The New York Times ran one of those squishy soft interview pieces boosting the rich, in this case Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre. Here’s what they had to say about AI and music creation:
How does one prove to capitalists that labor matters? Strike is a traditional solution. But how can labor strike if it already doesn’t matter to the bosses? Which would seem to be the case for Iovine and Dre and the capitalized music industry they represent. AI is no threat to music, in their view, because “music” (meaning, the music business) no longer needs musicians.
The disconnect is total. I do not know a working musician who thinks that AI has no downside, or that AI threatens only those who have trouble creating. These are capitalists high on their own supply. Here’s how Iovine and Dre answered a follow up about what each used AI for most recently:
What a boon to creativity. Shrimp vs tuna, settled at last for Iovine. And Dre already knows all he needs to know, obviously.
As for Iovine’s question to AI about what’s going on with democratic socialism… let me try and explain as a human worker in music. The consolidated capital of the music business no longer represents the interests of music workers in any way. In recorded music, the three major labels have surrendered protection of copyrights to streaming platforms and now AI music companies. In live music, the two dominant companies Live Nation and AEG have drained the remaining performance ecosystem of profit. Music workers of every genre cannot sustain themselves on the leavings from these corporate strategies.
Maybe Iovine and Dre are correct in this respect: AI is no drastic change from what we have experienced these last couple decades, while they and their colleagues at the top of the music/tech industry made billions. AI is simply more of what they practiced all along: the marginalization of labor in music, to the point where capital now imagines labor is entirely irrelevant to its continued growth. “I don’t see a downside at all,” says Iovine.
Been down so long it looks like up to me, Jimmy. And that’s what’s going on with democratic socialism.
Listening to: Materia by Julia Holter
Cooking: sweet corn just picked
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