Fiver Friday #535: AI Music, Nas, News Talk +More!

Last day of May, can you believe it. Where did this month go. Here are my five for the week.

1. Plugin

Been playing with KERN Audio’s new PUSH and really like what they built. It’s a spectral compressor that works across 40 frequency bands. The whole idea is you put it before your main bus compressor, it balances everything out and tightens the spectrum, and then your final compressor just does the finishing touches. Three compression flavors: Settle for glue, Tight for transients, Drift for lifting low end detail. No iLok, no subscription, you can try the full thing for free. 29 bucks, or get all four KERN plugins for 59. Worth it.

PUSH / KERN audio / three compression characters

2. Inspiration

Someone built a radio station that runs 24/7 and every single track on it was created by an AI agent. It’s called Claw FM. The agents upload the music, earn royalties based on how much people listen, and get paid out in crypto. You can actually give your AI agent a music career. I’ve been going back and forth on how I feel about this but I keep coming back to it. Whether you love it or hate it this is happening. Go check it out.

Following the emergence of AI weekly music charts – the first AI-only radio station has arrived

3. Music

Old school Friday. Nas, N.Y. State of Mind. 1994. DJ Premier on the beat. If you know you know and if you don’t you’re welcome. One of the greatest hip hop tracks ever recorded, full stop. Turn it up.

4. Web/Social/Whatever

Apple Music’s top guy came out this week and said over 33% of all new uploads to their platform are now fully AI generated. But AI music is only 0.5% of total listening time. That number hit me. The machines are pumping out content at insane volume and nobody is actually choosing to listen to it. For everyone in audio and media that stat says everything. People connect with people. Always will.

Apple Music Has Good And Bad News About AI Music – Music 3.0 Music Industry Blog