AI Music Management? No Thank You
UNIFI Music is building an AI Artist Manager and this should frighten you
It’s bad enough that 2024 seems to be the year of AI unapologetically thrusting itself into the music-making business, now we have a company attempting to remove the human element from music management.
Maybe we should replace the fans too. AI-driven hologram concerts “performing” to hologram fans (for a few extra bucks we can have holograms with our faces on them to make it seem like we’re there") while we all watch on a pay-per-view Zoom call. Christ this is getting tiresome.
UNIFI Music is an online community platform targeting independent musicians, songwriters, DJs, producers, MCs, etc. with an AI application that promises to be a one-stop-shop for all of its member’s career needs.
Sounds fine. Many companies like this exist and I’m never going to be mad at people trying to help independent creatives. We all need as much help as we can get. That being said, a new product being rolled out by UNIFI Music caught my attention and this is where I draw the line.
An article published in Digital Music News had this to say about UNIFI Music’s latest offering, an AI Music Manager called Sasha:
The ultimate goal is to create a virtual manager capable of strategically, tactically, and emotionally guiding an artist’s career.
Does anyone else see the massive problem I had upon reading this? The use of the word “emotionally” is exactly what’s wrong with AI anything when it comes to all art forms.
Art is ALL about emotion. Music, in particular, creates so much emotion in its fans that many artists have built fanbases that have been going on for the better part of six decades. A song, in about three and a half minutes or so, can simultaneously make a listener laugh, cry, think, fight, and love, all at the same time. That is because of ONE thing, human emotion.
UNIFI’s founder and CEO, La’shion Robinson, had this to say about his company’s latest creation, Sasha:
“This isn’t just a customized ChatGPT, Sasha employs LLMs to provide customized guidance to the artist. This is a brand-new, functional direction for AI in music. We’re building a complete AI manager built from the ground up for musicians, music companies, and the entire music managerial ecosystem. There’s less need for an assistant manager and more opportunity to create a super manager.”
The article closes with what I think is an ominous line - “Currently, Sasha can handle tasks like social media recommendations and identifying promising venues. However, as the platform evolves, it will take on increasingly complex responsibilities like contract negotiation, release planning, and tour management.”
I’m sorry, call me old-school, old man yelling at the clouds, or anything of the like. I defy anyone to explain to me how this level of AI, which is looking to eliminate human interaction in the most human of tasks, creativity, will benefit anyone other than the owners of the platform themselves.
I’d love to know what you think!