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Universal Music Group‘s EVP and Chief Digital Officer, Michael Nash, appeared alongside Splice CEO Kakul Srivastava at the HumanX AI conference in San Francisco last week.
Asked how UMG balances protecting artists’ rights with leaning into AI innovation, Nash described the company’s approach as “defense into offense”.
“We have an obligation and a responsibility to defend the rights of our artists, but that’s also the key component of organizing a marketplace for ethical entrepreneurs to develop new tools and new experiences working with the artist community,” he said.
“As we’re fond of saying, if you don’t claim a seat at the dinner table, you’re likely to wind up on the menu.”
Nash also cited a broader pattern of UMG-led business model innovation, from unbundling the album for Apple‘s iTunes, to enabling Spotify‘s streaming model, to UGC licensing on YouTube, to “the deal that we did with Meta going from suppressing social expression through music to enabling social expression through music.”
Added Nash: “I think it’s really incumbent on us to figure out how to take the strong position around protecting the artists’ rights and interests as a foundation for business model innovation, to work to organize a marketplace for ethical entrepreneurs.”
Here are 3 other things you might have missed from the conversation…
1. Nash called the ‘AI versus artists’ argument a ‘false narrative’ built on a ‘deeply flawed investment thesis’
Nash took aim at what he called “the false narrative of artist replacement.”
That narrative, he said, “had its origin in a deeply flawed investment thesis that ‘AI eliminates music content supply constraints, kills [the] legacy model, [and] jailbreaks [the] music economy.'”
Nash argued the premise was wrong from the start: “The digital transition had already effectively eliminated barriers to entry with 100,000 tracks uploaded a day four years ago,” he said.
Applying what he called “cocktail napkin math,” Nash said: “In order to listen to all music ever created, you’d have to live 1,700 years and never sleep. And then you’d have to live 17,000 more years for every year that AI models are cranking out new music.”
“A nuclear explosion in production volume of content through AI doesn’t have a market. There’s no audience for that. It’s not addressing any kind of need.”
Instead, Nash argued, the real framing is “Artist x AI: AI has an opportunity to be a huge force multiplier.
“Instead of thinking about going from 1,700 years of content to 17,000 years’ worth of content and seeing an order of magnitude explosion in irrelevant content volume, we’re looking at it as an order of magnitude advancement in creative potential for artists engaged with technology.”
2. Nash asked: would Bob Dylan’s music be better if his vocals were perfect?
When the conversation turned to what it means for AI music tools to “get better,” Nash offered a pointed response.
“Would Bob Dylan’s music be better if his vocals were perfect?” he asked. “You could go through a laundry list and version that question for Neil Young or Leonard Cohen or Johnny Cash or Kurt Cobain or Courtney Barnett or Lana Del Rey or Billie Eilish or basically any punk rock record.”
“It all relies on the artist and the creative process and their artistic intent.”
Michael Nash
Nash referenced the poet Robert Creeley, paraphrasing him as saying that “art is triumph of content over form”. He also cited Bono’s observation that “we sang before we spoke,” pointing to academic research suggesting music preceded language.
“I think it’s technically correct that the music models are getting better [and better],” Nash said. “But to say, does that mean that you’re going to see the creation of better music? I think that from a mechanistic point of view, that’s the only way you would arrive at the conclusion that yes, you’re going to see better music. [Ultimately] it all relies on the artist and the creative process and their artistic intent.”
Srivastava agreed, adding that the music creation tools available today are still far from where they need to be. “We do not have the right creator tools yet in market that truly allow musicians to tell their stories well, at least in the AI space; we don’t have them,” she said.
3. NASH PREDICTED ‘SIGNIFICANT GROWTH IN THE MUSIC ECONOMY’ FROM AI – WHILE SRIVASTAVA SAID WE’LL STOP TALKING ABOUT WHETHER MUSIC ‘WAS MADE WITH AI OR NOT’
Asked where AI and music will be in five years, Nash compared the current moment to previous technological shifts.
“If you consider what the electronic revolution meant a century ago, and you consider what the digital transition meant at the beginning of this century, 25 years ago, I think that AI is going to represent a paradigmatic change, or paradigmatic transition, in the arts and in music,” he said.
“Five years from now, I think you’re going to see the beginning of a transition where artists are going to populate intelligent ecosystems with incredible, navigable, hyper-personalized experiences for consumers. You’re going to see a significant amplification of creativity and music, and you’re going to see significant growth in the music economy as a result.”
“No matter how good [AI] gets, the goodness of the music that is created will come from the authenticity of the Creator’s narrative coming through.”
Kakul Srivastava, Splice
Srivastava struck a similar note, arguing that, regardless of how quickly technology improves, what matters won’t change.
“No matter how good [AI] gets, the goodness of the music that is created will come from the authenticity of the Creator’s narrative coming through,” she said.
“Models and agency platforms and all of those things are fantastic, but ultimately, it’s the creator tool and how that helps the user tell their story. And I think we’re still in the super early innings of that.”
Her five-year prediction was that AI will simply become invisible.
“We won’t really be talking about whether this music was made with AI or not. It just will be how it’s done, just like we don’t talk about… ‘is this electricity powering these lights?’ You can take it for granted, and I think that’s what’s going to happen with AI and music as well.”Music Business Worldwide
