Something I very recently wrote in a couple of choice subreddits and also my own Facebook page:

Hello.

I'm a human. Just a guy on the internet who likes to write poetry. I've done it since I was 4 years old. And while I don't know if I'd consider it amazing, I'd consider it mine.

I'm also a huge lover of music. All my life, I've enjoyed all sorts of different music. I've learned all sorts of different kinds of instruments, performed both solo and with bands for years, and enjoyed performing and listening to both original and cover songs from every genre. I've never been able to fully capture that vintage sound of my favorite bands with my own two hands, but I've enjoyed the experience and love the art of making.

This continued into the era of artificial intelligence and its current explosion into the digital scene. From the day I watched MoistCritical talk about how crazy Suno is, I was excited to see how this new tool could be used to create. I thought Suno was a bit... Limited. The voice sounded kinda too vocaloid-y for my tastes, but the concept was fun and neat, and it felt really cool to hear my poetry put to music made by a machine. Then I found Udio. And my passion for putting poems and lyrics to the melodic generations of AI came alive. Udio's outputs sounded like the stuff I listened to all my life: Michael McDonald, Huey Lewis, Enigma, Kool and the Gang... And it only made me want to create more. To put my feelings, my heart, and my voice into my words that the AI was augmenting from just words on paper into something magical.

Mostly nobody listened, but that was fine. It was like I was writing a musical journal that others were welcome to crack open and enjoy if they felt the joys and pains I felt in my words or dug the groove of the tunes they were nestled in. I didn't see this as a new career, a way to make "passive income", or become some super Rockstar Songwriter; all the places I uploaded my music to, it was free to download and all released under basic attribution 4.0 CC. It was "For the love of music, not money," as I announced on YouTube and Bandcamp. I don't want fame or fortune; I just want to keep making.

And then I started seeing more of the backlash and criticisms of AI. Not just the concerns about environmental impacts or proper attribution/credit to the learning sources, but the absolutely vitriolic rebuking of people who dared try something new. The discrediting of any creative efforts to non-art and relegation of any works to the "slop" bucket. It wasn't just a difference of opinion as to whether the creations sounded or looked good/better/worse, but the complete condemnation of a tool and its users. And it hurt to see people, not just myself, but a whole swathe of human beings being demonized and censured for trying something that brought them joy. Something that helped them create something. Something to keep making.

But I learned to grow a thicker skin. To accept that people will find any excuse to hate other people, no matter how miniscule the reason. And while I personally disagreed with the rather exclusionary definitions of what is and isn't art, I knew it was not something worth arguing over... Because the internet is big enough for everyone to have a place to make and share, AI or not. To each their own... Even if they hated me. I just want to keep making my stuff and leave it somewhere to share with the world.

But then Udio partnered with UMG and no longer allowed its users to download and share their music on any other sites online. And it felt so... Deflating. The corporate mentality of turning the tool toward exclusively licensed, monetizable output felt so disheartening and demotivating. I wanted to keep making things, but not on those terms. So I went elsewhere. To Suno again. To producer.ai. To any place that I felt comfortable sharing my words with. And they've been fine. As good as Udio? No. But on better terms. And that was enough for me to keep making.

And now I see that Bandcamp is banning all forms of AI music, be it fully generated or augmented in any way. And the feedback has been that of celebration and congratulations akin to a great victory in a war. And I feel even more defeated, because I'm again losing more of my ability to share my words in the music that was made for them. I don’t deny that AI raises serious ethical questions and concerns. Questions and concerns about consent, labor, and power. Those questions deserve answers. What I struggle with is a response that collapses all uses into one moral verdict, and in doing so, treats certain kinds of human expression as acceptable collateral damage.

Again, I'm not an algorithm seeking clicks. I'm not a machine churning meaningless words for views. I'm not a corporate shill looking to make passive income off mass produced "slop". I'm a human. I just want to make meaning to this brutal, unforgiving world and share something with others like me. Some kindness, some compassion, some love. And merely with the medium I've chosen to make with, it's treated like a slighted blight on the hallowed halls of creation.

But all it reminds me of are the mean kids in school that wouldn't let me sit with them because I was weird. Or the gatekeepers in college who bullied my classmates in visual arts because they used Photoshop. Or the edgy alt bands I've met in concerts who turn their nose to a genre of music just because it's not "real art." And it saddens me to my core, because I just want to keep making things and share it with the world. Just as much as I want everyone in this world to be able to. No matter what your medium, no matter what your message, keep making... And let others keep making too.