tree". That is all it can do. The acronym AI was brilliant move. But so called AI has been around since the 1940s when the first computers decoded German radio messages. Can a computer play chess? The answer is no. It brute force uses generated look up tables of all possible next moves and chooses the one with the highest score. This sort of "intelligence" is easy to beat. Check out the original "Star Trek" episodes. There's lots of plots that demonstrate how humans are more complex and nuanced than a computer could possibly be. And there was "Eliza" circa 1966. It was a program that invited the user to type in a question. The program gave an answer by parsing the question text, and again, using clever look up tables. The program, obviously, had no idea what the user was talking about. Weizenbaum, the author, was shocked that people took it seriously. Some people said Eliza understood them and actually helped. (Top tip: They were helping themselves) 1060s AI folks. Oh, and there was the paperless office, which sank without a trace. Then there was the truly frightening idea that computers would cause the greatest rise in unemployment in 200 years. It didn't. We now employ more people. Music AI is particularly doomed. It promises to take from the human a precious activity that songwriting has comforted and excited people for a 100 years - or more. AI music is junk because it's soulless. It uses look up tables - a tagged database. A fancy new way to Google. It is a plagiarism machine. It has written nothing. It will never write anything. Here's an example - the I Love You Matrix. "I love you, (actually I do love you) - I love you (actually I don't love you) - I don't love you (actually I do love you) - I don't love you (actually I don't love you.)" Feed that into ChatGPT - it wouldn't know what the hell you are talking about as one statement cancels the next. But every person over the age of, say 30, would know exactly what that matrix actually means, it's catastrophic dangers, it self delusions and the moral struggle to be honest. Back to Star Trek.

AI is going to treat us like we would treat a layer of slime on a rock, which we are. We humans can not complete with AI. AI is going to be better than us at everything.