At SXSW it was Goodbye NFTs And Hello AI Music

Where have all the NFT bros gone? That was the common refrain at this year’s South-by-Southwest, the super-major music-tech-culture conference that wraps up in Austin, Texas.

In 2022, around 40 panels and presentations were focused on the once fashionable, now volatile non-fungible tokens.

A panel last year featured FTX cryptocurrency founder Sam Bankman-Fried and esports entrepreneur Andy Dinh, described on the program as “two colossal entrepreneurs … not only changing the landscape of their own fields, but the financial landscape as we know it.” .”

Three months before this year’s SXSW, Bankman-Fried was indicted and arrested on charges of securities fraud, money laundering and campaign finance law violations. He was subsequently released on a $250 million bond, on the condition that he live with his parents in California.

The SBF scandal plus the recent collapse of crypto-friendly Signature Bank amounted to a massive net loss of interest in NFTs at this year’s confab. A search of the timetable showed half as many NFT-related panels.

“The technology world is moving very quickly to the next big thing,” said Molly White, a tech skeptic and Wikipedia editor who was the keynote speaker. “I think the mythmaking and hype cycles that society goes through are not good.”

Instead of NFTs, this year’s tech buzz revolved around artificial intelligence, including a panel chaired by the author titled “Can Robots Create Life-Changing Songs?” and one called “Welcome To The Machine: Art In The Age of AI,” including musician Dan Navarro, writer of Pat Benatar’s hit “We Belong.” These panels took a more conservative approach to the AI-meets-Art craze than the cavalier parade of last year’s NFT fest. AI-created stuff seems too clichéd and clunky for prime time, but AI can help with difficult and tricky musical tasks like orchestrating film scores and mastering music tracks.

On the day of these two panels, the US Copyright Office issued its anticipated AI Music Copyright Directive, stating that music created entirely by AI modelers such as Google’s GOOG text-to-music generator MusicLM cannot be copyrighted. Only human-authored aspects of a work that are independent of the AI-generated material can. That restriction could feel like a splash of ice water on hot AI companies trying to attract investment based on revenue generation models that rely on copyright protection.

So what will be the hot tech topic next year?

The cords on this year’s festival laminates may provide a clue. LabelCoin, self-described as the “Robinhood of music” is one of a growing number of “music marketplace” firms offering artists an alternative to the major label system with the promise of music “exchanges” where fans can buy and sell shares of songs.

Other companies riding the rising wave include Songvest, JKBX and royal.io, whose founder Justin Blau, aka 3LAU, is an EDM star who spoke at SXSW this year. Blau made waves in 2021 by selling $11.7 million in NFTs of his album Ultravioletwhich you can also get on most streaming services.

In the mid-19th century, Austin was filled with cowboys and Comanches on horseback. Today, tech and music geeks are on birds and other trendy scooters chasing the next big thing.

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