Musicians must embrace ‘unstoppable force’ of AI, Eurythmics’ Dave Stewart urges | Dave Stewart
Eurythmics co-founder Dave Stewart said AI is an “unstoppable force” and that musicians and other artists should bow to the inevitable and license their music to generative AI platforms.
These platforms use artificial intelligence to analyze existing songs and tracks and use this information to create entirely new ones as directed by the user. For example, someone might ask the AI platform to produce a song about a drunken night in the style of a Britpop band, and it would draw from songs with similar sounds and themes to create its own song.
In recent weeks, Universal and Warner have partnered with AI platforms Udio and Suno, respectively; so anyone can make their own music or modify and rearrange existing songs based on the work of artists signed to these labels.
“Everyone should sell or license their voice and skills to these companies,” Stewart said. “Otherwise they will take it anyway.”
This is opposed by labels and major labels, who say their artists would have to opt into the services and then receive royalties from the use of the work by AI companies.
Stewart, who has nine Top 10 albums in the UK and as many singles with Eurythmics, predicts major upheavals in the music industry from artificial intelligence and other forces, even after controversies over piracy and streaming in recent years. “The giant corporations that control their artists will break up,” he said.
He was speaking as he launched Rare Entity, a new initiative that hopes to be part of this fragmentation.
Stewart said artists tend to be “at the bottom” of the corporate structure and are grateful for a deal that “usually sucks.” Rare Entity aimed to give creators across disciplines full control and ownership over their work, rather than giving up rights to record labels or other companies. The speed at which AI is spreading in the fast-moving world of digital technology is a clear warning to artists about the importance of owning their work and therefore having control over how it will or will not be used by AI platforms and others.
Founded with entrepreneurs Dom Joseph and Rich Britton, Rare Entity offers to financially support projects in development as well as ideas that may need creative and commercial assistance. Rare Entity does not aim to own the underlying intellectual property, but instead to receive a share of the profits generated by the funded venture. Examples of ongoing projects include Planet Fans, a platform where artists and their teams can communicate with fans about ticketing, merchandise and more.
Stewart said the idea was first inspired in the early 1980s when he and Annie Lennox had to take out a £5,000 bank loan to get Eurythmics up and running. The idea began to properly spread in 2002, when he held a meeting in the boardroom of Deutsche Bank in New York.
“I invited a variety of people,” Stewart said. “Lou Reed, Stevie Wonder, Dr Dre, Dr Dre’s lawyer. I was explaining that with the advent of the internet, artists had to start thinking differently, creating their own worlds, and taking back control of everything they could take back control of.”
Stewart, a campaigner for creative autonomy and an evangelist for the transformative power of technology, says he is not as worried as other musicians about generative AI. In the right hands, like the first drum machine, it should be used as a creative tool, but never as a complete substitute for creativity.
Says people in creative industries should all work The Ten Commandments by Gilbert and George for artists. “My favorite thing is: ‘You won’t know exactly what you’re doing, but you’ll do it.’”
