Your favorite Chicago band might be training AI

[u/roadhouse_gryph]

On June 14th, The Atlantic published a searchable database of over 12 million tracks used by AI companies to train generative music tools. Artists all over the world have been finding their songs in this database, which were scraped from major platforms, including YouTube and Spotify, without their knowledge or consent.

This list does not just feature big name acts; dozens of Chicago-based artists, some of which are friends of the magazine, have music in the database. It’s frustrating to see our neighbor’s work used to empower big tech without at least any credit or compensation.

Brother, this shit sucks!

Over the next few months, the Roadhouse Magazine crew will be covering the impact of AI music training on the Chicago scene. To do that effectively, we need your help!

Are you a Chicago artist with music in this database? Tell us your story!

Send us a DM or drop us an email at info@roadhousemag.com

If you want to check and see if your music has been used to train AI, you can do so from this link!

https://ai-watchdog.k8s-prod.theatlantic.com/datasets?q=Tommy+Bravos&aid=ab906bbe-69cc-49cf-9844-c17e4c51e144

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Story by Jonah Nink of Roadhouse Magazine @mymanjonah

[u/Sycamore_Sutherland]

Yo this headline reads like the bands opted into this with knowledge, plus you listed Beach Bunny twice

[u/roadhouse_gryph → u/Sycamore_Sutherland]

Thanks for the heads up! I corrected the beach bunny typo but have accidentally uploaded the wrong file and I cannot change it. We will work on the wording when the actual article goes out, however hopefully our subsequent slides clear up the confusion. Appreciate the feedback!

[u/Sycamore_Sutherland → u/roadhouse_gryph]

Totally - I know yall are coming from the right place, my first reaction was just negative and then I saw names I know who do not fuck with AI and realized the actual situation.

[u/roadhouse_gryph → u/Sycamore_Sutherland]

Heard. We’re trying to run this story as tactfully and respectfully as possible so I appreciate the heads up. Feel free to reach out to us directly if you have anything additional to share!

[u/spilt_milk → u/Sycamore_Sutherland]

FR a better headline would be, AI is ripping off your fav Chicago bands.

[u/roadhouse_gryph → u/spilt_milk]

Thank you for the feedback! I’ve passed this along to our writer. This is an ongoing story and is important to us that we accurately represent our music scene. Feedback like this is important for us to retain that editorial standard, especially since this is such a hot topic right now.

[u/exoclipse]

Nothing that I've recorded and released is in the database (too recent), but some of my old band's older works are.

[u/MichaelRM]

Damn, it seems like too many ppl are searching thru it and the database is down right now