St. Vincent says she is “more concerned about artists sounding like Al than Al sounding like artists”

St. Vincent isn’t all that worried about AI taking over the role of the artist, but there is one concern she has about the industry which is already causing frustration among musicians.

That concern is streaming and its royalty payout model. St. Vincent is definitely not the first artist to voice her critiques of the market, and she certainly won’t be the last. It is widely reported that Spotify, for example, pays out  $0.003 – $0.005 per stream on average, though it protests it does not pay on a ‘per play’ rate.

She tells Billboard of AI, “The tool is as interesting as its holder. In some ways, I’m more concerned about artists sounding like Al than I am [about] Al sounding like artists.”

Similarly, we can already see this point of view being given on digital effects making records sound ‘too clean’. Aside from creative aspects, many artists are also concerned on how they will receive fair payment if their music is used to train AI, an issue we already see mirrored with streaming.

She later adds, “If you are a big pop artist, streaming is fine. But there is some music that reaches you very deeply but isn’t music that you put on every single day. I’m not going to listen to John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme every day. It’s one of the most pivotal records of my life, but I’m not going to stream it over and over.

“Streaming incentivises songs to be consumable over and over again. Now, certainly there’s great music you want to consume like that – but there’s a lot of music that’s excellent and doesn’t fall into that category. And those artists, because of streaming, are wilting on the vine,” she concludes.

St. Vincent released her new album All Born Screaming last April. Though distributed via Virgin Music Group, the record marks the first release on her own label, Total Pleasure Records.

Find out where St. Vincent will be touring this year.