Pete Townshend on streaming and Ai


What's actually been happening is that very, very few artists are starting to monopolize the majority of streaming, to the extent where the long tail, which was predicted when the internet started... [has] become so clogged up. You go onto Spotify — Apple [Music] is the same — you go into an area, which nobody else is listening to. And you hear the most extraordinary stuff. You hear it on SoundCloud, Bandcamp you make discoveries, and you think, 'Who the [naughty word removed] is this? They're brilliant!' They're a genius, but they've got 12 followers."

He added:

"It's sort of tragic, what's actually happened, because not that all of those people could ever have [have] been famous. We're used to the star system being a place... where a 'black swan', that's somebody that's just extremely lucky to be in the right place at the right time [finds success]."

Circling back to AI, Townshend concluded:

"But with respect to AI, I'm hopeful, but I'm not going to say is inevitably going to be a good thing, because I think it's when it becomes what drives the machine, then we have to be careful."

And while opinions on AI vary, Queen's Brian May, who's dealt with AI in his scientific endeavors, recently shared a pretty grim warning about the technology's impending impact on the music industry:

"My major concern with it now is in the artistic area. I think by this time next year the landscape will be completely different. We won't know which way is up. We won't know what's been created by AI and what's been created by humans. Everything is going to get very blurred and very confusing, and I think we might look back on 2023 as the last year when humans really dominated the music scene. I really think it could be that serious, and that doesn't fill me with joy. It makes me feel apprehensive, and I'm preparing to feel sad about this."