Eurythmics co-founder Dave Stewart has said that artificial intelligence 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, using that knowledge to create brand new songs dictated by the user. For example, one could ask the AI platform to compose a song about a drunken night out in the style of a Britpop band, and it would create its own song by adopting songs with a similar sound and theme.
In recent weeks, Universal and Warner have partnered with AI platforms Udio and Suno, respectively, so anyone can create their own music based on the work of artists signed to those labels, or manipulate and remix existing songs.
“Everyone should be selling or licensing their voice and their skills to these companies,” Stewart said. “Otherwise they’ll take it anyway.”
This has been opposed by companies and major labels, who have said that 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 had nine UK Top 10 albums and several singles with Eurythmics, predicts major upheaval in the music industry from AI and other forces even after the piracy and streaming bust in recent years. “The giant corporations that control their artists are going to be dismantled,” he said.
He was speaking as he launched a new venture, Rare Entity, in hopes of being part of that disruption.
Stewart said that artists are treated “at the bottom” of the corporate structure, and are made to feel beholden to a deal that is “usually terrible”. Rare Entity aims to give creators from a variety of disciplines full control and ownership of their work rather than giving up their rights to record labels or other companies. And in the rapidly advancing world of digital technology, the speed at which AI has taken hold is a clear reminder to artists about the importance of their work and therefore the control they have over how and whether it is used by AI platforms and others.
Founded with entrepreneurs Dom Joseph and Rich Britton, Rare Entity offers to financially support projects being developed, as well as provide ideas that may need creative and business help. The rare entity does not want to own the underlying intellectual property but instead wants to share in the earnings generated by the funded venture. Examples of ongoing projects include Planet Fans, a platform for artists and their teams to communicate with fans about ticketing, merchandise and more.
Stewart said the idea was first inspired by him and Annie Lennox taking out a bank loan of £5,000 in the early 1980s to start Eurythmics. It began to spread properly in 2002 when he organized a meeting in the boardroom of Deutsche Bank in New York.
“I invited different people,” Stewart said. “Lou Reed, Stevie Wonder, Dr. Dre, Dr. Dre’s lawyers. I was explaining, with the advent of the Internet it would be better for artists to start thinking differently, create their own worlds and take back control of whatever they can.”
Stewart, who fights for creative autonomy as well as a campaigner for the transformative power of technology, says he is not as worried as other musicians about generative AI. In the right hands, like his first drum machine, it should be used as a creative tool – but never as a full replacement for creativity.
He says people in creative fields should study The Ten Commandments of Gilbert and George For artists. “My favorite is: ‘You may not know exactly what you do, but you will do it.'”
