NPR profiles Kevin McLeod (previously at Boing Boing), the astonishingly prolific musician whose work ranges across all genres while achieving algorithm-tested levels of quality, consistency and engagement. This is the exact human the AI companies are boiling lakes and burning billions of dollars trying and failing to replace.
MacLeod's compositions are what's known as "library music," stockpiles of songs that content creators draw upon to score their works. These are the sort of melodies that you would never queue up on Spotify but end up in the background of all sorts of things: video games, films, and countless short videos.
"Usually, I'll be like watching a YouTube video and the music sucks," says MacLeod. "And I'm like, well, let me try to do something better."
And once he tries his hand at something better, he releases it for free.
The Creative Commons freed him to work they way he liked, and led him to a seven-figure income.
In the early days of his career, MacLeod would craft his own licenses — not to protect his rights, but to give them away. MacLeod says his approach was to "find a license, and then do everything the opposite," adding clauses like "you have the right to use this for your personal things. You have the right to use this commercially. You can sell this thing in another product if you want to."
Then Creative Commons came along, standardizing royalty-free rights. While some composers and industry people argue that such sharing undermines composers' ability to make a living, MacLeod says he just wants his work out in the world
Monkeys Spinning Monkeys probably makes more money on a day to day basis than the back catalog of The Eagles. Which is fine because I hate the fuck*n' Eagles, man. The NPR article takes a deep dive into MSM's distinctive yet uncannily familiar sound and semiology.
Here's a solid tour of the hits.
