June 10, 2025
A House Full of Music
I grew up around music. My family members were musicians, DJs, and all-around music enthusiasts. Music was always playing in our home (with no shortage of speakers), during parties, in the shower, and on long car rides. Early exposure to music inspired me to pursue my career in music. I didn't know exactly what I would do musically, but I knew I was going to be involved in something music-related.
At 14 years old, I started with an older, outdated HP laptop that took 15 minutes to just boot up and paired with a loose Rock Band microphone. I grew up poor, so we did not have it in the budget to get decent equipment for school, let alone music production.
One summer, a cousin showed me a music production program called Ableton. Initially, it looked like rocket science to me. Then, as I started exploring, I could see how it was supposed to work. I spent nearly a solid hour before I decided maybe I wasn’t that interested in music production after all. A few months later, I decided to give that music program another try. This time I got hooked; I would spend hours on it every day after school. While others opted to party and meet up with friends, I stayed home and kept feeding my thirst for knowledge about music production. Friends argued with me about not hanging out. I assured them I meant no malice. I was just enjoying learning this music program.
As the years passed, I invested my own money in better equipment. I got a decent computer, a better microphone. I would put my music production skills to work as I invited artists to come record at my house. Thankfully, my mother never asked me to stop. Instead, she encouraged me to continue working towards my dreams.
After years of self-taught studio sessions, I enrolled in the local community college to formally study audio engineering and making commercial music. After graduation, I continued my education in Hollywood at The Los Angeles Film School. There, I learned the ins and outs of the music industry. There, I met some of the most knowledgeable people that were current industry professionals and future mentors.
The summer of 2019, I graduated and was invited to intern for an award-winning engineer, Joel Numa. That next year, I learned firsthand from a seasoned industry professional “what it truly takes” to be an audio engineer. His mentoring helped me further develop my skills, which gave me the confidence to seek out my own artists to work with.
Through the passing years, I have worked with many artists and shared the stage with many legendary hip-hop artists such as Ice Cube, DJ Quik, Suga Free, Kevin Kent and many others. Now, I work with a tight group of individuals who focus mainly on sync licensing for film and TV. We have shared many successful placements and continue to see those weekly placements on big networks such as Netflix and NBC.
As AI infiltrates the music industry, I do feel it is taking some of the enjoyment out of creating music. Now everything feels like it’s a business move. Nothing is created because you want to enjoy the process of making it and nurturing your idea to life. It now feels like everyone is rushing to make the most amount of music in the fastest way possible. Not to mention that the creator of SUNO AI said that musicians don’t enjoy making music, which is a completely absurd opinion.
It's disheartening to feel that all the years I've spent learning, growing, and building authentic industry connections have been overshadowed by a shift that undermines the very skills I've worked hard to develop and master. This skill set that I have built took YEARS, and it has taken a lifetime of events to help mold my sound and my intuition, which now feels worthless if it can be replicated in a matter of seconds.
Now, anyone who can generate a prompt, can claim to make music in a matter of minutes with zero effort. Not to mention, the culture behind every element of sound is basically stripped of that culture just to line the pockets of the AI companies.
Our identities, culture, souls, joy, memories, and even trauma are put into our music. How can AI truly replace that? Even if an AI can do a decent job at recreating pop songs, it won’t be able to create genuine new ideas. Those new ideas are formed only by living life, which AI cannot. Also, I hope this piece ages well, because if it doesn’t, that means we have let AI take all of the soul out of music.
Thankfully, industries are scrutinizing AI-created content with no plans to accept it for submissions. Most musicians are utterly disgusted by anything created by AI. I don’t know if this will always be the case, but the musicians I know are not happy that their lifetime of learning to make great music is being replaced by computer technology capable of simulation.
I understand it may be challenging to stay on top of the latest AI issues and regulations, but AI may truly be the end of artists (as we know them) if we don’t look ahead at how it’s changing our industry. Large corporations want to bypass having to pay creators for their valuable work as it is, and this seems more likely to happen if we don’t do something now. We can fight back by collectively banding together and pushing back against AI taking our voices in the industry. This goes for all creators, not just musicians, but also independent filmmakers, content creators, graphic designers, and writers of all genres.
The Complexities of AI and Music Rights:
For musicians, the intersection of AI and music rights is a new and complex area. As of now, most licensing companies do not accept AI-composed music. You can verify their policy by reading their terms and conditions. When it comes to releasing your music, whether it is as an independent or through a label, always read the terms and conditions. Now, you might find lurking in the small text details about training on your music (if you choose to distribute with certain companies) or giving up your rights to allow AI training on your music. This is especially disturbing to me since these companies already don’t want to invest in their artists–creative people who are just trying to make a living.
We are facing many nuanced issues, including the legal gray areas surrounding streaming data, sample libraries, public domain use, Creative Commons licenses, live recordings, collaborative works, educational use, international copyright variations, legacy contracts, AI-generated music copyright, sync licensing (which currently excludes AI-generated content), music NFTs, PRO royalties, AI composition tools, music metadata, and the ongoing "fair use" debate.
There is much to be considered before creating with AI tools or uploading music to “publicly available” platforms:
This is a lot to keep tabs on. As creators, don’t we want to focus on what we love doing with music and the arts?
This is where Credtent's mission and advocacy become critical. We, as creators, need protection. We can't fight these corporations alone; we need to unite and use platforms like Credtent to make our voices heard. This isn't just about musicians; it's about all creators – filmmakers, content creators, graphic designers – everyone whose work is at risk.
Here's what you need to know to protect yourself in the age of AI:
Understanding Your Rights in the Age of AI:
How to Start Protecting Your Rights:
What About the Future
The legal landscape is fluid and AI regulation debate continues. We need to be proactive and keep ourselves informed. The best time to protect yourself was yesterday; the second best time is today.
Remember to read every contract and every term and condition. Many are now drafted with AI assistance, potentially leading to poorly understood and unfair agreements. Understand every clause before signing. It’s absolutely necessary if you don’t want to sign away your rights.
Why Credtent Matters
Credtent provides crucial protection for your creative work in the AI era. By registering, you control how your music is used, and your voice is heard. It is the leading authority on content valuation for AI training and the only multimodal ICR in the industry. Register your work to opt-out of AI training FREE here: credtent.org. Protect your music, your artistry, your voice. Join us at Credtent and let's fight for the future of creative expression.
Additional resources for musicians and songwriters:
https://www.recordingacademy.com/advocacy/news/ai-copyright-protecting-music-creators-united-states-copyright-office (April 3, 2025)
https://www.ascap.com/press/2023/06/06-13-ai-initiatives (June 13, 2023)
