TJ Walker warns that AI-generated singers are rapidly dominating music charts and streaming uploads, citing examples (Solomon Ray, Breaking Rust, Kane Walker) and industry reports that roughly one-third of new uploads are AI-made. He argues this trend threatens professional musicians, notes major labels are licensing AI platforms, and shares his own approach of learning and using AI tools to stay relevant.
Questions this video answers
Solomon Ray
Breaking Rust — 'Walk My Walk'
Zany Monet
Kane Walker
Roughly one third
Chapters
AI singers are quietly taking over the charts. This is a real head scratcher. When I first started noticing this just a few weeks ago. And the problem, at least if you're a professional musician, is getting worse. Solomon Ray just became the top Christian artist on itunes and he doesn't exist. Every note, lyric and photo is generated by artificial intelligence. He's not alone. Billboard now list AI R&B act Zany Monet on its airplay charts. An AI country singer called Breaking Rust hit number one on the country digital song sales chart with Walk My Walk while another synthetic act, Kane Walker holds no relation to me obviously because it's not real. Holds multiple spots on the same top 10. Industry reporting shows at least three fully AI songs topping major Billboard or Spotify charts this year. Across country, Christian and R and B streaming platforms say roughly a third of all new uploads are now AI made. So no, this is not a quirky sideshow. It is the business model. Major labels are already cutting licensing deals with AI platforms. Human musicians are being quietly turned from product into a cost center. Okay, so what's the real message here? If you are a professional musician, a singer, a songwriter, a guitar player, it is now officially time to hit the panic button. The top charts are now seeing domination by so called AI singers and musicians where no actual professional musician was needed or used in the creation of a top 10 hit hit. It's only a matter of time before AI completely floods the streaming musical market. And at that point what's going to be left other than people continuing to go to oldies but goodies like the Rolling Stones concerts. Good luck if you're a new young aspiring musician. Let's dig a little bit deeper here. Now some are saying if AI can fake gospel, it can fake anything. It's doing well in the gospel market, country music chart, all sorts of music genre. It can create any type of genre. Now the real problem I think is not to someone like a Taylor Swift. She's so entrenched, she's so popular, she has such a fan base, she will be able to perform live anytime she wants and fill up stadiums in the way an AI can't. Now is it possible that at some point there is an AI singer that is attracting such huge audiences? People love the music that that actual live concerts take place and it's a hologram of Nai. It's possible. I don't think you can rule out anything at this point. I remember the first concert I took my daughter to when she was about five years old was a so called kids pop concert where it was really just a bunch of dancers and I think it was, you know, lip sync stuff and dancing. It kind of was a simulation too, even though there were real people up there. So as I mentioned to you, here are the facts. Solomon Ray tops the itunes Christian charts this week and that's a pretty big deal. Breaking rust AI country tracks hit number one. Kane Walker has multiple top spots on country charts and supposedly one third of new music uploads are AI made. Now, if it can go from nothing to one third, how long do you really think it's going to take? Because before record labels or for that matter, smart 14 year olds in their bedroom start mass producing hundreds if not thousands of high quality music songs and uploading them, I mean, we could get to the point where Only less than 1% of songs uploaded to streaming services are made by human beings. And then even if they're really good, they can get lost in the shuffle unless they, they have a famous brand behind them like a Taylor Swift. And at that point, I don't know what happens if you are an asyr, an aspiring musician with a great voice because AI can simply create great voices out of nothing. Now, Geoffrey Hinton, one of the founding fathers of the AI movement, is in the news this week again predicting that we are going to see massive, massive job loss, perhaps tens of millions of people losing their jobs within the next few years. It's no longer 30 years out, 40 years out. And it's no longer just uber drivers, it's singers. It could be you, it could be me. What's the rational way of preparing for that? I think the only thing you can do, the only thing I try to do is to learn how to use technology so we can get one step ahead, so we can have added value. Now, those of you who are regulars to this show have seen my own advertisements for my own AI. Now, my AI does not sing, as far as I know. And my AI clone is a video format, it's in an audio format. It uses my own voice. But it, I created it so that when I'm sleeping, my own students. And you can ask it for public speaking tips, communication skills tips, personal development tips, life coaching. I can be asleep at 3am and you can ask my digital clone, my AI clone, to coach you. By the way, you can also ask it to give you a summary of what I talked about on yesterday's show. So there's a lot of uses. Is that ever going to make me money? Well, right now it's costing me money, but I'M trying to be prepared for an AI future where increasingly it's going to be harder for human beings. You, me, no matter how hard working we are or talented we may think we are, it's going to be harder for us to compete with artificial intelligence. Beyond that and saving money and investing in a diversified way, I don't know what else can be do can be done, but that's what I'm trying.
