Why AI Could Be the Biggest Shift in Music History | Bobby Owsinski's Inner Circle Ep. 597

🎙️ Is AI the biggest disruption the music industry has ever seen?

In this episode of Bobby Owsinski's Inner Circle, Bobby welcomes Matt Adell, COO of Musical.ai, a trailblazer in bridging the gap between rightsholders and AI developers. With a career spanning Napster, Beatport, and Native Instruments, Matt offers deep insight into the seismic shift AI is bringing to music - bigger than file sharing or streaming. He explains how attribution, fair compensation, and licensing are being redefined for a new digital era.

This episode is packed with hard-earned wisdom, music tech history, and a clear-eyed look at where we’re headed next. If you want to understand what’s really going on in music and AI, this is essential listening.

Key Takeaways:

• Why AI’s impact on music is bigger than file sharing or streaming
• How Musical.ai connects rightsholders and AI companies in licensed environments
• Why artists should get paid based on how their work influences AI outputs
• The dangers of unmanaged AI training on copyrighted content
• Why creative outputs are easier to attribute than factual ones
• The oversupply of music and its economic implications for artists
• Why music's shift to streaming wasn't a loss—it was a win for consumers
• The future of fair licensing in AI-driven content creation
• Matt’s unique career path from punk rock drummer to tech executive
• His personal message about sobriety and finding balance

Best Moments:

00:00:03. “This is going to be a seismic shift in the music ecosystem. Bigger than file sharing, bigger than streaming, bigger than the invention of the accordion.”
00:00:57. “We believe AI payments should operate similarly, that the music that is creating more value should get paid more than the music that isn't used as much.”
00:02:05. “AI does not think. It is a giant calculator.”
00:04:03. “Unmanaged, it was an existential threat to copyright owners, to musicians, to composers.”
00:06:37. “Depending on what someone output, it's going to be more or less similar to each piece of training data.”
00:08:34. “Our technology works the same way no matter what. It's model and modal agnostic.”
00:12:13. “Music is usually on the cutting edge, but AI is moving fast.”
00:14:07. “We went from a couple hundred new releases a week to over 150,000 every day.”
00:18:04. “Imagine if everyone who played golf thought they deserved to get paid to play golf.

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