“Tethered to the person you could be”
EDITORIAL
HEAD OF CONTENT George Garner george.garner@futurenet.com
DIGITAL EDITOR Andre Paine
andre.paine@futurenet.com
FEATURES EDITOR Ben Homewood ben.homewood@futurenet.com
CONTENT EDITOR/PRODUCER Miranda Bardsley miranda.bardsley@futurenet.com
ART EDITOR Steve Newman steve.newman@futurenet.com
CHARTS & DATA Isabelle Nesmon isabelle.nesmon@futurenet.com
CONTRIBUTORS
Adenike Adenitire, Sammy Andrews, Koury Angelo, Mark Davyd, Niall Doherty, Anna Fielding, Charlotte
Gunn, James Hanley, Paul Harries, Colleen Harris, Alan Jones, Louise Haywood-Schiefer, Emmanuel Legrand, Paul Stokes, Jennyfer J. Walker, Carla Marie Williams
COMMERCIAL
ADVERTISING SALES DIRECTOR, MUSIC PORTFOLIO Lara Jaggon
lara.jaggon@futurenet.com
SENIOR EVENT MANAGER Madelene Andersson madelene.andersson@futurenet.com
SUBSCRIPTION SALES 0208 955 7020
PRODUCTION
B2B PRODUCTION
MANAGER Matthew Eglinton matthew.eglinton@futurenet.com
MANAGEMENT
MANAGING DIRECTOR, MUSIC Stuart Williams
UK CRO Zack Sullivan
COMMERCIAL DIRECTOR Clare Dove
HEAD OF PRODUCTION US & UK Mark Constance
GLOBAL HEAD OF DESIGN Rodney Dive
HEAD OF DESIGN (MUSIC) Brad Merrett
GROUP ART DIRECTOR B2B Nicole Cobban
COMMERCIAL FINANCE DIRECTOR Dan Jotcham
INTERNATIONAL
Music Week is available for licensing and syndication. Contact the licensing team to discuss partnership. HEAD OF PRINT LICENSING Rachel Shaw licensing@futurenet.com
MusicWeek
121 - 141 Westbourne Terrace, Paddington,
London, W2 6JR
Editorial: 0330 390 6751
Advertising: 020 3878 3723
Subscriptions: 0208 955 7020
For any queries with your
subscription please
contact the number above
Email musicweek@abacusemedia.com
musicweek.com/subscribe
All contents © 2022 Future Publishing Limited or published under licence. All rights reserved. No part of this magazine may be used, stored, transmitted or reproduced in any way without the prior written permission of the publisher. Future Publishing Limited (company number 2008885) is registered in England and Wales. Registered office: Quay House, The Ambury, Bath BA1 1UA. All information contained in this publication is for information only and is, as far as we are aware, correct at the time of going to press. Future cannot accept any responsibility for errors or inaccuracies in such information. You are advised to contact manufacturers and retailers directly with regard to the price of products/services referred to in this publication. Apps and websites mentioned in this publication are not under our control. We are not responsible for their contents or any other changes or updates to them. This magazine is fully independent and not affiliated in any way with the companies mentioned herein. If you submit material to us, you warrant that you own the material and/or have the necessary rights/permissions to supply the material and you automatically grant Future and its licensees a licence to publish your submission in whole or in part in any/all issues and/or editions of publications, in any format published worldwide and on associated websites, social media channels and associated products. Any material you submit is sent at your own risk and, although every care is taken, neither Future nor its employees, agents, subcontractors or licensees shall be liable for loss or damage. We assume all unsolicited material is for publication
Music Week is a member of the Periodical Publishers’ Association ISSN – 0265 1548 unless otherwise stated, and reserve the right to edit, amend, adapt all submissions.
Printed by Buxton Press Ltd, Palace Road, Buxton, Derbyshire, SK17 6AE
Welcome to Music Week...
Art-ificial Intelligence
From press outlets dissecting articles written entirely by ChatGPT to David Guetta deploying a deepfake Eminem verse in a new song, it’s been impossible to ignore the headlines surrounding artificial intelligence of late. Now, as someone whose childhood years were partly defined by watching Terminator 2 a very healthy three or four times a day, I should be predisposed to fear any innovation that could one day lead to our annihilation at the hands of our robot overlords. While I still vividly remember the curdling feeling in my stomach the first time I heard Drowned In The Sun – an AI programme’s attempt at writing a Nirvana song in 2021 – oddly, I’m not especially fearful of the changes we’re seeing right now. And no, ChatGPT did not write that last bit for me.
What’s been occupying my thoughts lately is not so much what human artistic expression may be surrendering to AI, but rather what has already been lost without even taking it into account. Over many years we’ve all heard artists, songwriters, managers, executives, producers, cultural critics and more – and at all ages and levels of experience – airing their grievances about some of the perceived strictures on creativity these days. If you buy into these regular criticisms, you soon start to question what the real difference is between a machine learning how to sound like a human, and a human learning to sound like an algorithm.
At least from my own personal experience of interviewing people from all sides of the music industry, many establish a common ground in bemoaning how many chart hits sound so similar, so beholden to the sonic dictates of the ruling algorithms or social media consumption habits. Others cite how cloyingly pristine every mix is now, with all rough edges and vocal quirks Auto-Tuned into an inoffensive sheen. Where, they ask, are the imperfections? Where is the humanity in the actual sounds being produced?
You may agree with some of those recurring critiques. You may well vehemently disagree with all of them. Either way, it’s a discussion that’s been put into sharp focus in an age of AI artists getting signed to record labels and deepfake tracks from dead superstars.
Yes, a lot of people will spend time worrying if AI technology is stripping the humanity out of music in the coming months. But for now at least, I think we need to be less focused on computer programmes imitating our artists, and altogether more concerned about artists being conditioned to behave like machines.
George Garner, Head Of Content
IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT
We would like to advise all of our customers to please log in to your account on musicweek.com and make sure your contact details are correct. We must have your email address, regardless of the subscription option you have, in order to send you the Weekly Digital Chart Packs. If you need additional information please contact customer service at musicweek@abacusemedia.com or +44(0)20 8955 7020
musicweeknews
@musicweek
