Tag Archives: Allegro

AI

A Deep Dive Into How A.I. Affects Musicians

Commentary by Jerome Harris (MFM)

(Note: this is Jerome Harris’ submission for  Local 802’s A.I. series who has been a member of Local 802 since 1979. Sohrab who’s also a member of Local 802 read this article in ALLEGRO – the Local 802 digital publication of news, articles, and discussions about issues that are important for organized musicians – and got permission from Jerome to share it with the MFM community.)

When thinking about artificial intelligence from the perspective of those for whom music making is a livelihood, it’s useful to note a distinction. There are various forms of AI; the one that is most concerning for workers in creative fields is generative AI. This technology can assemble (“generate”) new material based on the patterns it finds in old material. This involves feeding vast amounts of digitized data — including recorded music — into powerful computer systems designed to analyze and isolate patterns. This is called “training” these AI systems. The systems can then be ordered to fabricate recordings based on those patterns, as specified by commands such as text-based prompts. Note that the underlying compositions and their recordings that are being used for AI training were created by humans and are owned by them or by business entities unless they are in the public domain.

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Musician issues: copyright, activism, and making a living in the age of streaming – Future of Music Summit 2013

Text by Adam Witkowski

(Adam Witkowski is Local 802’s director of organizing. Sign up for the latest news about copyright issues at www.copyright.gov/newsnet.)

Photo courtesy of Allegro

Photo courtesy of Allegro

Now in its 12th year, the Future of Music Coalition recently convened its annual summit on the scenic Georgetown University campus in Washington, D.C. The two-day conference brought together people from all walks of the music industry for interviews, workshops and panel discussions focusing on a broad range of issues affecting musicians and the music industry as a whole.

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Street Musicans In NY Are In Trouble: Have You Heard of The “Clarification” of Park Regulations?!

Some thoughts by Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi

Are street musicians different from other musicians, such as jazz, Broadway, western classical or rock musicians? My answer is NO!  A musician is always a musician. You can be “just” an entertainer or a “serious” musician or even being a music activist like me…but we all have the same purpose of doing music either “indoors” or “outdoors” which is to tell stories.

We all do the same job which is customer service. I know of musicians who don’t like street musicians and can’t appreciate their contributions to the community. (I did have this experience when I was playing my saxophone in Central Park three years ago when Lou Reed and Lauri Anderson passed by, and Lou looked at me in a nasty way as if i was “air.”) Some of them feel they’re better than “them.” I can’t accept this attitude which is very disrespectful.

I believe they are as important as any other musicians for the community. Their contribution can be deep as a Coltrane, Beethoven or Jimi Hendrix. They can be as ironic and funny as a Fran Zappa. They can be more sarcastic than the SEX PISTOLS. They can be as critical as a Bob Dylan of the 60s. And they can be as funky as a James Brown.

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Justice For Jazz Artists movement: Speak truth to power – Lorraine Gordon, the owner of the Village Vanguard, still isn’t returning our calls. So we paid her a visit on the night of her awards ceremony…

Reprinted from the February 2013 issue of Allegro, the magazine of the New York City musicians’ union (AFM Local 802). For more information, see www.Local802afm.org. The original article can be seen at this link: http://www.local802afm.org/2013/02/speak-truth-to-power/

Text by Todd Bryant Weeks (Tweeks@local802afm.org)

Members of Local 802 and the Justice for Jazz Artists campaign came together on Jan. 14 to leaflet the 2013 National Endowments for the Arts’ Jazz Masters Awards ceremony. The goal was to draw attention to an injustice being perpetuated by one of this year’s honorees – Village Vanguard owner Lorraine Gordon.

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Musicians issues: Show Me The Money! – The Nuts And Bolts of Digital Royalties

Text by Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi
Last week I attended the APAP (Association of Performing Arts Presenters) WORLD MUSIC PRE-CONFERENCE 2013, where many concert presenters and festivals book much of their upcoming year.  Rock Paper Scissors, INC.’s  founder Dmitri Vietze put together a two-day world music pre-conference from Thursday to Friday as part of the APAP conference.

I attended only the Thursday panels (State of the Recording Industry and Technology Tools for Artists, Labels, and Concert Presenters) because they were related to musician issues. I wanted to find out what’s working and and what’s next in the music business. Honestly there wasn’t anything new the panelists could tell me. They just confirmed me that all the things I have done in NY in the last 5 years were correct or “standard procedures”. At the end all panelists agreed that musicians have to take care of their own businesses: be their own managers, publicists, labels and distributors. They have to learn very fast how Internet technology works and how to use it properly. Why? Because the ultimate goal for any musician is to have a fan base. Without fans nothing can happen or work, whatever you try to do. It doesn’t matter how many fans you got. One fan is already enough for the start, but the number must grow gradually.

Speaking of myself, as you already know, I joined the NY City musicians’ union Local 802 last year to find out what they “know” about music business and musician rights. Also to find out how I can apply their knowledge into my musician life. For this reason I decided to use DooBeeDoo as a platform to share my “new” knowledge with all music lovers and musicians around me.

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