We need each other.
No music is made in a vacuum. Though we often work on our own, we music creators are never truly alone. Yet when it comes to exercising our rights, we’re remarkably tight-lipped. We suffer in silence for fear of injuring our reputation. We’re loathe to ask questions for fear of looking foolish. That narrative is not inevitable. We’re songwriters: Let’s write a new one.
Raison d'Être
I aim to make Come Together a space where folks can not only learn about the latest goings on in the music industry, but also where they can collectively respond. Music creators, especially independents, often feel helpless in the face of major label, major publisher, tech, and AI hegemony. But some of the most impactful improvements in the history of ‘The American Experiment’ have occurred through the collective action of workers, women, Indigenous people, African-Americans, Latiné, anti-war protesters, LGBTQ folks, and people with disabilities. Progress was impossible, until it wasn’t.
I hope that this newsletter will make all of us feel more a part of the community that we’re actually already a part of: American music creators.
We get to choose which platforms profit from our music.
Most of the time, we music creators are subject to the whims and avarice of the music industry. But every now and then, an opportunity for agency presents itself.
Last summer, Daniel Ek’s funding of Helsing (which makes AI military weapons) caused a host of artists to remove their catalogs from Spotify. Dozens of indie acts in Chicago and Seattle followed suit. Spotify ‘responded’ with ICE recruitment ads. And let’s not forget their ongoing three-pronged campaign to reduce royalty payments to artists and songwriters.
As owners of our music, we get to choose who distributes it. If any music company behaves badly, perhaps they’re not worthy of the privilege.
I’d like to build upon these artists’ bold actions with #SpotifyScrapped: A coordinated, collective action of artists removing their catalogs from Spotify. If you’d like to join us, please add your artist/band/composer name to this Google Form.
Note: If joining this effort right now is at odds with your career, please abstain: Only you know what’s best for you. As you consider whether or not to join #SpotifyScrapped, please share it with your circles so that they might do the same.
Once we’ve determined who’s participating, we’ll establish a #SpotifyScrappedDay, and I’ll send a press release to my handful of media contacts accordingly. Happy to discuss further with anyone interested, looking forward to your responses.
P.S.: In launching this initiative, I am not acting on behalf of MusicAnswers, NYU, Berklee, or Columbia College Chicago, merely as an independent singer/songwriter.
COMING SOON: Surveying those left out of most AI music conversations: Musicians.
So far, all of AI but certainly AI music has been presented as this inevitability: “It’s coming so get used to it.” Missing from much of the conversation: The opinions of actual musicians. In general, we’ve been spouting off and prognosticating to our friends, but they’re the only ones who have been listening to (or at least humoring) us.
My attorney and CEO and co-founder of ViNIL (a ‘digital fingerprint’ startup) Jeremy Brook and I have designed a survey that asks people like us what we actually think of and want from AI in music. Should we be able to opt out our music from training data sets? Should we be compensated when our music is used? Should we all just sit back and relax? We hope to publish the results in an effort to inform the AI music companies and our fellow musicians, and to hopefully shape (eventual) policy therein. More info in the next issue of Come Together.
Learning and building community around songwriting.
My friend and fellow NYU colleague Dr. Ethan Hein and I are launching a new music creation community called Tuniversity:
-an eight week online class about how to write songs, section by section
-monthly, in-person Tune-Ups: part mini-class, showcase, and social club
-solo and duo coaching with me and/or Ethan
-other special topic sessions, driven by community interest
Celebrating the release of
“Cut Flowers”
On a personal note, I’ll be releasing a new song on Friday, May 8th: “Cut Flowers”, written w/Paul O’Grady & Lindsey Bertrand and recorded as a collab with Alexandra James. We’ll be celebrating the release of the song with a show at Mercury Lounge in NYC on Sunday, May 3rd. Tickets are now available here and a pre-save link is coming soon. So glad to be sharing the show with Alex and her band (which I’ll be ‘borrowing’) and my colleague David Wolfert’s band, The 456.
Opportunity Corner:
The Brandi Carlisle Scholarship Fund: Submissions due April 25th
ASCAP Plus Awards: Submissions due June 22nd
Reel Change Film Fund (film composers): Accepted on rolling basis
News & Views:
The 100 Percenters on royalty negotiations at the Copyright Board
Chris Castle on the dangers of a tech billionaire’s bid to buy UMG
MBW on Tunecore’s new publishing advance partnership for indies
In musical solidarity,