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It's Open Mic Day—Talk About Anything You Want
What's on your mind?
Every so often, I hand the microphone to you.
This is twelfth open mic day at The Honest Broker. We should do it more often—the quality of comments here is typically high. Some of you handle that mic quite skillfully.
Today’s rule is that there is no rule. You can talk about anything you want.
The Honest Broker is a reader-supported guide to music, books, media & culture. Both free and paid subscriptions are available. If you want to support my work, the best way is by taking out a paid subscription.
So speak freely. But let’s try to keep things civil. This is a broker’s office, not Animal House.
But I have confidence in the community here. Somehow we have mostly avoided the noxious fumes that poison other web forums, and we all benefit from it.
Let the discourse begin!
Here in Brazil we have this crazy guy called Lisciel Franco. He has a studio in the middle of Rio de Janeiros forest with no computers. He crafts his own compressors, equalizers and stuff. He works only with people inside the independent music scene (mostly rock, but also samba, jazz, MPB, rap and others non-mainstream genres). Now, he is creating his new streaming services together with other indie studios in Brazil, dedicated only to the independent market. The promise is a fair payment, good communication and human selection to music that enters the service (they don't care about the stuff that already exist, they want new music - but of course, there is tone of respect to what has been made in the past).
I am not advertising it, I cant say that I believe in the project, I shouldn't even tell that I fully understand it. I just felt that the information should arrive here. The studio is called Forest Lab.
Alternatives come from places we don't expect. There is always someone doing something.
Sorry about my english and thanks for the space to share Ted!
The news that famed country singer Randy Travis released a new song using AI to create a vocal is a new frontier in AI and really needs to be talked about.
Travis, for those unaware, has been unable to sing for over a decade now due to a tragic stroke. He has released a new song using AI to replicate his vocals. Unlike most AI music, this is wholly signed off on by the artist, and is perhaps more comparable to auto tune or other vocal aids then the average AI song.
If every vocal beat is authorized by Travis, is it proper artistic expression? Probably. Is it ethical? Most likely. Is it "his" music? I'd say so. Should the marketing team have been less cagey about it? For sure. Will this fringe use case open doors permiting artists to "outsource" vocals to computers? It may.
Fringe cases like this force you to think very clearly about the issues at hand. I don't claim to have answers, but this is very serious food for thought.
The song- https://youtu.be/rh8-g8seeig?feature=shared