Cato

So far Deezer is the only one I'm aware of that's trying it. Nothing I've read over the years about Spotify or it's owner makes me think he cares about much about the content on his platform other than funneling as much money as possible from the music industry into his own pockets. Unless his revenues start dropping off because people are boycotting Spotify in protest over unlabelled AI I can't see them taking any action.

I think you can get too hung up on this sort of thing. If you put stuff up on social media you are going to encounter people who get their kicks from trolling. I see it all the time on the most innocuous clips on Instagram, people obviously just trying to upset other people for the hell of it. What they are after is attention either from the original poster or other commenters, the more negative the better, as far as they are concerned being noticed is a win for them. The best way to deal with it is just to ignore them. Don't give them any indication that you've even seen it. Deny them the attention they are seeking and leave them thinking that they're wasting their time trying to engage with you and they'll move on.

Interesting article on Sky News "Robots listening to robots': How AI music fraudsters are spamming sites and taking cash from real musicians" https://share.google/1KocfxqaVx7QUGx7N Other concerns aside I knew these platforms were being flooded with AI content but the sheer scale of it, apparently 60,000 tracks a day just on Deezer and rapidly snowballing, is an eye opener.

Not particularly practical but definitely an interesting experiment. And always with these things it doesn't seem to matter how radical the design is or how little body there is, let alone what it's made of, it still sounds like an electric guitar.

There are also power supply issues. There's already speculation that the US power grid can't support all the AI data centres that are planned even if many of them build their own generation facilities ,which, depending on the type of generation being planned is it's own russian doll of environmental and logistical issues. There's additional concerns about the water supply for cooling. Again datacentres can build their own boreholes, or tap rivers, etc but there's only so much of that you can do before it starts to affect the local water supply for agriculture and residential use. Neither issue is insurmountable but it's doubtful if it can be done in the same timeframe as the new data centres will be needed to support the expected massive uptake in AI services.

Some of the richest people and companies in the world too. And the UK government wants to give them the rights to use all UK owned intellectual property to train their AIs for free. (on an opt out basis). https://www.forbes.com/sites/virginieberger/2025/02/28/how-the-uks-ai-copyright-exception-hands-creators-work-to-big-tech-for-free/

There's a huge backlash against AI in the gaming community at the moment, especially where it's being used as a substitute for human creativity. It'll be interesting to see how it plays out given that gaming studios are a natural fit to use AI to cut staff and speed up production. I suspect in the end the big studios will carry on down the AI road regardless but it will create a niche for independent companies making 100% human authored content.

It's going to become increasingly unavoidable unfortunately. I don't want any part of it, to the point where I block anyone on social media who posts unlabelled AI content, even if it's just a description of an image. Although the torrent is such that I think eventually it will just be easier to leave social media. I've even seen it creeping into Basschat where people have cut and pasted responses from Chat GPT or some such,omwtime containing glaring errors, without crediting their source, in response to questions posted by other members. At the moment such things are still identifiable, but give it another 12 months and none of us will know whether what we are seeing, hearing or reading online has been authored by a human or a machine. Interesting times.

I rhink it probably would have been taken into consideration if he'd had plead gulity and shown remorse, but the charges were pretty serious. After we returned a verdict the judge revealed he had previous convictions, although she didn't go into any detail & I've not been able to find out specifics. Anyway after a two month delay for 'reports' (although he was immediately locked up after the verdict pending sentencing) he eventually got 22 years.

In the case I was on the jury for last year the guy was originally charged in 2021. So again over 4 years to get to crown court. That was quite a nasty one too, with the guy having pretty much been caught red handed on some of the charges. But by denying the charges and pleading not gulity at every stage he basically got 4 extra years of freedom before starting his jail term.

I suppose it's a matter of semantics. To me 'Road Worn' means deliberately (but hopefully superficially) damaged in a way that gives the impression of age and use. That cab seems to have incurred wear and tear from genuine use. But I can entirely understand why someone might use 'road worn' to describe it's condition. After all the actual outcome of both processes is essentially the same.

While the EU will very likely impose retaliatory tariffs on the US I can't see the UK doing the same. It's not a game we can win.

There's a few more brands operating in that 'cheap but decent' price bracket these days, so I suppose if the new tariffs are forcing Harley Benton prices above those of it's direct rivals in the US it probably makes sense for Thomann to withdraw & concentrate on markets where they can still be competitive.

My first thought when I saw the clip was that , if true, he's certainly not the first musician who's been unable to reproduce a song or parts of a song exactly like the recording live. Although in the examples in the Sapko clip it's not clear if the recording vs live examples are even supposed to be the same piece, so it doesn't really prove anything.

I've just seen a new Sapko clip about guitarist Ichika Nito who I'm only vaguely aware of because he has a very nice Ibanez sig. This time the accusations are over editing his social media clips and not being able to replicate his performances live. All seems a bit more tenuous than the Giacomo plagiarism stuff to me but 'calling people out' seems to be a popular genre on social media these days.

I don't think they're supposed to be

Not my favourite band or album but Jamiroquai's Emergency on Planet Earth' has consistently sublime basslines from start to finish, most of them up front and centre in the mix.

To be fair I think the pic I lifted from Andertons may not do it justice, it looks a bit more vibrant in some of the video clips on Instagram. But even in the best light you're dead right about it being a poor cousin to Burgundy Mist.

Exclusive at Andertons No idea how limited 'limited' is. There's also a few guitars in the same finish, it looks like the Jazz is the only bass offering. https://www.andertons.co.uk/fender-player-ii-jazz-bass-guitar-lavender-haze/

That brings back some memories, or fragments anyway. Never really got around to listening to any albums (maybe I shohld rectify that) but an absolute must see at any festival in the 90s

I went to a Snoop Dogg gig in Nottingham just before the smoking ban. That was like stepping inside a bong. No way did anyone leave that venue unaffected by at least passive intake.

Surely it's only a matter of time before Gibson start giving their bass back catalogue the same Custom Shop/Murphy Labs treatment that they seem to be focusing on with their guitar range. Of course if it does happen it won't be cheap.

I saw the Eagles in , I think, 2001 at the NIA in Birmingham when presumably they were sober and it was one of the most disapointing/boring big name gigs I've ever bean to. They weren't playing badly by any means, they just gave impression of being bored and just going through the motions. I diid find out later in one of those bbc4 documentaries that some members of the band were barely speaking to each other during that that European tour so possibly that was the problem rather than the sobreity.

I'd be fairly suprised if they didn't do a fretless. Sire seem to do a fretless model of just about everything in their range. For me it's one of the things that sets them apart from other makers of 'copy' basses and indeed many of the manufacturers that they're copying.

A lot of buskers these days seem to be using rechargeable powered speakers for everything from instruments to vocals. These are a couple of examples but there's a fair bit of choice at various price points. Googling 'busking PA' will bring up more options. https://share.google/kqa0QjH8gdsh9qpG9 https://share.google/kqa0QjH8gdsh9qpG9