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On Wednesday night, musician Aidan Sammut stood towards the back of Bootleggers pub in Newtown with the rest of his band as an “insult” took place.
The act before Sammut’s band had taken to the stage, and he didn’t know what was worse: that the audience comprised just three punters, or that those punters were being forced to watch a set of AI-generated music.
“We were curious and also disgusted [by the set] and discussing how it’s crazy that this is actually happening, and that this is potentially a thing now,” Sammut said.
On stage was a solo man dancing and singing portions of a song that Sammut alleges was AI-generated. Most of the music was sung by a female-sounding voice.
“We left the room just because we didn’t really want to see it or support it in any sort of way,” Sammut said. “[We wondered] how that actually sort of slipped through the gaps and how it was allowed to be booked.”
The day before the gig, Sammut was rehearsing with his band Genevieve when he received a text message from a member of another band on the bill, alerting him that an AI creator was on the line-up.
“We had a look through the account at the rehearsal, and realised it’s all AI-generated visuals, and we listened to the music, and we were fairly certain it was AI-generated, and then we looked through the rest of his account, and he talks about having virtual songwriters and performers … we were kind of shocked.
“We thought about even pulling out of the gig, which the other band was considering, but we decided to go ahead because it was quite last-minute, and we didn’t want to let the AI artists win.”
That feeling of disgust didn’t subside. Sammut decided to record and upload a video about the performance to Instagram on Thursday afternoon, saying it felt insulting to be featured in a line-up alongside an act using mostly AI-generated music.
As of Friday noon the video had accumulated more than 200,000 views, 1000 reposts and hundreds of comments.
On Thursday night, booking agency Good Intent and the venue Bootleggers released a joint statement, apologising and taking accountability for booking an act whose content was “clearly and blatantly AI”.
“I’ll take full responsibility,” Good Intent’s Rob Carroll said in the statement. “I didn’t look at this particular artist’s socials, and their representative’s communication used wording consistent with genuine artists. Their representative described them to us as a ‘producer’ who used ‘live vocals’ in their sets.”
Good Intent booked the artist for Bootleggers, which then approved the artist and promoted the event called “Mixed Bag”, which features emerging local talent. The statement said Good Intent and Bootleggers have “never knowingly, and never, [will] book people who use AI to generate music”.
Rory Summers, who runs Bootleggers and previously ran Chippendale’s Lansdowne Hotel, said the venue did not make money from its Wednesday night gigs. “We’re really just doing it to keep our community around and give people a platform and a stage,” he said. “It’s upsetting to us that this has happened.”
Summers said Good Intent used the online platform OneStop to find the act, and that once they were selected, were in direct communication with the act’s manager, who made no mention of AI.
“Live music has been a massive part of my career, and I don’t like that AI trains its models on data stolen from artists and … I don’t like that it happened here, I mean, no one’s happy about it,” he
The Herald approached the musician (whom the Herald has chosen not to name) for comment, but did not hear back ahead of deadline. However, in an email to the booking agency obtained by this masthead, the musician admitted to performing AI-generated music.
“In 1982, the musicians’ union tried to ban synthesisers and drum machines because they argued that the technology would replace people. Nowadays, there would hardly be any songs … in the top 40 or dance floors across the world that doesn’t [sic] use at least one synthesiser or drum machine,” the performer wrote.
“Our industry is constantly being broken by technological change. In fact, the breaking up of the music-making method is the only constant thing across the years.
“Yes, I do use AI in my production process, a process that has helped me … to build a musical base, so I can sing live in public and broadcast the messages that I have written into the lyrics. Despite what you may have heard, it is not easy to create quality music in this manner and still takes many hours, days and weeks.”
Summers said it was never disclosed to Bootleggers that the artist uses AI to create music and that a stricter screening policy is in place for future bookings and promotions.
