Who said ‘art’ is not about ‘the money’ . See the answer at the end.
Paul McCartney was on BBC UK TV this am in an interview commenting on the dangers of AI and the need to protect artists from AI creation and exploitation for money, via subscription services. He maintains there are AI copies on the www of him singing ‘God Only Knows’ and he has never recorded it. Well that is not quite correct as he did perform it with Brian Wilson Live at Century Plaza Hotel, LA (September 18, 2002) and an audience recording is on You Tube.
A quick search shows that there are more than 2 companies actually selling AI voice generators of major artists including him.
They say of their services….it “provides voice transformation services to its users. Our service allows users to transform their voice into any voice of their choice, including celebrity voices, for speaking, singing and rapping purposes. You acknowledge that our voice transformation services are provided “as is” and “as available” We do not guarantee that our services will meet your requirements or that they will be uninterrupted, timely, secure, or error-free. You acknowledge that our voice transformation services are provided using artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms. Our AI vocals are only trained with legal material, but we do not take any liability for the produced samples. We make no warranties or representations regarding the accuracy, reliability, or completeness of our voice transformation services.”
Paul justifiably complains that whoever makes money this way is stealing it from the artists. He believes the next year will see an explosion of such exploitation as such companies grow the base of creative sound engineers. That is perhaps one of the justifiable complaints re the power of AI whilst it’s benefits don’t get much clear publicity, just claims of benefits we have yet to see in healthcare and government as well as the services sector.
This article reviews some of the roots of copyright re the Four Seasons Music and how we as music consumers stand today and some of the issues that the Four Seasons Partnership[FSP] may face now and in the future.
The FSP have always boasted in interviews re the fact that they own their own MASTERS, which is only partly true. They have the Vee-Jay MIXED MASTER copies from the ‘bankruptcy clause’ in their royalties case which they were handed in 1966. They fought and acquired their Philips MIXED MASTERS in 1973, but in neither case did they get the multi-track studio masters, which we believe no longer exist.
The subsequent MASTER SESSION and MIXED MASTER tapes at their Motown period in the 1970s are the earliest multi-track recordings of their work still in existence and as you all know many remain unreleased. Subsequent MASTERS are only known to exist in the LA Storage and these were used in the Snapper Music Box Set released in June 2023. That is fans ‘landmark’ release and in 70% of the content the reference Master location for their catalogue work. So what of the source base for AI use?
AI use in music has been growing for a few years now and the algorithms for extraction of vocals and instrumental music from past recordings have exponentially developed since 2020. Previously software needed skilled sound engineers to filter each element which can now be done in less than a minute. It still needs the skill of a mixing engineer to create a NEW MASTER. This particular process was used by enthusiasts to take MONO only recordings to create STEREO that could not be created to this extent with 3 and 4 track recording consoles and many mixing desks up to 1967. However whatever the result the copyright still remains with the original artist. So when is this AI process [which continues to become more advanced] become exploitation of the artists and musicians on the track.?
Well if as a ‘creator’ on the www, you have 1,000 subscribers. 4,000 hours of public watch time within a 12-month period or 10 million public YouTube ‘Shorts’ views within a 90-day period, on average, YouTube pays between $0.003 and $0.005 per view. For 1 million views, you can expect to earn between $3,000 and $5,000
As an example of how well the Beach Boys videos do this site gives a profile.
https://socialblade.com/youtube/user/beachboys
Thanks to Paul Urbahns I was able to find a similar analysis today of Frankie Valli which shows a huge difference in popularity.
Frankie Valli has his own You Tube page and his peak track has 8.8M views. By comparison the Beach Boys have a few tracks in the millions with ‘Good Vibrations’ appearing to be the peak at 12M. The effort put in to sell the Beach Boys sound to a new generation is really focused. But what we can see is the income is there. Taking such models and without analysing unofficial posts there is clearly a current earnings model in play via You Tube without considering the streaming platforms as a way to earn with little work by re-using existing MASTERS
So amateur sound engineers like me who post Digitally Extracted STEREO Re-Mixes of past tracks are being approved with copyright in place because the artist is getting an accumulation of views and thus earning from You Tube. That is why such posts don’t get ‘copyright strikes’. And as the FSP do not have to get[and pay] a professional engineer to correct a lot of the early to mid sixties tracks that are badly mixed[as that was just what was possible or easy back then] they are getting the new mixes for free and the collective income from the title. As a You Tube poster I have no commercial interest nor would I ever reach a level of post to monetize my YT channel.
BUT in the future….. will music creators use AI to imitate Frankie Valli’s voice and /or The Four Seasons?. That is a legitimate question as such creators may find a way to sell their creations. We will see whether new legislation coming in will prevent such exploitation.
Creating new Mixes for fun is a different matter and will continue with Frankie Valli earning from my or others efforts. I am not clear if any musicians will benefit but publishers may be already earning.?
The problem for music consumers [like us] is that it is only previously released music that benefits from copyrighted earnings and the cost of releasing past unreleased tracks has no incentives.
Lets look at my major area of interest and the UNRELEASED tracks at Motown Universal. Firstly the licensing from the owners of the recording will want a recovery up-front on release. Then there are the songs writers and publishing company who will need their share and we can see the approval process is so difficult. [particularly with inherited estates….e.g Bob Crewe’s] There are stories of long delays at Motown Universal re individual unreleased and even re-releases. Each release is a unique process.
We as fans cannot investigate it but perhaps such difficulties and legalities and costs may have limited the number of Motown Unreleased tracks included in the Snapper Music Box Set? Whilst we rightly complain that in the long-term these track will be good earners within the whole catalogue, the need for an initial payment to all involved is a consideration.
But perhaps I am making excuses as we had the failure to get ‘Killing Time’ included in the Box Set until the 11th hour of our research…..and Bob Gaudio did not offer anything from his personal collection and he has admitted to songs recorded around 2000 and never released. Motown did move to get the unreleased tracks to Bob Gaudio for his ‘artist evaluation’ and Frankie Valli was involved. So I suspect [from Box Set credits] was Shannon Gaudio in the mixing which is different in some cases to the alternate mixes we found.
So AI is not the fans problem and we will consume and discuss whatever we hear either artificial or re-generated by AI enhancement of the original effort. Paul McCartney himself agreed that AI enabled Apple Corps to extract and enhance John Lennon’s vocal for the release last year of the nearly lost ‘Now and Then’. Julian Lennon recently commented on them revisiting ‘Free As A Bird’ and ‘Real Love’ from the 1990s release due to the advances of technology to clean up the tracks. With their fan base a re-release is possible.
In the last year or two several DES Engineers have Extracted and Re-mixed all of the Beatles early albums in great NEW STEREO Mixes but there are NO PLANS from the FSP to do this and it is a big task for an amateur like me…….so I am focusing on selected tracks from 1965 and 66 which I did recently. Songs and productions that trace the ‘Changing Sound Of The Four Seasons’ like this one…
Casey Chameleon
PS…..Whether the Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons Catalogue contains real ‘Art’ is a whole different debate……..this man thinks…….in his case the artist needs to see beauty in their work.
https://trevoranzai.com/making-art-is-not-about-making-money/
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