MBW Views is a series of exclusive columns written by notable music industry figures…who have something to say.
The following column comes from Jen co-founder and CEO, tech entrepreneur and music veteran Shara Senderoff (pictured inset).
Jen claims to be an “ethically trained generative AI music platform” that introduces “a new standard for copyright compliance in text-to-music generation.”
Senderoff is a widely respected technology entrepreneur. She previously co-founded the blockchain venture fund and studio Raising In Space in 2018 with Scooter Braun.
In addition to Senderoff, Jen also appointed Artist Partner Group founder and CEO Mike Caren as a founding partner last year.
Jen’s founding team consists of Aaron McDonald, who has 20 years of technical experience. He co-founded Futureverse with Senderoff and Dr. Alex Wang, a PhD in artificial intelligence, who led the architecture and development of Jen’s artificial intelligence.
When you grow up with blues and rock ‘n’ roll, you develop a deep appreciation for the human component of music. story. heart. soul. “A computer can never evoke this feeling,” I wrote in one of the countless inbound cards I received while running the music/tech investment fund I co-founded with Scooter Braun. One thing I am determined to do no Interested in music generated by artificial intelligence.
This latest AI technology revolution is sending shockwaves throughout the industry, because we haven’t seen technology pose a threat to copyright since file sharing exploded with Napster over 20 years ago.
But it’s important to realize that the real threat does not lie with the technology itself. It is the use of copyright without permission to train technology. We all wished the days of stealing music were long gone. But the rise of generative AI music has ushered in a whole new set of bad actors. The crowd who later “asked for forgiveness”. “Proper use” of the military. “The darling of derivative products”. Well, I just made one up. However, it is accurate.
Two years ago, my team at Futureverse (a leading AI and web3 infrastructure company) proposed that we start building Jen. I have always believed that the conscious and subconscious sense of connection that music elicits is something we will never be able to understand, let alone artificially replicate. Music is a spiritual experience. How can artificial intelligence come close?
Our team of esteemed AI PhDs understood my hesitation. As musicians themselves, they discovered nuances in composition that generated audio failed to capture.
They submitted their first research paper (*one of many) to me, introducing JEN-1, a sophisticated text-to-music model designed to overcome the limitations of sound quality in previous generative music systems. limit. This paper outlines some progress that addresses my concerns about the ability of generative models to achieve human compositional detail; a way to capture the nuances of music across the entire spectrum.
Unlike AI models that rely on visual representations of sounds and therefore experience fidelity losses during audio conversion, Jen’s diffusion model architecture produces high-fidelity 48kHz stereo audio, working to ensure that the sounds we are used to hearing on the radio are Complete richness and depth directly from the original audio waveform. Combined with multi-task training such as text-to-music, repair and continuation, Jen is able to achieve superior audio quality and enhance the versatility of AI music creation.
I became confident that we could do it technically, but I persisted: we would do it ethically, or we wouldn’t do it at all.
Today, we launch the alpha version of Jen, a high-fidelity text-to-music generation audio platform that does something few have attempted: it doesn’t steal music. We drew ethical lines, established training principles and licensing frameworks, and were unabashedly committed to transparency, compensation, and copyright recognition. Everyone said it couldn’t be done, the music industry was too difficult to work with, or it would take a long time, and if I didn’t enter the market first, I would never have the chance.
“We all hoped that the days of stealing music were long gone. But the rise of generative AI music has ushered in a whole new set of bad actors.
Jen has over 40 fully licensed directories in her initial training set. It is ethically trained and introduces new standards for copyright compliance. Our rigorous training process and carefully crafted approach are unparalleled. Each track is automatically reviewed for audio identification and copyright identification using a database of 150 million tracks. This includes works from the training set as well as every newly generated track on the platform. We can’t do that if we steal music.
Additionally, Jen generates a cryptographic hash for each track, which is then recorded on the root network blockchain. This process provides an advanced form of verification, ensuring the integrity and timestamp of each track’s creation. Verified song output will receive a JENUINE™ indicator when produced.
Here’s what it means, I’m going to do something incredible…I’m going to quote Taylor Swift. If you typed the prompt “Write me a song that sounds like Taylor Swift” into Jen, it wouldn’t be able to do anything like that. It had never heard of Taylor. So how does it know what her voice sounds like? If a bad actor added a sample of Taylor’s song or vocals explaining her melodies or lyrics after Jen’s track was created, upon review, our hashes would indicate that the track was changed after it was generated and confirm that Jen’s output does not contain that sample. Again, we can do this because: We don’t steal music.
Consumers fully own the tracks they create on Jen. They can leverage them and distribute them to DSPs, social networking sites, etc. Because we don’t steal music.
The industry response to generated music has been to threaten to delete anything created using artificial intelligence. But generative music technology will advance far faster than any technology capable of patrolling it. This solution is fundamentally flawed. The entire industry will be mortified when they are caught unknowingly circulating tracks they object to. Instead of trying to stop it, why don’t we work together to steer its course?
We need to protect the value of music and the respect it deserves around the world. We need strong licensing frameworks that protect copyright and penalize companies that use unlicensed music as training material. We need the industry to speak up now. Not tomorrow. Not after the creation of the Artificial Intelligence Commission. Not next year. Now.
Many people worry that artificial intelligence technology poses a threat to art. But the reality is that technology has had an impact on music for centuries, but we haven’t lost our artistry yet. It does not replace the artist or the artistry we appreciate. It will work with them. Empowerment. Enhance their work in new ways. If she came up now, Taylor would still be Taylor. The magic and heart of musicians will only be amplified by the technology on the horizon. As long as we put the hammer down.
I don’t think any moment has defined the future of the music industry more than this. No matter how difficult it is to do it the right way. Someone has to prove this is possible.
My hat is in the ring and I’m going to show you this can be done without stealing the music.global music business
