The End Is N(AI) – Can AI Help Run Your Label?

Artificial intelligence. The term has been thrown around for decades, but it’s only in recent years that the idea of artificial intelligence has really started to hold some weight in the world we live in. To many, the idea of AI is still so heavily linked to the science fiction that surrounds it that hearing of the recent advancements in the technology can feel like the end is coming, but we’re here to tell you not to worry (we’re still a few years off skynet or replicants, we promise) and how you can utilise these new and exciting tools to help your independent label excel in the ever changing world of music business.

Music recommendation –

AI can analyse streaming data and user behaviour to recommend new music to listeners, helping to increase the reach and visibility of the artists you represent. The most notable example of this is Spoitfy’s newly announced Discovery Mode. This controversial new feature has garnered a huge amount of criticism from all corners of the music, business and political world, with members of congress even feeling the need to raise their concerns. 

However, despite this criticism, in the most part the launch of the feature can only be seen as a success for labels and artists alike. It presents the most powerful tool to fight against major labels’ giant resource pool the music industry has perhaps ever seen. The playing field has never been more balanced between indies and majors and Discovery Mode is a big reason why. Initial artists’ results have generally shown that, though a 30% hit on royalties is a hard pill to swallow, many artists have seen a growth in streams that out-ways this percentage hit, making the move more than worth it in the short and long term.

Without AI a tool like this would never be possible, the major market share would still be held by the labels with the most capital to spend on giant marketing campaigns, and independent labels will be left hoping for one or two big miracle moments for their tracks to blow up. But that notion is no more, and it’s all thanks to AIs new music recommendation tools. Not to mention the uncanny benefits to every music consumer, who get eerily accurate music recommended to them. You might not know what you want to listen to next, but you can bet that Spotify does. 

Audience targeting –

Now this is where you as an Independent label can really start to apply these new advancements in AI technologies. First off, it’s a must for any independent label to be utilising AI in data analysis as it can break down data on audience demographics, behaviour, and interests to identify patterns and insights that can inform marketing strategies. These technologies can, for example, help identify the age, gender, and geographic location of the label’s target audience, as well as their preferred genres, artists, and streaming platforms. With this kind of information you now essentially have a complete playbook of who each of your artists should be targeting their content at. 

This unprecedented access to consumer information, and the streamline way it can all be processed and presented to you has made creating and reaching audiences easier than ever before! It is rather disconcerting as a consumer just how accurate labels can get to what listening habits you currently have and will have moving forward, but it is an inescapable reality that you as an independent record label can make the most of to help find your artists their right audience.

An interesting tool that has appeared in this realm recently is Every Noise At Once – notable for the sheer amount of information it presents to you, down to what music is hot right now at specific college campuses around the world. From hyper specific micro genres to geographically precise listening habits, you’ll be able to get an idea of what’s hot and what’s not around the world TODAY. There are other sites that offer similar capabilities, but for my money, none quite like this. It really is worth checking it out yourself and having a mess around with it, even if it is just to show off to your friends that you know the hottest new artists in the Norwegian contemporary jazz scene.

It almost goes without saying, but with these tools, optimisation of content has never been easier for content creators. If you’re unsure on how a certain marketing campaign will perform in public, or how a newsletter will be received by your industry contacts, don’t be afraid to run them and see! With how cheap it is to put together newsletters, online ad campaigns and promotional content it makes the most sense for you to give many different approaches a try until you find one that is showing you great results. You’ve already made sure your artist’s music is reaching the best audience it can, but making the most of the modern ease of optimisation will allow you to make sure that all of your marketing content is doing the same. Streamline all your processes and optimise with AI.

A&R scouting –

But what if you haven’t got the artists in the first place? Well it just so happens AI can help you in this regard as well. These new technologies can help you analyse music data of artists you have yet to sign to help you identify talent before they have found massive success. Sights such as Spotify For Artists and ChartMetric offer great insight into artists growth across all streaming sites and on social media platforms. Perhaps an artist you’re interested in hasnt even released music on any official channel but you’ve been seeing them a lot on your TikTok feed, sites like these can paint you a picture of how engaged their audience is before you make an informed decision on whether to sign them. 

It also goes without saying that a site such as Every Noise At Once, which can help you in the realms of audience targeting, can also help find artists. Not only can you utilise their information with your artists to track trends across the world and figure where it would be best to push their music, as a scouting tool this offers up some really exciting opportunities, no matter which genre or where you are looking to sign an act, you will get a picture of what’s popular where with this tool.

These tools don’t just help you identify which artists you should be approaching, you can also get the best idea as to what these artists may be worth before you make your offer to them. Now more than ever, if there’s an artist out there that’s shaping up to be the next big thing, you have the ability to spot it coming.

Music production –

If your artists aren’t quite managing to put together the best quality music they can, we’d bet that using AI to help assist your music production process would be your first port of call… But why not? There are plenty of tools out there that can help your artists get the most out of their music without you having to break the bank on a top producer.

This doesn’t mean you’ll never need to bring in a producer for your artists, there are still areas that can’t quite be beat by an expert human touch (yet…) but taking advantage of these tools will give your artists money saving options moving forward. Even if they use them and end up seeking professional help, at least the tools helped evolve their music in a meaningful way. Just having some of these tools at your disposal as a label will be an impressive asset to float to any potential artist you may be reaching out to. Not only can it save you money moving forward it will also be an exciting tool to help lure artists your way!

Copyright infringement detection –

Copyright infringement detection and protection would be an almost impossible task on a large scale without AI. Lucky for you and your artists there are tools to clamp down on illegal content usage. Spotify and YouTube are among many major digital service providers that have some sort of in-built AI engine that allows for quick and easy protection against music copyright infringement. These tools mean that you don’t have to be a huge artist to be guaranteed that your music won’t be copied and reuploaded on the same platforms. Though these come with varying degrees of success, with YouTubes standards still generally falling behind because of the inclusion of video content on the site. 

Ultimately though, many of these tools won’t be at the forefront of your, or your artists minds. When they work at their best, these tools become background elements that are easily forgotten but ensure that your artists are getting the most out of the music they create.

Royalty management –

AI tools have made your life of constantly inputting data and managing royalties so much easier. It is perhaps the most useful point, despite being the most boring. Managing how much an artists get paid and when they receive their money is unquestionably the most important, yet least glamorous, part of a record label’s day-to-day operations. It serves as the lifeblood of any label. Anything that can ease the load of constantly inputting data into spreadsheet after spreadsheet sounds like a good thing to us, wouldn’t you agree? There’s a plethora of royalty management tools available to you so be sure to have a shop around and find the one(s) that best suit your label’s situation. 

Being assured that all your information is in order, whilst also having it laid out in a presentable way quickly, makes sure that you have no supring payments around the corner, and that you and your artists are getting fairly compensated for your work. Though royalty management tools won’t be the first thing that comes to your mind when you’re thinking of the possibilities AI brings to the running of your music label, it is something that will make your life unquestionably easier. Anything that gives you more time to focus on your artists and their music, the better.

Marketing content –

Perhaps the most obvious thanks to the meteoric rise of tools such as Chat GPT, the potential AI has for streamlining the creation of marketing content is extraordinary. Whether it’s generating a paragraph of an artist’s bio, or creating a full newsletter thousands of words long, the tools now available to everyone have cut marketing content creation time down to a fraction, with manpower also shrinking in a really meaningful way. Just make sure to be as specific as you can when inputting commands to these sites, the more you give this technology, the better results it will create for you! 

But AI technology doesn’t just stop at copy, with imaging tools now offering up new ways to think about how to create branding imagery. This technology is admittedly a bit behind the text base technologies, a lot of the time creating more inconsistent content, but the possibilities that the existence of these technologies has is staggering. It’s not unreasonable to assume that soon there will be little to no need for artwork budgets with unthinkable examples of dozens of different images pertaining to the same subject generated in seconds.

When all is said and done,  it’s pretty undeniable that AI, at least for now, offers near countless tools to make your life as an independent record label easier, especially when operating against the majors whilst having a small fraction of the capital they have. Moving forward I can only see the playing field level even more (until a self-aware-2001 situation happens… But until then I say go out and get your fill. Make the most of what’s out there!)