I'm a musician and host of The Unstarving Musician podcast. Subscribe for conversations with working musicians, creative pros and industry professionals on the craft and business of sustainable creative careers.
Protecting Your Music in the AI Era with Source Packets
|
Hello and happy Friday! When I recorded my first song with the intent to publish it, I thought of rights records as something I’d simply handle with the U.S. Copyright Office. My next song had a co-writer, which brought new rights questions. Jason Colapietro, founder of Suede Labs AI, recommends drawing up agreements as if everything has already gone wrong. Suede Labs AI builds provenance tools for creators; Jason is also a guitarist, singer, and technologist. Jason’s source packet is a per-song record of stems, versions, notes, texts, splits, and permissions that shows how a work came together. Songs get made in text threads, sessions, and DAW folders, and the record of who did what usually lives nowhere. Jason admits he’s not naturally organized, which may be part of why his system feels doable. We talk about what goes in a source packet, when to start one, how to handle splits made informally, and where the evidence runs out. Source packet principles have always mattered, and AI is a new reason they matter even more. We’re in an age of AI-generated music where label lawsuits are turning into partnerships and regulation is unclear at best. Jason explains how AI and licensing changes make documentation more important, and why sync is where organized records help most. Disclaimer: A source packet isn’t legal proof of ownership, and nothing in this conversation is legal advice. Topics covered include what goes in a source packet, organizing past work, naming files, and adding metadata so stems make sense later, where to store a packet, and who gets a copy, what timestamps can and can’t do, a takedown story that cost one artist part of his own track, why sync licensors care about organized records, when a packet isn’t enough, and much more. I’ll likely go deeper on these issues in an upcoming issue of Liner Notes, the email newsletter that goes deeper than any one podcast episode can. It’s free, and you can unsubscribe at any time. Learn more at unstarvingmusician.com/linernotes. 🎧 Where to listen (plus show notes and related links) Support the Unstarving MusicianIf you find value in this podcast, please consider a donation via our online tip jar – click, tip, done. Or visit UnstarvingMusician.com/CrowdSponsor to learn about the many other ways of showing your support. Your support = love 💟 Peace, love and more cowbell, Share this email and/or read it on the web Stay in touch! Feedback, comments, complaints? Reply to this email. I'd love to hear from you. 📭 Where to Listen to The Unstarving MusicianClick here to listen on Apple Podcasts Click here to listen on Overcast Click here to listen on Spotify Click here to listen on YouTube Click here to listen on Pandora |
The Unstarving Musician
I'm a musician and host of The Unstarving Musician podcast. Subscribe for conversations with working musicians, creative pros and industry professionals on the craft and business of sustainable creative careers.
Happy Tuesday! Noam Bargil exemplifies the musician-entrepreneur type I love to talk about on the podcast. Imagine you're a really good trumpet player, newly settled in Amsterdam, and you're on a waiting list for a jazz gig that pays seventy-five euros 5 sets. That’s more or less where Noam Bargil started. Noam Bargil, bandleader and founder of Lupa Entertainment. At one such gig, Noam got a request from a corporate client for his jazz ensemble. It was his first corporate gig, and he...
Happy Friday! This rewind episode features my conversation with Indian classical and crossover vocalist Roopa Mahadevan. We recorded it in February 2021, and it first dropped the following July. It’s the most-downloaded episode of the Unstarving Musician podcast. Roopa’s fan base probably helped, but it was also a great conversation. Vocalist Roopa Mahadeven, revisiting our Feb 2021 conversation When we spoke, Roopa had temporarily moved from New York City to San Jose, where she grew up. Her...
Hey there, In 2017, I published a blog post asking, "Is indie radio still relevant?" It was a terrible post. I was preparing to interview D. Grant Smith, who ran the indie radio show Appetizer Radio and wrote “The DIY Musician’s Radio Handbook." Not much was being written about the indie radio's relevance, or lack thereof, at that time. I basically just asked the question and moved on. That was almost ten years ago. The music industry has been turned upside down several times since then....