80. How A.I. Can Help Musicians
season 3, episode 20
Episode: 80
Welcome to Musicians Tip Jar where we talk about musicians and money. Where all our scripts are written by real people. I’m Chris Webb, joined by my co-host and also a real human, Dave Tamkin.
Quote of the week
““Seek success but prepare for vegetables” - A.I.
Non-profit of the week
We design, deploy, and scale real economic and tech solutions that put people first and solve real problems.
The website ai4good.org is the official website of AI for Good Foundation, an organization focused on leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) and emerging technologies for social impact. The foundation aims to develop AI solutions that measure and advance the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) [1].
AI for Good brings together interdisciplinary researchers, nonprofits, governments, and corporate actors to identify, prototype, and scale solutions that contribute to positive social change [1]. They believe in creating a world where the full potential of emerging technologies can be harnessed for the betterment of society [1]. The foundation values open innovation, optimism, intention, collaboration, and leadership in their work [1].
The organization is involved in various initiatives and programs. Some of their key focus areas include:
Intelligent Societies: AI for Good works towards building intelligent societies by leveraging AI and machine learning to address societal challenges and accelerate progress on the UN SDGs [2].
Humanitarian Aid 2.0: The foundation aims to enhance humanitarian aid efforts by enabling communities to respond, coordinate, share resources, and respond efficiently to disasters using AI and technology [2].
Innovation Catalyst: AI for Good serves as an innovation catalyst, fostering collaboration among researchers, organizations, and policymakers to drive technological advancements that contribute to positive social change [2].
The organization encourages individuals and organizations to get involved and support their initiatives. This can be done through donations, partnerships, volunteering, subscribing to their newsletter, and following them on social media [2]. Learn more at https://ai4good.org/
Dave Tamkin
Thanks for having me back, Chris. Appreciate it. You do have an asterix here seen written by CHATGBT was supposed to raise that. Before we get into this, I think we should just clarify right out of the gates that this conversation will be more about how AI can help you with your business and finances rather than AI creating musical pieces. Totally, you know, instrumentation for you. We can have that conversation on another podcast. But I don't want to push anyone in the wrong direction that this is gonna be a positive, a productive AI conversation about organizing your business and finances.
Chris Webb
Well, this is our long overdue conversation about AI is so overdue that it might be out of date. Now we break down our take on what AI means to our community and to our livelihood, The Good, the Bad and the autogenerated. Speaking of autogenerated I got a couple of quotes that I let AI write today I asked for some inspirational quotes from AI and here's what it gave me. First one, there is a proven link between education and self annihilation. And the second one, seek success but prepare for vegetables.
Dave Tamkin
I was expecting you to say Thomas Jefferson,
Chris Webb
Thomas AI.
Whether you're hiding from it, or you're now BFFs with it, artificial intelligence is on its way to being in your pocket next to your camera. And your I guess I never finished that sentence.
Dave Tamkin
We were going to let AI generate that so we could try it live. Sure. So it says that whether you're hiding from it or are now BFFs with it, artificial intelligence is on its way to being in your pocket next to your camera and your wallet. With the rapid advancements of technology, artificial intelligence is steadily becoming more integrated into our everyday lives. Whether we choose to embrace it or not, A.I. is making its way into our pockets alongside our cameras and wallets, revolutionizing how we interact with the world.
Chris Webb
Is this so long winded? That's been my general review, When I use A.I, I need to just summarize what it does, it just goes way too far. Anyways, that was kind of fun. Let's discuss some ways that AI can work in your music business.
Dave Tamkin
Have you come across any students using ChatGPT?
Chris Webb
They use it to help. I mean, they'll use it in the ways that we're going to talk about here.
I know that a lot of educational institutions are very threatened by the use of A.I. for students. And, and I get it, you know, there have been conferences, where to talk about it, and they're really trying to nip it in the bud in a controllable way, but, you know, it's like you want to use it for its advantages, but not let it abuse, you know, the system of education, and there's certainly going to be some issues there. And part of that is going to be developing things that can identify when AI is used. And once they do that, then the whole thing is not an issue anymore. But in this little gray area where things develop, I think my take on it is that if you really wanted to just waste your own money and your time, especially at the college level where you're really paying for your education, a you're really going to just waste your money by not learning anything. Then go ahead, you know, because it's just going to hurt you But in the end, I know that there's got to be the integral aspect of it in the educational platform. But I'm not going to waste my time digging up whether or not somebody is using AI to write their piece because, in the end, it's their choice. And that's, that's my take on it in the higher education world of things and put
Dave Tamkin
some links in our blog post for people that want to take what they generated on Jet jet GBT. And it'll rephrase it for them and give them a score. Whether a human robot or GBT, just if you want to try to screw over your own education and pull one over. And Chris Webb and
Chris Webb
It's funny that we're talking about this, right? After all the student episodes—the last couple of episodes, right, where they're talking about their experience—I think there's so much we can get from AI that will still work with our growth. And that's the whole idea, that multiplier, right, which we've touched down here a little bit. And I've touched on a lot in the class because being multiplayer means using AI to do more things in less time. And everyone is talking about AI and how it is either the greatest or the most dangerous thing to creep into everyday life since the Snuggie. We started to put this episode together months ago, to be honest, but it's kind of got buried under others for a bit. And it sort of just in that time, it's amazing how much has changed and had to be updated in the script. That is likely to be the trend for this technology for a good while. And as it finds its place, you know, as it finds its place, it's going to become more integrated in every aspect of human life. So we've done our best to kind of put together what we think are the most important aspects of why you need to get ahead of it, and the whole AI thing as much as possible to benefit from it and not be left behind. Let's start by talking about the music and how we can benefit. As you said at the beginning, we don't want to make it. This podcast isn't focused on how to make music specifically, generated by AI. Right, there's another whole topic and you're right to separate them because I think there are a million new apps about it every day. And we're not really talking about that part of it as much as what we want to know is: how much is it really going to affect your paycheck? And how can it help you make a bigger paycheck? So let's focus on that idea, right, Start to talk about it with the music first.
Dave Tamkin
Well, if you're looking for songwriting ideas, and especially if you're going into a collab session, being prepared with different ideas and topics is a great way to start the creativity of imagining lyrics, or how that song is going to go.
Chris Webb
I think I've really used it more than I expected, right when we talked about that idea months ago, and I just was like, I'm going to start doing that. Because I often get stuck on a line, you know, and as much as I preach not to do that, I still get caught on a line. And it is killing my progress. So I ended up stopping, and I ended up putting it away, and then it becomes harder to come back to in this simple access to some, you know, this AI ability to just throw my lyric in there, like we did the beginning of this and say, Finish this, or Give me 10 ways that this could end, or 10 ways that this relates to, you know, how the sun can be compared to life's confusion, you know, like, you can be so specific, and the more specific you are right, the more these results tend to be beneficial. And
This isn't cheating as much as it might instinctively feel like cheating. You know, when we listen, I listen to a lot of people talk about how they wrote songs, you know, in the aftermath, after a song got to become very successful, and so it's always like, This one just came to me, you know, in five minutes, and I don't know where it came from, and I just received it. There's a lot of that kind of storyline in In the aftermath of a successful song, I think it's easy for even the artist to just feel that moment when that great part of the song came that really made it real. But they all have methods, practices, and rituals. And this can just be a part of those things, that still get that song to just come to you. Right? It won't take away the magic, I guess, which is what I'm trying to say. And that was the same thing when I learned music theory. I was writing songs before that, like a lot of people are. And I was so scared that music theory was going to steal away the magic, you know, just because then I could scientifically explain why that chord progression works so well, to my heart, you know, and in some ways, you know, it does take away the mystery. But it doesn't take away the magic, the song still hits, you know, and it could still be just as honest and just as deep. If you get prompts to help you finish the lyric or get to that bridge, find a cool chord progression to help you get through the song. Or just find out what types of songs are really doing well, right now, and what types of BPM ZZ are doing really well right now in the charts. And in your style, there are just so many ways you can utilize this to help you get to what you want. In the end, what you instinctively feel like you should be doing is helping you get there faster, and multiplying your time,
Dave Tamkin
You made a good point there, just as far as BPM. And if someone is looking for a piece for a commercial or a movie, and you're generating songs daily, and you're looking for ideas, that's another way that you can benefit from it because it helps you be more consistent, right?
Chris Webb
And that that to me, sometimes you lose consistency, sometimes because you're not seeing the results, right you maybe you spend in a week of very intentional sitting down for that time you've allocated for this one effort. But you've ever see the results, every time you sit down and you just you daydream or you just don't feel like you're motivated, you're you're losing your motivation, because you're not getting anything done. This can help get rid of that, which makes you want to come back show up a little bit harder, because you know, things are going to happen, you know, things are gonna get done easier with less resistance with less exhaustion,
Dave Tamkin
and no one's going to play those parts like you are. So unless you're copying samples, verbatim, and placing them into a piece, to have someone or something give you idea and push you one way or another, it's still you playing that it's still your field. And no one can replicate that
Chris Webb
as trying but you know, that's, that's going to be always at the end of all this is that AI can't really replace you. And that's a benefit we have as artists. And will, we always need to remember that even if we're covering someone else's song, it's still coming out like you. And even if you're playing the same four chords, and you write your own song with those four chords that have been used for hundreds of other songs that have done well, it's still going to come out as you. And that's the same thing, getting these generated ideas is still going to come out as you What about some business stuff.
Dave Tamkin
Let's go on to marketing. First, you know, we've talked a lot about having to program, say, Instagram, Facebook, come up with copy, and quite a bit of copy. So take a copy.ai If you're looking for ideas to come up with, say a month's worth of content of stuff that you've already previously created, and you're about to launch for the next 30 to 60 days for either crowdfunding or a new album release. And we
Chris Webb
touched on music education. That's certainly AI is making it easier for you to again learn any instrument learn any theory learn any lyrical techniques. And you know what, what does it mean to have a hook? What does it mean to have an AB form? What you know those answers were always there for you on the internet. But this just makes it that much easier to get straight to the answer that you want specifically in the context that you're asking.
Dave Tamkin
Another thing that we passed up that I wanted to tell you about was the Tony era t o n a ra or Panera if you're from Chicago to n AR a. It's an AI driven Practice app that provides like tools for just things like sheet music practice tracking metronome, gives you some visual feedback and then just kind of bugs and rings you daily until you practice and mark it off from your to do list so highly recommend it. You know, we were talking about just planning and I mentioned copy that AI but even Canva has just started using AI to generate images to make them more personal to your needs. So we're seeing it and everything we need as far as more content. Mid journey is a favorite of mine. It's on Discord. And then also if you want to look up just different little videos, you can use something called Khyber which I love and I think If you're a musician and want to start generating some cool texts, to video AI formats that you can use on Spotify for like those little 1530 seconds for your own songs, it's, oh my god, I get a lot of calls today, Chris, during our podcast, you think by this point, I wouldn't know to, I did turn off my phone, it's actually my Mac that's receiving these phone calls. Everyone, we've had to stop this podcast at least four times and start over because AI knows we're talking about it, and doing everything to shut this down, but doesn't know that we're trying to talk about it in its best interest.
Chris Webb
That's true.
Dave Tamkin
So anyway, those are just some marketing things that I use them for, for content creation. And then one more, I guess, just mentioned, too, that as a Chrome extension I use called Burdine, B, A R D, E, N. And that's just for, again, creating new content, it schedules my meetings, it helps me respond with some articulate emails, because I'm not very good at that I get used to shorthand really quick, and also helps me organize a lot of products I have gone on for at above branding.
Chris Webb
It's funny, because as you talk about all that, which, you know, I do enjoy watching how much you use it all. So effectively, in in the business end of our of our podcast, and it just makes me realize how huge the Titanic size amount of stuff there is out there already in the AI world, and how many, there's literally, if you could think of a problem you have right now with your business, you can almost almost guarantee to find an AI solution to help you get that done more effectively or quicker, or with more etiquette, you know, like grammar educator with better displays visually audibly, it just, there's just something there for every aspect of where you're struggling. It's almost like this is another one of those ways where we can just stop and say, Why am I really dragging my feet in my business that's stopping the rest of my progress, and then dig that AI part out for that.
Dave Tamkin
I couldn't agree more. I use it daily. And I love it. I love learning about it every day. And there's so many YouTubes you can subscribe to that they update weekly news and AI, everything from music, to money to business, to being creative. They'll give you 1012 Different AI tools to make your day easier, I highly recommend you doing a huge search on YouTube, and just dive in and see how you can use it to your advantage.
Chris Webb
It's almost like we shouldn't have a website where it's or a page where it's just like listing all of these things you just said because I can't even keep track of how many you just told me?
Dave Tamkin
Well, you know what, that's a great idea. And I know that's your passive aggressive way of telling me to get on it. But you know what, Chris? I'm not gonna do it. I'm gonna have a I do it for me. Okay.
Chris Webb
How will they find it?
Dave Tamkin
How they find it, go to musicians, tip jar.com forward slash a I love it. Johnson is able to create their page now. Thanks, Chris.
Chris Webb
Well, we would be remiss if we don't talk about some of the financial benefits that we're going to find with AI and how it can help us be more effective. Certainly, the one that we use the most and I've been using this one for years myself is budgeting. And using using AI to help you identify where you're spending too much or where you're leaking money out of ways that you don't want to be doing it. So, you know, you can use AI to help create a budget. But you can also use it to help track your expenses and your income and how your different revenue streams are adjusting each month. So the one that I use the most. And the one I recommend in class, still to this day is mint, which is owned by Intuit, it works well with our financial Scale tools that we have. And it's so it to me the most effective and free tool that you can find right now on the internet for budgeting.
Dave Tamkin
Do you use it for investing?
Chris Webb
Well, I now have a financial advisor. I have a real human at the moment, but I guarantee you he's using AI I did use fidelity for a long time there and, and Vanguard, I mean, which a lot of my stuff is still there. It's just that it's being managed, overlooked by someone else.
Dave Tamkin
Well, if you're looking to start with something very easy check out acorns. They also have stash but Acorns is my favorite. I've been using it for five plus years right now, not only can you start a Roth with that, it rounds up everything from the cards that you're using, hopefully more debit cards and credit cards, but it adds to a small savings account that uses a Yeah, to invest in that. And then also, if you have other family members or maybe children, nephews or nieces, you could also put a little bit of acorns that you can start growing now that they'll be able to access when they're 18 or 21 years old. But it's something that I use the daily, and I love it. Also, when you have to purchase anything, you can go to the acorns app first. And they'll give you a percentage back kind of like what we do with affiliate marketing. But that's nice to see two to 5% sometimes go back into your acorns account.
Chris Webb
Yeah, we talked a lot about using QuickBooks because QuickBooks for business, you know, you can get the self employed one, most musicians, that's the right choice of their options of plans. And although that is a monthly subscription, it simplifies a lot of the other business stuff for you. And it uses AI to track a lot of things and adjust things and recommend stuff and, but you can also use it to help track your taxes that you're going to likely owe each quarter. It helps you track your mileage, it helps you do all that stuff, too. So it's one place for that. And it's also owned by Intuit, which is why I like the fact that it integrates with my tax preparation with my budgeting with my mileage tracker, all that kind of stuff and invoicing all in one brand.
Dave Tamkin
Huge fan of QuickBooks, especially when started tracking your miles for you. That was a pain in the butt when we were touring all the time.
Chris Webb
Another way that AI can help simplify your business and the things is in the music licensing world. Because which I think a lot I keep saying to everyone that you need to have at least a foot in there. Every musician should have at least a foot in this end of the music business because it's one other way that you can generate income from your existing material, right, everyone should at least understand how that might be possible. Because there are so many ways that you can do that. In this one, this using AI can help you monetize your music in there. Hey, I can provide all this kind of information on the different types of music licensing, such as sync licensing, of course, is the probably the biggest one but there's so many different little ways that you can just generate a little bit more money with the stuff you've already got in AI can make that easier.
Dave Tamkin
You use a distro kid or TuneCore to track any of that because they know they both have. They're using both, you know AI to go after royalty tracking and collection along with you know, BMI.
Chris Webb
All of your money is tracked. Certainly there's multiple ways music bed is another big one. But yeah, I mean I'm on to core two, I think that's the one that All my stuff's on now. But distro kid seems to be the fan favorite for the college students
Dave Tamkin
just like ideas for songwriting. ChatGPT was awesome for merchandising ideas. I also use it for my clients with a branding. And seems like I've been saying that a lot on this. This episode should be sponsored by head above branding.com. But lately, just the like the little stuff like I can't stand it when someone like orders the squeeze balls, because it's just so much like plastic, and just be as that goes out into the world. But if you could just find something like useful like a can opener or bottle opener, that's metal that will stay with you. And you couldn't look up all the eco friendly ways that musicians are currently advertising their brand. If you didn't know the answer that question, so at your fingertips now.
Chris Webb
And with crowdfunding, finding out what different platforms are going to help you get to the right audience, you know, there's a good quote about you know, if you aren't getting the results you need maybe you're standing in the wrong place. You know, if sometimes if you if you know your art is good, it's it's not always just going to have everyone come to you, it's just that you need to be in the right place to get the generated results that you want.
Dave Tamkin
Moving on to some like organizational apps, I can enhance productivity and collaboration with tools that I love using cool but it's just I have it into all the computers and even on my phone for text and everything else but Grammarly, Word Tune, Hemingway that can help improve your writing, enhanced text quality. Also, just with virtual like meeting assistants like x.ai, or Clara can help schedule those meetings. I know we mentioned that earlier. But something that I've been using cool bot and otter.ai it transcribes our podcasts, which is kind of awesome and also horrifying at the same time when I get to see how I destroy the English language in writing and speaking. But check that out because that's really streamlined the process for us to get more content out to our podcast listeners,
Chris Webb
So take what you can from all this I know we're listing a ton in that As Dave said, we're gonna have it on our website with lots of different resources for you but you want to action step this week is to download one of the He's discussed AI tools that will be the most useful or accessible for your music business. And just play around with it. Because not to say that anyone's really afraid of it. I mean, maybe people are really afraid of it. But in some ways, it's just that we're afraid to even use it, you know, we're afraid to even like play with it.
Dave Tamkin
We're still talking about A.I., Chris?
Chris Webb
There is a wall that needs to be broken down about the idea that this is going to cause a lot of problems. It every new type of technology causes problems. But in the end, the parts that benefit us tend to stick and, and, you know, we are tradesmen, in a way artists, we are tradesmen. And I think that because of that, our jobs are safe. I mean, there are going to be parts of your job that are replaced by AI, but in a way that that's hopefully beneficial to you to be even more productive, even generate more results and achieve more. But it's not going to take away anything about the integrity of being an artist.
Dave Tamkin
And it's only as good as your prompts. What you can tell the AI to do, just like you're only as good as how you communicate to your audience. So if you can become really good at finding the art of speaking to AI, your art is going to be that much better. It's just all about vocabulary. Just like Bob Dylan picked up a electric guitar and almost got booed off the stage, everyone what is what is this device that is only used for hardcore metal. And he forked it up.
Chris Webb
Yeah. And then that is a really good point to end with. Because we're only going to be left behind. Like we said at the beginning of this, if you don't find a way to get ahead of it, you're going to be left behind. And that's how all technology is. And this is no different. So it's going to be those people, it's going to be the artists that found the way to utilize this stuff, the best that are going to win off this new technology world we're going to be coming in. And we know your time is valuable. And we appreciate you spending this time with us. And being a part of this community. It's our hope that you feel that sense of community here at musicians tip jar and you help us spread the word to make us all stronger. If you'd like to get a hold of us, or check out the page with all the AI info, what's the best way to do that?
Dave Tamkin
Look up musicians tip jar.com And now a new website URL that Chris Webb has forced me to make in front of you all musicians tip jar.com forward slash AI, or send us an email at musicians Tip Jar at Gmail.
Chris Webb
This isn't gonna be a new name for that. It's like passive, forceful. You know,
Dave Tamkin
he's not bad when you're like, ooh, didn't mean it funny at the time. So I take that back everyone who was offended by I called Chris passive aggressive, that wasn't my intention.
Chris Webb
Well, if you do find this information useful, please take a moment just rate and subscribe to the podcast. It really does help us you know, climb the algorithm ladder and let AI help give us more attention to the rest of the world. So we appreciate it when you do that. And as always, thank you for joining us. Remember there is already enough for everyone you just need to know how to get it. Until next time on behalf of Dave Tamkin and myself Chris Webb safe happy, healthy and wealthy. Wayne Dyer really said this best. When you change the way you are looking at the things you look at change.
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Download one of the discussed AI tools that would be most useful or accessible in your music business and play with it.
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As always, Thanks for joining us, and remember, there is already enough for everyone, you just need to know how to get it. Until next time, on behalf of Dave Tamkin and myself, Chris Webb, Stay happy, healthy, and wealthy. Wayne Dyer really said it well; “When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.”
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