#also the musician i mention is christofer of course

[clouds-of-wings]

So many bands I listen to are switching to AI images for their promo material and it's obviously heartbreaking for me, but I've been trying to see it from their perspective. At least when it's small bands. I'm not making any excuses for Napalm's or Within Temptation's AI videos. They have the money and are screwing visual artists over out of greed or ignorance. But when it's a small independent band with a couple hundred followers?

"My band doesn't have enough money to hire a human artist for promo materials, so we use AI" is like the band version of "I don't have enough money to buy CDs, so I torrent music". Both are driven by capitalism-induced scarcity. Both are ethically questionable (*insert more nuanced take here*) ways to get something you don't really need, but want for yourself. But one is legal (hint: it's the one that makes giant (tech) corporations money) and one can get you a fine, even jail time in some countries (hint: it's the one that giant (entertainment) corporations think keeps them from getting money they would have liked to receive).

For a small band, the alternative to AI usually isn't "hiring a real artist", it's either "using a public domain picture" (better for me, not always fitting for them) or "not having visual promo materials except maybe an album cover and one video per album" (better for me, worse for them). Unless they have a friend who does it for free. Another parallel to torrenting. Usually when someone torrents, the alternative wouldn't have been buying the media, it would have been not consuming it. Because if it's not in your budget, it's not in your budget.

This isn't really a happy thought or an excuse... the conclusion is more or less that if you don't torrent then you're a sucker, because the artists you're trying to be honourable towards will screw others over for their benefit as soon as they have the chance too, so really what's the point in being the only one who plays by the rules?

I thought about this and remembered how this one musician I follow once said that especially in Latin America fans often bring burned CDs of his albums to meet-and-greets and he signs those too because he knows the legal CDs are much more expensive for a fan there than in Europe. I found it astounding that someone would have the cheek to show a band their own album as an illegal burned CD (I wouldn't even have done that in 2004), and kinda admired how understanding he was about the matter. Meet-and-greets are also not always at the concert venue, so you could get a judgement-free signature on a burned CD without buying a ticket.

...of course they're still his fans and the CD still has the band name on it, so the analogy is far from perfect. Image generation AI in its currently dominant form screws artists over worse than torrenting, I'm not arguing against that. The point is that I judge big bands and labels more for using AI than small bands.

"But they should just hire a cheaper artist or buy a stock photo!" Yes! They should! They absolutely should! Especially since artists, just like all creative freelancers, usually get their first jobs by doing cheap work for people with a limited budget. But can I demand it..? Is it the standard I hold other people to - or myself?

It just always comes back to the systemic issue - how almost no one doing creative work has a big enough budget and the artificial scarcity imposed by capitalism is pitting us against each other.