"Walk My Walk" went to number one!

And the media couldn't stop talking about it. Musicians are freaking out about it. And my inbox is filling up about it.

And there's no story here.

The truth is Breaking Rust's AI song "Walk My Walk" sold digital singles, which are weighted artificially high in the "Billboard" chart.

Let me ask you, when was the last time you bought a digital single? Probably more recently than a wax cylinder or player piano roll, but the iTunes Store was a thing twenty-odd years ago, and is in the rearview mirror just like 8-tracks and cassettes (and if I read one more story hyping the return of cassettes...even if you can manufacture them, who has the equipment to play them?)

So "Walk My Walk" is not a hit. It does have 4,604,867 streams on Spotify, but if you think that's a success, you're probably a wannabe musician wondering why you can't get paid on a thousand streams... Drives me crazy that this is common perception, Bill Maher even referenced it on Friday night, who is going to pay the artists? Spotify IS paying the artists, a ton of money, more than 60% of revenues, and the business does not scale, i.e. royalties go up with revenues, and stars are making beaucoup bucks on the service and if you own your own material you can be nobody and make bucks and if you're streaming in quantity and signed to a major and not seeing the lion's share of the money it's because you have a bad deal. But nothing I or anyone else says can change public perception.

To grind dirt in your eye, have you seen the clip by Jimmy Carr about Ticketmaster? I could explain it, but it's easier just to watch it:

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/zMmjKRettxA

You too can have a number one record on the iTunes sales chart... Doesn't take much, a few thousand dollars at most...think of the publicity you'll get, worth every penny! You can trumpet your status and the brain dead media will repeat it sans analysis and...

Can we all just agree that AI in music is here to stay? Can we start there? Can we acknowledge thirty years of internet/digital development?

One of my favorite stories I read this week was about how manufacturing jobs can't come back in America and we need to focus on service jobs. That manufacturing jobs are even dying in China...automation is taking over! But everybody lamenting the aftereffects of NAFTA believes that if we can only bring manufacturing back... And it's not only the left, but Trump too...and manufacturing has gone DOWN since he's been in office. It's just like this #1 AI song...the truth is overrun by distortion and paranoia, it's completely disconnected from reality.

"What Even Is a Good Job?"

Free link: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/10/opinion/good-jobs-policy.html

So:

1. Rights holders should be paid by AI music companies for the scraping of their songs so the service can learn. Definitely. A no-brainer.

2. If an AI song can compete with a human-made song, kudos. That means people desire it more. And it's not like we live in a bygone era where there are labels and gatekeepers who can make something a success, the majors can't break ANY act, whether it be human or AI, so if an AI track is more palatable to the masses than one made by people, so be it.

3. You can write an AI song in a vacuum, with basic prompts. But there are also people writing lyrics and using AI to create songs. So... Right now there is no copyright in AI-generated songs. Should there be copyright if someone writes new lyrics and creates a song...it's a case by case basis now, but I'd say yes. Let me see... Lil Nas X bought the beat online and created "Old Town Road"... That's not a whole hell of a lot different. Sure, a human created that beat, but... As for vocals... Where does the problem lie...with singers being put out of business or songwriters who've been disenfranchised by the internet/the ability to only pull the hits. If you can write but not sing, maybe AI is a benefit.

4. Presently AI cannot create anything new. It can reconstitute what actually exists, but it cannot make a great leap forward, it cannot create "Lux." Maybe if you create new, innovative prompts... Then AI is a tool, just like a drum machine. Then it's an ADVANTAGE! It might help you make something that cannot be created sans AI. Both in concept and sound.

The past is never coming back. But each and every day the media and self-congratulatory ostriches are trying to return to the days of yore that weren't so good to begin with.

The number one target is the smartphone... Thank god for the smartphone, all that information at your fingertips! Do you want to try and CALL to order something in the future, sans research? As for social media... It's SOCIAL media, meaning people are connecting. Can it have deleterious effects? Yes, but so can TV, so can certain medications, that does not mean you throw the baby out with the bathwater.

As fort AI not being able to perform live... To a great degree, that's true. And that should inspire acts to do something different, as opposed to performing with hard drives to click track. AI is not human, and if it can ever achieve that status it's a LONG way off... Right now AI is about reconstituting the past to give you an answer. Which is why it has to scrape/learn from what already exists. When it comes to raw innovation, the Homo sapiens are king.

Before "Walk My Walk" there was Xania Monet's "How Was I Supposed to Know," with the same attendant press story about chart success... What a joke. The looky-loos have streamed the song 6,578,950 times on Spotify because they want to check it out, not because it's a desirable hit. But people are gaming the system, for the press. They're coming up with these AI songs, buying them from iTunes, getting radio stations to play them a few times in the middle of the night and you get the impression of success, when nothing could be further from the truth.

So please, the next time you see a story fearful of AI music...laugh at the writer/talking head. They bought the hype, there is no story there. And if they're in the music business, like I said, we've had the electric guitar, the drum machine, synthesizers...they're all tools in making great music, and you can always sit down with your acoustic and play live if you want to.

And will there be an AI live show that draws crowds? Probably, look at the success the Abba's "Voyage" is having. As are tribute bands. But something new, cutting edge?

It can only be done with people. Who might be using AI as a tool, an instrument.

Own AI. It's HERE!

P.S. I was on CNN last week talking about AI music, you can watch it here: https://www.cnn.com/2025/11/11/business/video/ai-singer-music-billboard-charts-music-michael-jackson-thriller-the-lefsetz-letter-bob-lefsetz-tsi


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