the music album can help combat AI
This isn't a fully-formed thought yet, so bear with me. But I think abandoning the Spotify or Apple Music algorithm-curated playlists for background music and going back to full albums might be a good way to combat AI music.
As I listen to algorithm-curated playlists in the background while working or doing chores, I find myself wondering more and more whether any AI music has snuck its way in, and whether I'd be able to pick it out from a sea of random songs. Listening to a large assortment of random songs is similar to eating ground beef sourced from a large assortment of random cows: your chances of getting something nasty like salmonella are higher.
A couple weeks ago, I had the opposite experience: I heard a song I liked from a band I'd never heard of before. I clicked on the song which took me to the album. I listened to the whole album and loved it. So I checked out the band a little more, looking at their discography, looking them up on Wikipedia, going through their band website and looking at their tour dates. I was just curious about this new band I fell in love with, but later I realized that I also inadvertently vetted them as real, human artists. I never would've done that if I had just "liked" that one song. It took me diving into a full album to do that.
I think because after listening to an album, I'm much more invested and curious about an artist. They produced a whole body of work that I enjoyed, so it's worth learning more about them. I like learning about the human behind the art, listening to them do a podcast or watching them on Hot Ones. If I like someone's work, I tend to look them up. But liking someone's work and "liking" someone's work are different things. In other words, intrinsically enjoying someone's work and clicking the "like" button are different things. One is a more engaged connection to the art, whereas the other is a passive action.
So what does this mean for me? I'm not sure yet. For now, Spotify-curated playlists are still a good way of discovering new artists I likely never would've learned about otherwise. But if I'm not in discovery mode, I feel less and less comfortable putting on an algorithm-curated playlist in the background when I'm not paying attention to it because I'm more vulnerable to be duped into listening to AI music, which I wholeheartedly disagree with and do not want to support through streams. So for background music, I want an album from an artist I've vetted, or a playlist that I or someone I know and trust has curated.
I've always loved and supported the album, ever since I was a kid in the cd era. I think of the album as a book and each song as a chapter. I feel WAY more connected to an artist and the journey or story they're taking me on when I listen to an album, in the order the artist intended, in full. It's only been in the age of streaming where I've grown overly-accustomed to fragmented songs via the playlist. But I feel less connected to art and the human behind it when that's all I listen to, and it's easier for AI garbage to sneak it's way in and rack up streams.
Long live the album!