Canadian musicians facing multi-front squeeze from AI, streaming and venue closures | Folio

New research shows Canadian musicians are feeling increasingly hostile toward the tech industry and advances like generative AI, which they say are devaluing art and making it more difficult to gain listeners and earn money from making music.

The University of Alberta study surveyed 263 working Canadian musicians and asked about their experiences navigating the industry. It found they are feeling squeezed from reduced opportunities both in the physical and virtual worlds, especially as the power to distribute music has fallen to a small number of companies, says Dr. Brian Fauteux, a U of A professor of popular music and media studies.

One significant industry change is the introduction of AI tools like Suno, which generate complete songs at the click of a button. Out of 142 respondents who addressed generative AI, 87 per cent viewed the technology negatively.

"There's an aversion to it. Some see it as not falling into their definition of art," Fauteux says. "A number of respondents pointed to environmental concerns and ongoing issues with land and water, and problems with the music industry taking those concerns seriously."

Others said that they were "personally and professionally" offended by the existence of generative AI tools for artistic practices, noting that it's part of an ongoing problem of thefts of copyrighted works.

Some artists were concerned that AI could affect profits. Generative AI has allowed non-musicians to flood streaming platforms and other music sharing sites with artificial songs, potentially drowning out authentic artists, Fauteux says.

Though Fauteux thinks the tools are mainly being used by non-musicians who are simply playing around - generating funny songs for social media, for example - he does expect that AI has already cut into the livelihoods of some musicians, especially those who write background music and jingles for advertisements.

The resentment of AI is likely a signal of a larger issue, he says.

"Musicians felt the shift to streaming about 10 years ago, and haven't recovered or seen the benefits," he says. "You throw in the disruption to the live music industry with COVID, and now you have this other variable, AI, that is coming from the big tech world, from people who don't seem interested in music as an art or a craft.

"It's not like this fell from the sky and people are mad about it. I think these problems go back to the years of record labels and exploitation, where you have many stories of musicians not being paid properly or having their rights stolen."

The researchers also asked musicians about their feelings toward social media and the music streaming platform Spotify. Most described a forced, ambivalent relationship - a distrust of these platforms, but also a feeling that they are a necessity in the current landscape.

While some respondents had gained listeners by featuring on a popular Spotify playlist, others viewed the service as a barrier to being discovered. Musicians also took issue with the fact that Spotify pays little, that the music industry relies too heavily on Spotify metrics for evaluating artists, and that the platform serves music to listeners using an inscrutable algorithm that replaces sharing music with friends with cold, hard numbers.

"A theme through a lot of this research is people feeling forced into using the one big service for streaming, or the one big company that books tours, and feeling frustrated by that limited choice," Fauteux says.

This narrowing of options has also been experienced by musicians looking for physical venues to play their songs, according to the survey.

The past decade has seen many venues across the country shut down, forcing musicians to compete for a shrinking number of spaces to play.

"When thinking about what's missing in their regions, a lot of people pointed to the fact that there aren't many small or mid-sized venues," Fauteux says. "A lot of these venues are getting booked further and further in advance. So to do things like planning a tour, it's much more difficult."

It means that the venues that do still exist are less willing to take risks on newer artists, he says.

More than ever, the industry is "feeling more like a monopoly," he says. "Musicians are feeling a loss of control."