Originally Posted by John Lawrence Schick
Hi Brian! I posted this on another thread:

"Time to come clean Brian. No, I'm still against AI platforms creating music. But... for the last year I've been receiving quarterly payments for my music used by AI. Until this quarter payment, they have been around the $80 range. My current payment was $1,200. Yes, big surprise. No idea what tracks, or what kind of usage (I don't want to know). My wife asked me "well do you feel differently about AI?". I told her not in the least. My compensation or lack of, I no longer have control of. But I'll still be making music at my piano using pen & manuscript. They can't take that pleasure away from me."

Best, John

I don't know the details of your contract which you have allowed A.I. to use your works. You would first need to understand what rights and conditions you must have agreed to. I know that now and then when I upload a song to A.I. I will get back a random new melody I did not create, so are you feeding that into A.I.? That would be ironic. I reject those as a wasted credit, and go back to versions of my work. But A.I. is not writing anything. If you give it no melody, then at best it is using music theory to create something that fits your word structure in whatever tonal range fits the genres and other instructions you have given it. But I never deal with that, except in aberration examples. I suppose if someone is openly selling their melodies, and being paid, so that A.I. can spit it out elsewhere, well that is your choice. If you have been compensated, then that has strings attached. That means likely if someone has a "hit" with your melody via A.I., you will not be able to sue in court. But we would need the details of your contract. The fact that you state that you do not even understand your contract or where/why the money was earned is awfully strange. Maybe you are feeding all those melodies that lyricists are using for their songs they did not write music for. Those melodies come from somewhere. In my case, my melodies marry my lyrics and are produced by A.I. software rather than the plug ins I used to write it with my midi keyboard, then sing into my digital recorder. You aren't getting money for nothing. Either it was airplay/placement or you sold use of your melodies to others. Now, they won't own it, but you won't be able to claim infringement because you have licensed it away. Very strange decision for you, but you are a Pro and that is the future. Licensing will be how stars make money in all arts. They will license use of their style or creations to be used or deconstructed in endless ways for others to build on. That is the true future and it is way better or collaborative than the gatekeeper era we just lived under.

Brian Austin Whitney
Founder
Just Plain Folks
jpfolkspro@gmail.com
Skype: Brian Austin Whitney
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