It's Monday, and so time for a new BBB! 🗞️✨
ENJOY 💙💙
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NEWS
Artists' music being used by Suno without consent
This is very, very bad. Last week, The Atlantic published a 'searchable database' presenting all the music that has been used by AI apps Suno and Udio to train their software without the musicians' consent. The news was also shared through posts from hundreds of musicians across the music industry, who took to social media in their droves to raise concerns about the state of AI use in the music industry. The issue lies in all the music used being copyrighted - the material is essentially being copied, as Suno are generating 'songs' based on human-made music, and it's without permission or compensation. World-renowned companies such as Sony, Warner and UMG have sued Suno, who have responded alongside fellow AI music-generator app Udio to say their practises have constituted as fair use under US copyright law.
Unsurprisingly, the Bass scene was awash with producers objecting heavily to all of this, as backlash towards Suno grew and grew over the course of the week. Trap artist NAZAAR wrote 'Generative companies have scraped over half of my discography to train AI' with an accompanying screenshot showing the 44 songs of his that have been used by Suno and/or Udio. MUST DIE! also posted about the issue, saying 'Tons of my back catalogue was used without my knowledge or consent to train AI to copy me and give a bunch of talentless losers the ability to pretend to have a purpose in life'. Amongst the repliers to his tweet was Water Spirit, who said 'Same here, it fucking sux'. One of the funnier posts amidst the bleakness of the situation came from camoufly, who said 'need diplo to tell me how this is ok since he supports [this shit]'.
One of the most-shared tweets surrounding the news came from legendary producer Kenny Beats, who wrote 'You [Suno] are true losers ... I can't imagine going into work daily knowing you are stealing from countless struggling musicians. I can't imagine being proud to earn a paycheck obliterating the work and dreams of artists', which summed up the goings-on well. Far outside the Bass scene, the most vocal artist was probably rapper SZA, who posted about over 230 of her tracks being used by Suno and/or Udio - 'If you're a musician and you support this degenerate shit? You're disgusting and there's nothing you could ever say to me to make this okay'.
There isn't much more to report on it at the moment, though it's of course an ongoing case that could have some serious consequences at some point in the future. That isn't to say it'll put a dent in the progress of AI in music generation, but it might drive more people further away from it in realising how Suno and Udio's software actually works, which I'm sure many won't have known about. We shall have to wait and see regarding how things develop.
Skism updates on Never Say Die future
Another significant Skism update - yippee! Last week, the Never Say Die head honcho took to social media for a highly-anticipated AMA - Ask Me Anything - where he gave fans and followers of the legendary label an update on its future. I made a video on this which is now live on the YouTube channel (link below), but will lay out some of the main points from the post. The label is definitively back, but will be releasing far less music than it did in its heyday many years ago. Some of the classic NSD artists - Zomboy, Eptic, Space etc. - may still release through the imprint, but the general quantity of music will be less. That's good quality control in my eyes - like the old days!
The sister imprint Never Say Die: Black Label could also make a return, and very much operate like the main label. The final main point was that the rumoured remix compilation, featuring remixes of NSD classics from some of the most exciting artists in the Bass underground, would be dropping 'soon'. Since then, it has been revealed that that collection of tunes will be titled Never Say Die Legacy, and is dropping on July 3rd.
My coverage and analysis of the news: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmw2_lz36zs&t=1s
I have to say, I'm really excited to hear this remix compilation in full, for so many amazing originals to have new spins on them from some of the most creative artists in the scene right now! As for what lies in store beyond that, how do you think Never Say Die's return will impact the general state of the modern Dubstep scene?
Hamro gives update on cancer diagnosis
Here we have a very brief but notable update from Hamro on his cancer diagnosis. The Dubstep producer took to social media last week to let fans and followers know that he 'Only gotta do this 6 more times', which is, I assume, referencing the fact that he only needs 6 more rounds of chemotherapy. I don't know how long that amount of chemo is stretched over, so his journey could still take a while, but it's quite amazing to have a relatively small number attached to the process given how recently he first shared the news. Regardless, it was significant enough for him to post about it, which hopefully means he's making good progress, which is of course a great thing to hear.
Here's hoping the rest of his journey and experience with cancer goes smoothly!
My announcement!
You've likely already seen this news across social media, but I had a big update to give towards the end of last week - I'm now Head of A+R at Virus Syndicate's label Bad Medic Records! If you're not familiar, A+R stands for Artist and Repertoire, where you essentially find and think of good artists to be on a label, and fill out the release schedule from there. I'm 3 weeks in now and it's been great so far - though starting at the same time as doing Yearly Favourites Week and Never Say Die and Skrillex dropping new projects out of nowhere was quite something to manage! An important thing to note is that this won't change what I'm posting as Nawtystep across YouTube and social media. Reviews of mine, news coverage and more will be releasing steadily as usual.
Announcement reel: https://www.instagram.com/nawtystep/reel/DZvBnfxsvJA/
And another important thing to mention: if you make 140 Dubstep, Grime or anything in between those genres, feel free to send it my way so I can check it out! Thank you to all of you for your support up until, and especially you guys as Patrons. I simply wouldn't still be running this without you, and likely wouldn't have this work, so thank you again. Onwards and upwards!
MUSIC
Truth lambasted for AI artwork
This is just becoming more and more common, isn't it? Last week, legendary Dubstep duo Truth took to social media to announce their latest EP, titled Sandman, and dropping on their own Deep Dark & Dangerous label. Only there was one problem - AI artwork! Several people quickly got into the replies on X to share concerns about this, asking 'who made the artwork?' amongst other things. There were also many quote tweets of the original post, none of which can be seen now because said original post has been deleted.
Now, we could very well have a Samplifire & Calcium situation here, where the producers ask the visual artist for an artwork, with the latter making it and promising the former no AI was involved in the artwork's design. So it could very well have been done without Truth knowing, but if that wasn't the case and they OK'd that part of it, then it's another conversation altogether. It isn't great to normalise the use of AI in artistic practices, so the further we can stray from it the better, methinks!
New MUST DIE! project
Another MUST DIE! project, you say? The multi-genre producer took to X last week to effectively announce a new collection of music, assumed to be an album given his recent history with releases of that kind. My other assumption is that it'll be dropping on Ophelia Records, given that his last two singles releases - barring 'BREAK MY HEART' for Never Say Die Vol. 7 - 'VOGUE' and 'SPEAKERBOX' came out on that label. If it does end up being an album, it would be his fifth in 5 years, and first since November 2024's VAMPIRE WEAPON: MIDNIGHT. It should be a Dubstep-majoring LP too, given what the aforementioned first two singles have been like. I've little doubt there'll be some experimentation in there too though - it's MUST DIE! after all!
Are you excited for another potential MUST DIE! album to drop?
More Lost Lands B2Bs
There is a second wave of B2Bs for this year's Lost Lands - granted, they're not as exciting as Eptic B2B LYNY etc., but they're still there to highlight for those going to the event. There's Sullivan King B2B Ray Volpe, Emorfik B2B Usaybflow and Darksiderz B2B MADGRRL. I must say, it is surprising that accounts as popular as the Lost Lands one are happy to highlight Emorfik's name so much given his recent history, because they must know what kinda response they're gonna get. They aren't living under a rock.
Are any of these B2Bs exciting you guys particularly?
The big Bass releases of the week
Some of the notable Bass releases from last week - underground whizkid Lizdek's debut album DUALITY for a start. DnB fan favourite Simula dropped a new 4-track EP titled Cerberus, whilst single track-wise we got new collabs from Tisoki & Control Freak and Kumarion & STUCA, as well as solo cuts from the likes of Habstrakt, Grabbitz, Crankdat - on remix duty for Circus Records - and more. Happy listening! 💙
DISCUSSION
The Avello post
It's a long post to dissect and go over, but TLDR: artists should stop 'bitching' about having to make content, because it's a kind of expression that's widely accessible - through phone use - extremely open to creative possibilities, and can reach millions of people instantly. 'It's literally never been easier to get your art in front of people' he wrote. That sounds mostly well and good, though he lost his way a bit when he said artists are 'elitist' if they're shitting on the concept of an algorithm and it not working for some, because 'you think your taste is better than everyone else's'. Does making something that you wanted to make, then being frustrated that it didn't reach enough people, mean you think your taste is better than everyone else's? It's true, some creators might be 'ignorant to the quality of what [they're] sharing', but does that make them elitist? Still needs a bit of unpacking that one.
However, making clear that 'every job is gonna have aspects you don't like' was also an important thing to note in my opinion. Content creation may seem like a real struggle at times, but contextualising it in that way can make it easier to get through and process. He also found a more encouraging tone towards the end of his post, writing 'Find the joy in it. Find your voice. Accept the balance of work and play'. Though he then sells himself short again by saying 'it just comes down to who wants it the most'. I mean, everyone musician really wants a solid music-leading life. But some might not have those means to continually create content, or even the physical energy to. The post got a tad unforgiving and brutal at the end when I'm not sure it needed to. So yes, it's quite the journey, and many were on hand to share their thoughts on it, especially on X.
Many found Avello's take ironic given it's coming from an artist telling artists to work harder, when most of his music is Bass remixes of well-known Pop tracks - taking 'the easy way out' as one X user put it. Unfortunately, that got in the way of people properly discussing the majority of points he was making, so the nuance of the conversation was lost somewhat. One person called it 'the worst take of all time' without explaining at all why they thought that. One account did allude to the notion of whether an artist is even successful if all they do is use others' ideas, which was one of the more interesting observations I found. It's possible we're talking about different kinds of artist altogether here, people that see success completely differently. Though Avello did nod towards that in his post, to be fair.
How insane is this comment above? Someone actually typed that out and pressed 'post'.
What do you guys think of this particular subject / topic? I shared it here for a reason, I'd love to get your thoughts on it!
FUNNIES // COOL STUFF
A very open Mat Zo video
This is one of the most frank and open pieces of content I've ever seen from an electronic musician, and well worth a watch. Here, Mat Zo talks about being nominated for a Grammy after his debut album, and what that did to him and his career. I'll leave it to your viewing beyond that, coz it's great viewing like I said. Link below!
Reel link: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DZxh6x2Iu-7/?igsh=MXNpd3UzYzYyZzdtaQ==
A very open flowanastasia video
This one's a little older (posted at the end of May) but is another really open, honest bit of content from DnB artist flowanastasia. She talks about how she's almost accepted that she might not make it in music. There were many people supporting her in the comments, willing her to keep going, and her mind may have changed in the last few weeks resultantly, but you could see that she's thought through it a lot. And that's alongside an eating disorder that she's had the whole time, which she also mentions. Give it a watch when you can!
Reel link: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DY2bpmtI6iL/?igsh=MXFzODl6YnRrbGZxMw==
I'll admit, I laughed (ATLiens)
There were many people discussing how silly (pejorative) this is, and I have to be honest I'm not massively interested in that. But I did laugh when I saw it, and wanted to share it here, so there's that.
Rob Swire's snares
This interaction also made me laugh. I suppose I don't 100% know what they mean when they say 'like that' as if t's a bad thing, coz the snares on anything Rob Swire's involved in are consistently great. But that might be me wrongly assuming they're talking about them negatively. Because I'm defensive about Mr. Swire's snares, okay?!
Digitist funny
And the final thing that made me laugh from last week, but in a relatable sense. I must say I've come across- and witnessed this many a time whilst on my travels in the US, and I like it. The sharing and exchange of language is a great thing in my opinion - let it continue!
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Did I miss anything from the last week in Bass music? Let me know below! 😌