Sorry this one came late! We are working hard to meet the weekly schedule and this week was a bit of a slog!
This week we are thrilled to bring a conversation with Amy C. Beal from UC Santa Cruz, whose book "New Music New Allies: Experimental Music in West Germany from the Zero Hour to Reunification" not only gives us insight into the role that German state funding has played in American experimental art since the Second World War, but also offers clues as to the unique responsibi...
2020-08-19 21:38:49 +0000 UTC
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It’s a hot one! This afternoon recorded a discussion with Mixcloud CEO and DJ Nico Perez, and our studio was so hot that we had to keep all the windows open for our own health and also to keep the laptop from spontaneously combusting! As a result this recording is resplendent with the occasional child screaming or dog barking, but hopefully that adds to the experience :)
Nico joined us to discuss Mixcloud's select feature for directly supporting artists, how their bold mo...
2020-08-11 22:05:28 +0000 UTC
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This week we welcome Jesse Walden, who recently announced the launch of Variant Fund, which looks to support what he describes as “The Ownership Economy”. We discuss Jesse’s background as an artist manager, his early experiments with putting tools into artists hands to control the destiny of their work online, the opportunities that decentralised networks offer to help us transition from the centralised platform economy in music and culture more broadly, and how distributing ownership t...
2020-08-04 21:25:38 +0000 UTC
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For the second part of our conversation series with contemporary fiction writers we are over the moon to have a chat with Elvia Wilk, who released her debut novel “Oval” last year to great acclaim.
Oval is a beautiful book that depicts a world at vastly different scales, not least addressing the contemporary role of the artist as embedded in wider economic systems. We discuss how art communities in the shifting economic landscape of Berlin inspired some of the books themes, the incr...
2020-07-28 19:48:37 +0000 UTC
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For this episode we welcome academic and DJ Larisa Kingston Mann from Temple University in Philadelphia, whose work analyzes the relationship between law, technology, sovereignty and creativity, especially focusing on the ways changing media technologies affect communities’ ability to flourish
Her PhD thesis “Rude Citizenship”, soon to be turned into a book, looks at the ways in which Jamaican popular music practices challenge the colonial underpinnings of copyright law and of sov...
2020-07-22 00:40:47 +0000 UTC
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Since the idea of this podcast first came to mind, we had imagined starting a thread of conversations with fiction authors and artists that in many ways touch on some of issues that we might be exploring in other conversations.
Today we are thrilled to kick off this direction with a conversation with Tim Maughan, the author of Infinite Detail, winner of The Guardians best science fiction and fantasy book of 2019, and a gripping and prescient work that explores the simple qu...
2020-07-14 16:52:44 +0000 UTC
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This week we talk to Director at PRS for music and Gomez songwriter Tom Gray, who, through the #brokenrecord hashtag and other advocacy work has been championing the need for reform the way that streaming services work, and reform copyright policy to better protect songwriters and producers.
We discuss the case for user centric streaming over the current pro-rata payment model, what is was like to witness the transition from sales to streaming as a successful touring band, and how, at a...
2020-07-07 14:56:41 +0000 UTC
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In this episode we welcome David Turner, writer and founder of the Penny Fractions newsletter, which holds a critical and often political lens to the latest developments in the music industry.
In this episode we discuss the music industry response to Black Lives Matter, positive infrastructural proposals that could lead to long lasting and meaningful diversification, the meme music economy, lessons from ad hoc protest gatherings and sitting on a small plane with Radiohead and Silento.
2020-06-30 17:34:12 +0000 UTC
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In this episode we speak with Kate Crawford, founder of the AI Now Institute and professor who has spent the last decade studying the political implications of data systems, machine learning and artificial intelligence.
We discuss the anatomy of AI systems and full ecosystem of human and material resources behind an Amazon echo, the need to develop an understanding of the exponential accumulation of power under platform capitalism, the use of AI systems in...
2020-06-23 19:28:10 +0000 UTC
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In this episode we speak to Glen Weyl, author, economist and Principal Research at Microsoft Research. His ideas inspired the formation of the Radical X Change Foundation, who are holding a conference this weekend from June 19-21 I would recommend you check out.
If you are interested in following the conference, in which we are speaking alongside Audrey Tang, Digital Minister or Taiwan, Vitalik Buterin of Ethereum and others, head over to 2020-06-17 18:32:04 +0000 UTC
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In this latest episode we talk with Professor Guy Standing, who has been at the forefront of Basic Income research for 30 years, running pilots all over the world.
We discuss his original concept of “The Precariat”, a new class that might be familiar to many listeners, the moral case for a basic income and its fans in US politics and Silicon Valley, and his vision of a future of a new left built upon enlightenment principles.
Links!
Guy Stand...
2020-06-09 22:42:16 +0000 UTC
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In this episode we speak with the writer Liz Pelly, who over the past 5 years has written a series of revelatory critical pieces about the streaming economy for The Baffler.
We discuss whether the distinction of Independence is all that useful in music at this point in history, take a look at the ways in which the streaming platforms flatter some kinds of music and have flattered to deceive for others, and question what the recent Spotify exclusivity deal with Joe Rogan might mean for m...
2020-06-03 23:28:45 +0000 UTC
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In this episode we speak with the writer Liz Pelly, who over the past 5 years has written a series of revelatory critical pieces about the streaming economy for The Baffler.
We discuss whether the distinction of Independence is all that useful in music at this point in history, take a look at the ways in which the streaming platforms flatter some kinds of music and have flattered to deceive for others, and question what the recent Spotify exclusivity deal with Joe Rogan might mean for m...
2020-06-03 23:20:22 +0000 UTC
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Hello everyone,
we are disgusted at the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police last week, and stand with those who have taken to the streets to both process this latest traumatic event and demand swift accountability and unequivocal systemic change.
Representatives of the music industry are proposing a blackout tomorrow. We do have to agree that it feels really inappropriate to be promoting anything other than concern for those on the ground right now.
As a resul...
2020-06-01 15:53:14 +0000 UTC
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In this episode we talk with Jesse Engel, musician, Senior Research Scientist at Google Brain and creative lead of the Magenta project.
Magenta is an open source research project exploring the role of machine learning as a tool in the creative process, developed by numerous researchers and engineers from the Google brain team, Google’s self directed machine intelligence group.
Amongst many things we discuss the role and research focus of Magenta, look at how research...
2020-05-26 19:51:40 +0000 UTC
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In this episode we talk with Jesse Engel, musician, Senior Research Scientist at Google Brain and creative lead of the Magenta project.
Magenta is an open source research project exploring the role of machine learning as a tool in the creative process, developed by numerous researchers and engineers from the Google brain team, Google’s self directed machine intelligence group.
Amongst many things we discuss the role and research focus of Magenta, look at how research...
2020-05-26 19:47:59 +0000 UTC
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In this episode we catch up with Trevor McFedries, founder of the meta media studio Brud (brud.fyi), whose digital avatar artist and influencer Lil Miquela recently caused a stir through signing with one of the worlds premier talent agencies, CAA.
We discuss the origins of the project, why he sees Miquela as more of a challenge to Mickey Mouse than human artists, and also some pretty bold ideas for how avatar led projects might he...
2020-05-19 19:28:11 +0000 UTC
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In this episode we catch up with Trevor McFedries, founder of the meta media studio Brud (brud.fyi), whose digital avatar artist and influencer Lil Miquela recently caused a stir through signing with one of the worlds premier talent agencies, CAA.
We discuss the origins of the project, why he sees Miquela as more of a challenge to Mickey Mouse than human artists, and also some pretty bold ideas for how avatar led projects might help us reorganise the music industry to be mo...
2020-05-19 18:34:45 +0000 UTC
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The new episode is a really good one related to some news that flared up in the past week.
Once again cannot thank you enough for supporting. It is mind blowing to us how even though only a microscopic % of our audience is supporting us here, it is slowly resulting in a legitimate support system for this project. It also has the dual benefit of identifying a group of people who are interested in the kinds of things we are interested in, which is a very rewarding and hopefully...
2020-05-18 21:44:47 +0000 UTC
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We are joined by research scientist and Director of Spotify's CTRL lab François Pachet and his collaborator, the composer Benoit Carré to discuss how the latest in AI research offers a new paradigm for both composition and the concept of authorship and ownership.
This will be one of many times we pursue conversations with researchers at the cutting edge of Artificial Intelligence and music, not only because it offers a glimpse into the future of music, but also the greater econo...
2020-05-12 15:59:09 +0000 UTC
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Evgeny Morozov joins to discuss COVID solutionism, left imagination and organizing the world's information with The Syllabus.
Episode Notes
If you are interested in reading Evgeny's new piece in the Guardian, visit:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/apr/15/tech-coronavirus-surveilance-state-digita...
2020-05-04 14:34:09 +0000 UTC
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