Last Monday I was invited to speak at the CUDAN OpenLab of Maximilian Schich at Tallinn University. As part of the engaging conversation we spoke about the role of data for artists in music and beyond. You can watch and read that part of the conversation below.

In this blog post I want to focus on some thoughts surrounding rise of generative Artificial Intelligence (genAI) and the implications it brings for artists and the creative industries.

1. "Search" will be handled by conversational AI
2. Spotify, Apple Music and others will also integrate AI in their User Experience
3. SEO will turn into VAO (Vector Algorithm Optimization). In other words: How well does your content connect to other areas of the Artificial Neural Network
4. Data from artworks and artist catalogues will become a valuable asset, nearly as valuable as the artworks themselves
5. Revenue of artists will include licensing fees for data usage for genAI. This portion will grow

Here is a transcript of what I said:

My conviction is that if you are an artist today, you'll probably want to think about how to present your artworks in a data form. Turn your work into an archive as you live, not the generation after you. Like we are the archivists of Herbert von Karajan, the next Herbert von Karajan will be his or her own archivist. Think about how to represent your work in a data form the moment you create it. Why? Because much of the monetization through AI and other systems will depend on you doing a good job on that.