You Don’t Know Your Fans (And It’s Costing You)

Most artists have no idea who their fans actually are. They know follower counts and streaming numbers, but they don't own the relationship, and according to Rob Sealy, that single problem is costing the music industry billions.

Rob is the co-founder of OpenStage, a platform helping artists from emerging talent to global icons like Paul McCartney, Oasis, and Lana Del Rey reclaim their fan data and build businesses that don't depend on platform algorithms. In this conversation, he shares why the music industry is massively undersized compared to sport, what it looks like when artists go directly to fans before they even book a tour, and how knowing your fans changes everything from ticket sales to merch to revenue you didn't know you were leaving behind.

Also in this episode: part two of our AlgoRhythms series where we asked conference attendees "Does AI make you hopeful about the future of music tech?"

The News

• The $6.4 Billion Bid Changing the Music Industry: Why UMG Is Selling Off Its Spotify Stake

• Spotify is now a fitness app too

• There’s now a collecting society just for AI-generated music

• Why superfan subscriptions are dying out

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Episode Transcript

Machine transcribed

Rob Sealy

[00:00:00] Dmitri: Rob Sealy is a veteran marketing strategist and the co-founder of OpenStage, an artist-focused platform dedicated to empowering musicians to own their fan relationships. With over 30 years of experience in sales and marketing, Rob has become a leading voice in inside-out marketing, a framework that prioritizes deep community engagement over superficial digital metrics.

Under his leadership, OpenStage has empowered hundreds of artists from emerging talent to global icons like Bad Bunny, Paul McCartney, Oasis, and Lana Del Ray to reclaim their fan data, optimize revenue, and build sustainable, self-reliant businesses, independent of platform algorithms, and I love it. Rob, welcome to the show.

[00:00:42] Rob: Thank you very much. Glad to be here.

[00:00:45] Dmitri: I'm looking forward to this chat. It's been a while since we've talked, and I'm always interested in what OpenStage is up to. And your perspective, you have a really unique perspective. So let's dive in. What's the biggest problem that you think is facing the music industry today, Rob?

[00:00:58] Rob: Well, I think one of the biggest problems is the fact that artists don't know who their fans are. So, you know, I, often speak to music managers, and I start most meetings by saying, "You do not know who your fans are. " And as a result, artists don't own the fan relationship, and the fan relationship is probably the most important thing that they do own.

 and the relationship between an artist and their fans is very special, because they're not consumers, they're fans. And, you know, we often forget, because we're jaded and we all work in the music industry, but music is amazing. Music is the most human experience of them all, and this, brilliant music that people make touches our lives, it soundtracks our lives.

And as such, um, the industry as a whole has generally treated fans as consumers, and the result of that is that the industry is undersized, that there, there is revenue that's left on the table every day. And that's a problem when most artists are struggling to make a living.

[00:02:00] Dmitri: Yeah, absolutely. So you're saying that artists

The biggest problem is that artists don't know their fans, and because of that, they're leaving money on the table. There's opportunities to actually generate more revenue. ... Is that why it's a problem?

[00:02:11] Rob: Yeah, it's a huge problem. If you look at something like, um, there was a Goldman Sachs report, um, a few years ago, that highlighted that sport is nearly a hundred times bigger than the music industry, which is astonishing given that music has about twice the amount of fans that sport does.

So even Goldman Sachs was saying that there is a huge amount of money being left behind. And we work with hundreds of artists from, small garage bands to, you know, sell Paul McCartney and everything in between. And we, we've, um, we've unearthed some amazing examples of, revenue that people didn't realize, um, that they could achieve, chart positions they didn't realize they could achieve ticket sales they didn't realize they could achieve just by having a direct relationship with their fans and, and finding out what people wanted.

[00:02:57] Dmitri: Yeah. So the direct relationship is the ability to actually contact and interact with those fans at scale.

[00:03:03] Rob: Yeah, at scale, but it's the approach. So quite often, I'm sure we've all signed up to mailing lists for our favorite artists, and that can in the main be quite a dry, gray experience. So we can be treated like consumers.

Here's another hoodie for $75 you can buy without your name on the email. What we have at Openstage is the tools where you can actually engage with people. So, you know, fans want proximity, they wanna get closer to their artists, they wanna feel recognized, they wanna feel part, of a community, they wanna collaborate on stuff.

So in open stage, you engage. You don't just broadcast at fans, you actually lean in, you ask questions, you give the fans an experience, and you can react to that experience accordingly.

[00:03:45] Dmitri: Yeah. I'm looking forward to diving into this, but before we get there, how did you stumble onto this problem?

 how did you, Rob Sealy, come onto this idea that there was this gap between, artists and their fans and communicating with them and having those relationships?

[00:03:59] Rob: Well, there, there was a couple of things and it w- it isn't just me, obviously. There's a huge team at open stage that, are all music fans, but the majority of the founders are, are not from the music industry.

[00:04:08] Dmitri: Right.

[00:04:08] Rob: Personally, as a fan, there's an artist in the UK called Paul Weller that most Americans have not heard of, and he was in a band called The Jam and the Star Council, and I've seen him dozens and dozens of times. And every time he comes to my hometown, I've seen him, and that's only been five times in my lifetime.

I live just outside of London. And on the sixth occasion he came, I couldn't get a ticket. And this is way before the days of open stage. And I thought, how does he not know that I'm his number one fan and I live in this town and I can't get a ticket? And I didn't, I, I sort of let that go. The second thing that happened is that my son became involved in the music industry and he started a band and because the band were all underage, I, I sort of helped them out with management.

And it was at that point that I realized a couple of things. Um, I read a, report by Citi Group called getting the band back together. And in that report, it said that artists net about 6% of what they gross, and I thought, "Oh my God, my son's never gonna leave home." Um, how, how am I gonna get him out of the house?

So we calculated, there was five members in the band for them to earn minimum wage in the UK, they'd have to be grossing two and a half million pounds for him to earn 30,000 pounds. And you're thinking, wow, there's something gone very, very badly wrong here.

[00:05:25] Dmitri: Wow.

[00:05:25] Rob: And then when you look at then, when we looked at it, really, it was because, you know, the fan relationship is, is held across many, many different platforms with social media, with ticketing companies, sometimes with the record label.

And it, and it means that the, all of the exciting stuff that I've described is, is kind of lost, because the artists and the fan are not having a direct relationship.

[00:05:50] Dmitri: Hmm. So you're talking about sort of how the interactions that fans are having or they think they're having with songs or with artists is fragmented across all these different platforms.

So it's like each relationship is actually broken up across platforms. Is that what you mean?

[00:06:05] Rob: Yeah. I think it's very frustrating for the fan, um, because they are across multiple platforms. I think most fans don't understand how social media works as a commercial user of it, and the fact that you can miss a post because, you know, we know the reach is now under 3% is frustrating.

I didn't know so and so was coming to town because you didn't see the ad, you didn't see the post. I also think, as an artist, they wanna deliver something that's on brand for themselves. So, you know, we've got artists that are pop artists and we've got people like Massive Attack and Radiohead who are very, very protective of their brand and, and of their fans, but in a very different way.

And, and I think it's very important that people have the tools to deliver something that is consistent on brand for them, um, direct to their fans.

[00:06:49] Dmitri: Yeah, that makes sense. So you've named this problem that there's this disconnect between artists and their fans. They don't own the relationships, they don't have the data.

How can artists and their teams go about fixing this?

[00:07:01] Rob: Well, there's a number of ways. First of all, they can ask the people that currently hold the data to, to share it with them, and that's becoming more and more common. That was problematic a few years ago, but some of our bigger artists have made that easier for some of the smaller artists.

 but also, you know, the greatest advantage they have is the fans wanna have a relationship with them, not with open stage, not with you, not with any of the DSPs or the social media platforms. They want to have a direct relationship. So the best results is where we see people go out and say, "We wanna make this happen.

This is gonna be an exciting place to be. We want to welcome you into our world." And I can give you countless examples of people that have had mailing lists that, you know, have been underperforming for 10, 15 years, and overnight they have seven, 7X, 10X, 12X, their mailing list using OpenStage where they have branded it as themselves and you are signing up to the artist and you have to make it exciting.

You have to sell the sizzle. You have to sell the advantage of being inside my world.

[00:08:02] Dmitri: Got it. Yeah. So, so it's, um, some of them already have some of the data, but they're just not leveraging it in a way that feels connected to the fans. And so there's sort of a way that you can, attack your email list so that it actually feels more connected.

Is that what you're saying?

[00:08:16] Rob: Yeah. So, uh, with, w- with all of this data, again, it is problematic because one, one, you know, to be fair to managers, they're not used to having it. So when they have got it, it's fairly easy just to treat it as just a mailing list and say, right, I'm just gonna send to all.

 we see the greatest results where people can actually look at and identify tiers of engagement within their audience and they can, they can then tailor their comms and the fan experience accordingly. So we have a segmentation tool within OpenStage where you can use all of the data that you've got to create the exact audience that you want, and that can be used to get the right product into people's hands, but also to get the right message, to get the right results.

So you could create an audience of, people that have done a certain action and those that haven't done a certain action, and you, you could incentivize them towards doing different things and give them a different experience. So some of the more, better users of the platform will know who their most engaged fans are, and they're getting very, very high open rates on their emails because they know the most engaged fans wanna hear from them more regularly, wanna here in a way that's appropriate to them.

And also fans talk to each other. So if a fan base starts to go, "Do you know, I got a different email to you, " suddenly they realize that they're being recognized, they're being understood and, and they react really, really well to that.

[00:09:38] Dmitri: Hmm, yeah, yeah. So you mentioned that you and some of your other team members are from other industries, which really intrigues me.

When I've talked to you about OpenStage in the past, I feel like I'm hearing somebody who's applying something that's been, kind of tried and tested elsewhere and really become effective, and you're applying it to the music industry in a way that's more suited to the music industry. What else can the music industry learn from these other industry?

Where, where did you come from and, and how do we apply this here in, in music?

[00:10:06] Rob: Well, um, I came from financial services and financial services in the UK has gone through a lot of changes and I, I won't bore, uh, your listeners with, with all of those, but what, there was a piece of legislation at the end of the '90s, which, was basically saying you need to know who your customers are.

If you're recommending financial products, they need to be appropriate to their financial needs. And in order to do that, you need to do, have some understanding of their financial needs. And we, we were desperately unhappy about this. Um but when this data started coming in, we realized that this was gold dust.

We realized that we actually understood our customers' needs and we could build products around them and that some customers could afford little and some could afford a lot, uh, and, and we could act accordingly. And then in financial services, the greater resource was actually given to D2C than it was to advertising.

When people worked out that social media was a, was a bit of a con, it wasn't the promise that we, you know, wasn't the new world that we'd been, we'd been promised. It was just basically an advertising platform. All of the concentration was in knowing your customers and knowing your customers is probably Rule 101 in most industries in the world, apart from the entertainment industry.

[00:11:20] Dmitri: Hmm, yeah, yeah. so what do you think the music industry can pick up from all that from other industries?

[00:11:27] Rob: Well, I, I think, as I'm trying to, educate the market, I think what they can learn is having an understanding of their fan base, controlling the fan experience, rewarding fans for doing the things that are important to you in a way that are on brand for you, will raise the spend within your business.

If you put value in to your fan base, you will get more value out. and I think that is just a fact. And we're seeing artists on the platform that do that regularly, 2X, 3X, 4X, 5X, um, their direct sales without even-

[00:11:59] Dmitri: Yeah.

[00:12:00] Rob: ... selling. They don't have to sell.

[00:12:02] Dmitri: Wow.

[00:12:02] Rob: they're just building equity with their fans, and that's working accordingly.

[00:12:07] Dmitri: Nice. So you're seeing a lot of these things emerge with specific artists, with artists that come onto open stage, even, uh, just industry managers, thing, labels, people that you're talking to out there, how are you seeing specific artists starting to use the types of ideas you're talking about? Can you give us examples that are out there that'll really paint a picture for us for-

[00:12:27] Rob: Yeah, I think-

[00:12:27] Dmitri: Um, what this could look like?

[00:12:28] Rob: Some of my favorite examples are with some of the smaller bands. so, you know, I'll, I'll give you a few examples. There's a band in Scotland called Tidelines that people are welcome to go and have a look at their Instagram page. They've got about 30,000 Instagram followers.

I'm sure you've got more than that, Dmitri. And they, um, they're, they're a Celtic Scottish band, um, so it's very niche, and their dream was to play Barreland in Scotland. And Barreland is a legendary venue, Iggy Pop, David Bowie, Roxy Music, 2000 capacity, very, very cool. And, there wasn't a great deal of confidence around their team that they could actually fill that venue.

They actually asked their fans whether they could play there and whether they they would come. They asked them if they could do a three-night residency. Everybody laughed them out of town when they, put the idea forward. But not only did their fans tell them that they wanted it, they sold 6,000 tickets.

They did three sold out nights at the Barreland. and I think that's quite astonishing. We have a band from London called Only The Poets who, uh, wanted to do a mainland, tour of, Europe, excluding the UK. They had loads of data saying that they had thousands of fans in Germany, in Poland, in France, in Spain, in Portugal.

And unfortunately, the promoter didn't believe the data that they had and said, "We're gonna put you in the smallest venues across 17 cities." that tour sold out in about half an hour, and the band went back to the promoter and say, "Well, and they, we need to upgrade these venues. We've got people that wanna come to the shows."

They did that. They sold tens of thousands of extra tickets, you know, that, that tour sold really, really well. And in fact, only the poets played in Cologne, a couple of weeks ago, uh, which was one of the towns in front of 2,000 people, uh, which is quite astonishing. So where smaller artists have the data and the direct relationship, and they are leaning in and asking their fans, "If we did it, would you come?"

 you can see that it's working. And then you can go right to the top end. You know, we did some astonishing things with Lana Del Rey around her Boston show where she pretty much handpicked the fans that went to that show, Oasis in the UK, in their general sale, for their shows last year, 99.95% of the tickets, that, they distributed directly to their fans in their UK presale stayed off of the secondary market.

And we're enormously proud of that because that is an understanding of your fans and putting your fans first.

[00:14:52] Dmitri: Yeah, it's interesting. all of those examples, I think the three examples you just gave all had to do with live music, testing demand, but going directly to fans. And you've gone from saying that the, general experience that we're having with social media is you probably won't even see

A concert's already booked, and there's a good chance you won't even see the post announcing that concert. You might miss the concert because you didn't even know one of your favorite bands is coming to town because there's a, you know, 3% chance that you'll see the post at, as you said. And to flipping the script entirely to say, let's just skip all the social media, we won't even book the show yet.

We're gonna go to the fans and say, "Do you wanna see us here?" And if the answer is yes, then we go and book the tour. that's like a transformation around the economics of touring.

[00:15:37] Rob: It absolutely is the kind of touring intelligence we can get now, you know, artists can do, independently run their pre-sales through open stage.

Um, they can set it up, they can set up the design, they can set up the flow, they can decide what data is collected, and that they, own and control that data going forward. And I'm under NDA, but there's a fantastic example of a international artist who I can't name, unfortunately, where she, did a tour, she did a pre-sale with us.

And before the tickets have even gone on sale, they had the confidence in the data that they collected that they could do second and third nights, they could play in regions that they weren't sure of, they could withdraw dates that they, they knew were now not gonna work. They've now planned a second leg of that tour, uh, around much bigger rooms in different regions, with confidence because they have first party data of people, you know, hundreds of thousands of people when there was only tens of thousands of tickets that have said, "I wanna see this show" Now, we also know the particulars of all those people. We know where they live. We know, you know, we know their listening history, we know their relationship with the artist, and it means the other commercial opportunities around going to a show, these people need to travel, you know, of that tour. There were two and a half thousand fans that need to get on an airplane.

Now, in that instance, we could have phoned American Airlines and said, you know, "The, there's a deal to be done here," you know? So if you've got this information, there's a lot of commercial opportunity and engagement opportunities with fans that are being lost because that information isn't held by the artist.

[00:17:08] Dmitri: Amazing. I bet there's examples beyond live music too, but we've got to take a quick break. When we come back, I'm curious to ask you about fan communities. We'll be right back.

[00:17:16] Rob: Okay.

[00:17:17] Dmitri: Okay, we're back. Rob, really interesting examples you gave us before the break, uh, and how this can really transform the economics of touring and really raise the revenue for artists and their teams and the music industry as a whole.

I'm curious, we haven't talked yet about fan communities, and you've really talked quite a bit about, you know, making this connection between artists and their fans. What are your thoughts on, on how artists are really connecting even at a deeper level beyond just the, the live thing? What can happen in terms of building fan communities once they have these relationships and this data with the fans?

[00:17:51] Rob: Yeah, I think there's a frustration on both sides. You know, I've sat with artists who've become quite emotional when they've looked at their fans on open stage because this is unfiltered love. This is unfiltered appreciation.

[00:18:02] Dmitri: Oh, wow.

[00:18:02] Rob: This, this is so authentic. And many artists, um, when they post on social media, immediately have to turn their phones off because the reaction they get is quite toxic.

You know, you're ugly, you're fat, you're this, you're that. It's, uh, it's not nice. And I, I think a lot of that impacts on fans as well. So if you're a fan of, uh, Youngblood, for instance, you may post online, you may get trolled about that. So I think more and more artists are looking for somewhere where I think being part and belonging to something and that shared identity that you have with other people is really, really important.

And I think more and more people want to feel part of a community, want to feel, that they belong, somewhere, uh, with people that have that shared interest. And we've been, uh, we've been testing this out and we've now launched our, fan base API, which allows artists to take control of that, particularly online experience.

So, you know, using our API, they can plug that into their dataset and they can decide which fans have which experience across their different products, their music, their videos, their live shows, uh, but also the online experience. And I think, I think probably the greatest exponent of that is, is Youngblood, who has launched Youngblood HQ.

 and he's had a fantastic response. It's only been a soft launch, um, so far, but, he's, created a founder's list and, and the response has been overwhelming. but, you know, his whole brand is about people that feel outside of the norm, people that struggle with their mental health.

And he's brought people into a safe place where he can post content, people can comment on that content, people can share that content, and have a, uh, a sense of belonging together. He's opened a shop in London, uh, where people can come, they can buy pr- they have access to products that other people don't have access to, to events, et cetera.

 they can claim a free coffee. But what, what's important about that is that that's completely on brand for him. His team have built something that's, you know, in his design, the features, the ones that he wanted. We've also done a project with gorillas where it's, obviously, it's a very, very different thing.

It's a, clunky '90s video game deliberately so, but they are controlling the access in the same way. And we have a number of other artists that, are gonna launch in the next few months where they, they, they're tired of how their website looks. They want their fans to have, uh, a better online experience, and they're gonna use our technology, to make that so.

[00:20:36] Dmitri: So it sounds like, say, say Youngblood versus Guerrillas, they've created different experiences, but it is a destination for fans, but then it's linked back to the, open stage, fan data. So you can actually see who's interacting at what level and, what kind of engagement or what's doing really well there, et cetera, which is way different than when you post on social media or inside a s- a streaming service and don't really know, like, what the reaction is or, you know, you can't really test anything or you have trolls who are interacting versus a curated group of fans.

Am I getting that right? Is that what the fanbase AI API is?

[00:21:12] Rob: It report, it reports on the fans' activities within the system, but it also gates access. Some people want to gate access against particular thresholds that you might meet, but other people wanna set commercial gates that, you know, you, it, it could be a paid for model where if you pay for this, you get further access and you get a, a deeper experience.

That really should be up to the artists. So we just wanted to provide the technology where if you have a dataset that is telling you who your fans are, then you should be able to use that dataset accordingly to control the fan experience.

[00:21:44] Dmitri: Yeah. Great. I'm glad we got to dig into some of those exact, uh, specific examples.

It's really helpful to start to hear, like, what are artists actually doing or what have they done? It helps, I think, other artists and management teams think through, like, "Oh, could we do that? " Let's widen out though, Rob, where do you think things should go in the music industry over the next five years?

[00:22:03] Rob: Wow, that is a big question. well, I, I think there's still a lot of work to be done. You know, I am obsessed, I'm a zealot in everything that I've just said. So, there is a lot of stuff that needs to be done. People need to be able to make a, a, a living, in the music industry.

AI is a major threat, to creativity that needs to be dealt with. it's, complex in a way that sort of baffles me and scares me. but I do think as humans, we will want a human experience. We like to come together, we love to listen to music, we love to be touched by music, enthralled by music. So I do, you know, I am gonna start and repeat again.

I think we have only just scratched the surface in what we've achieved at open stage in opening up this fan relationship. and, I, I think there's a lot of work to be done there where artists can properly understand their fan base, to really maximize the effect of this, the, the massive affection that these fans have for them.

[00:23:02] Dmitri: I'm curious, what do you think stopping artists and management teams or even platforms from, for allowing this from happening? Like, what, what's the challenge ... Why isn't everybody just jumping on it? What's, what's stopping them?

[00:23:15] Rob: Well, I d- I think there are good reasons. You know, being a music manager is one of the hardest jobs in the world, yeah?

I mean, you know, they're dealing with, artists, uh, which can be difficult. and they're trying to run a business and, they have done it in a way traditionally where they have leaned on their partners to help them with different aspects. More and more so, they have taken a lot of those responsibilities away from them and taken it upon themselves.

They manage multiple artists, they have small teams, they have small budgets. It's really, really difficult. I think where a manager is data hungry and the artist wants to have a direct relationship with the fan, then I, I think they are open to these ideas. But, you know, there are people that are hugely successful that have never done any of these things.

I would argue they could be more successful if they did do these things, but, you know, they, they quite sometimes say to me, "Well, why should we? " So we work on the basis that wh- while we create these amazing case studies, while more and more artists start using OpenStage, for instance, then other people will see what they're doing and wonder why they can't do it.

 and, hopefully that will start their journey on understanding that there is another way, there is a better way, there is a smarter way, and it will make them more money, and it will make the fans happier.

[00:24:31] Dmitri: So in a sense, the thing that's stopping them is just not knowing what's possible.

[00:24:35] Rob: Well, I think even sometimes, you know, it's very, very ... Change in life, and the older you get it is difficult. changing your ways is difficult, particularly when you are extremely successful, you know, and I, I, I do understand it. So, you know, we've got a lot of work to do at OpenStage to make it a lot more simple.

Uh, it should be, i- i- and, and we will work, you know, relentlessly to make these actions that I talk about, a lot more simple.

[00:25:02] Dmitri: Yeah. Yeah. Well, I have one last question for you. This year, 2026, I'm starting to ask people, what would it take to grow the total addressable market of music?

Because I think as the whole thing grows, artists will benefit, hopefully, although that's that's a, that's a piece of it as well. What do you think it will take to grow the music industry and benefit artists?

[00:25:24] Rob: Can you guess what I'm gonna say?

[00:25:26] Dmitri: Maybe.

[00:25:28] Rob: Okay. So I'm gonna say it. So I, y- you know, it is, it's glaringly obvious.

You need to know who your fans are.

[00:25:34] Dmitri: Mm.

[00:25:35] Rob: You need to control the fan experience. If you do that, and if you put value into your fan base, you will get more value out and that will grow the whole industry, and that will affect everyone. Not just the artists, not just the fans, it will affect everyone in the industry.

The tide will rise. So put value into your fan base, and you will get value out, but you can only do that if you know who your fans are and you control the fan experience.

[00:26:01] Dmitri: Amazing. Rob Sealy, open stage. What a blast to talk to you. I feel like I learned so much and really inspired by what you're doing with the business, but also just how you're helping us think about, um, how things should change.

This has been a blast. Thanks so much for joining the podcast.

[00:26:15] Rob: Thank you very much.

AlgoRhythms Interviews

[00:00:00] Adam: Does AI make you generally hopeful about the future of music creativity?

[00:00:04] Tamira: Hello, my name is Tamira James. I'm in the AI Music Research, uh, arena and, uh, yeah, this is my first time at the AlgoRhythms Conference. AI absolutely makes me hopeful about the future of just creativity altogether, and also just encouraging people, the everyday person who maybe never even thought about creating music to join in on the, the fun and the innovation and just the ecosystem of just pouring out music into the world.

Yes, we're gonna have a lot of folks who are just doing scribble scrabble, but to be honest, we have a lot of humans putting out scribble scrabble too. Um, but just, again, just engaging, expressing yourself creatively, you know, it lowers the barrier of entry and I'm just really excited about, you know, the future.

Of course, there are things we wanna worry about, like oversaturation and all of those things. And I think at some point it'll level itself out. but yeah, I'm just excited about the future and creativity altogether.

[00:01:06] Daniel: yeah. So my name is Daniel Roland. I am the vice president of strategy and partnerships at Landr Audio, and I'm here speaking and having fun at the conference.

It does, right? I tend to be a glass half full kind of person on that front and I think, uh, and I've, we've seen it already. It's allowing people to make new genres of music kind of break the old form factors. Yes, it's being used to regurgitate very traditional stuff and that's a lot of the focus has been on that, but really we're seeing people break new ground and make new sounds and things that I've never heard before and that I've, I use it for that as well.

So it's super exciting.

[00:01:34] Connor: My name is Connor Bitterman and I am a student at the Jacobs School of Music. It certainly makes me hopeful to an extent. I see that there are a lot of creative ways that we can go about implementing AI into our works. it definitely does concern me a little bit because of the rapid pace that AI is moving.

 but I'm certainly hopeful that, with the creative elements of music, that we can continue that legacy and tradition into the future.

[00:02:01] Adam: Emily Francis, a. K.a. Emma Perido. By day, I, uh, I do PR for music tech companies, but after hours, I am an indie pop artist, playing all around the Midwest and, uh, writing, recording, releasing original music.

 no. Not generally optimistic at all. I think I can say that I feel more optimistic about assistive AI. Like, you know, I, I don't have an issue with STEM separation, people like using tools in their own creative workflow, idea generation, like, you know, stuff like that, I'm, I'm more cool with, but like things like Suno and Udio.

Me personally, I am like much less cool with that.

[00:02:44] Alan: My name is Alan Barker and I'm the director of the Entrepreneurship and Creative Development Office in the Jacobs Cool of Music. Well, obviously that's a very mixed question. I am, on the one hand, very excited about AI and where it's going because of how it democratizes access to creativity and all the tools that are available to musicians around the world who can do things that they otherwise wouldn't have done.

I'm at the same time very concerned about, hey, how AI is being controlled by the major companies through profit incentives and motivation that, um, is getting in the way of artists and how they do their craft. Um, and so I think that we're going through a really difficult time right now, but, you know, bumpy times sometimes lead to incredible things, so we have to wait and see.

[00:03:24] Solomon: Yeah. Um, hi, my name is Solomon Bank. I am a secondary doctor of student here at Jacob Solar Music. generally hopeful, maybe not, but, um, maybe to an extent, I, I think there will keep being ways that, um, AI will advance the, how we interact with music a- as musicians. in terms of how that would shape the, the face of music between now and, you know, the future, I, I think the, there are lots of questions that need to be answered, and as of now, we have more unanswered questions than, than what AI is actually providing first.

[00:04:00] Adam: I love that. More questions than answers. And thank you very much.

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The Music Tectonics podcast goes beneath the surface of the music industry to explore how technology is changing the way business gets done. Weekly episodes include interviews with music tech movers & shakers, deep dives into seismic shifts, and more.