Protecting creative work
While artists and other creators are at risk of being replaced by backpropagation and eventually by AI when it is discovered, there is an existing threat to creative work, courtesy of the three major record labels. For years, they have stifled artists under anticompetitive, exclusive contracts. Today, I filed a complaint against the labels with the FTC.
Under their contracts, artists are unable to release their music if labels refuse to distribute it for whatever reason. As a result of these practices, there is music that has never been heard, and there are careers that have been ended. Now that artists no longer need recording studios, labels provide little value aside from access to markets on which they have a dubiously legal hold.
As we head into a new future, we must ensure that creative work is protected. At a minimum, creators must be free to release their work, which should also take precedence over machine-produced work. The labels have gone unchecked for too long, and by all appearances, their sole purpose is to siphon value by sitting between creators and consumers while providing none themselves.
You can read my complaint here.
