Hack Music Theory

AI Is Stealing Far More Than Jobs.

Loss of career/income pale in comparison to loss of purpose.

Before I read my new essay, I just wanna let you know that everything on our website is now half price. Whether you’re a complete beginner wanting to learn how to make music for the first time, or whether you’re intermediate (or even advanced) wanting to elevate your music from good to great, there’s a course or PDF to help you reach that next level. And they cover all genres, too.

And just a heads up that unless the AI robots stop stealing my work, I’m going to have to close down Hack Music Theory on May 1st 2027, so if you’ve ever been tempted to learn my secret Song-Whispering method for making great music, then enroll soon!

And just to be clear, I’ll still be posting regularly, but only on Substack and the podcast. So if you wanna keep following my work, then please subscribe in your podcast app (just search for “Ray Harmony”). Or you can subscribe to get my new posts sent to your inbox, which you can do at rayharmony.substack.com. It’s free to subscribe, and I don’t put any of my essays behind a paywall, they’re all free!

If you want a way to support my work, though, then please give the podcast a 5-star rating in your app, and share it with someone who may find it interesting, too. A heartfelt thank-you for being here, my friend, you are deeply valued. And now here is my latest essay.

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In my previous essay, Replaced by Robots, I shared how AI steals my intellectual property and gives it away for free. As a result of this theft, I’ve lost 90% of my income. Yes, 90%. And it was less than a high-school teacher’s salary to begin with. But, while I’m now making significantly less than minimum wage, that’s not actually the worst thing AI has done to me.

Despite suffering from insomnia, I used to bounce out of bed every morning with purpose. People found value in my work. They liked the way I taught music. And they were happy to pay for my teaching. After AI began stealing my teachings and giving them away for free, though, there was no reason for people to visit my website anymore, let alone buy anything.

So now, most days I don’t sell anything. Not even my book, which I’ve lowered the cost of the ebook format from 10 dollars down to a pathetic 99 cents. I only felt experienced enough to start writing that book after I’d been teaching for 20 years, and then I worked extremely hard on it for a whole year. Yet almost nobody is willing to buy it any more. Not even for 99 cents!

When the world tells us that the work we’ve been doing for over 30 years is no longer of any value, there’s no reason to get out of bed in the mornings.

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AI has brainwashed people into believing that all intellectual property should be free. This is dangerous, because the world’s most creative humans are rapidly being forced into poverty. But, AI can only steal and recycle what these humans have previously created. What does a world look like when human creativity has ended, and all we have is remixed ideas from robots?

So what do you do when AI takes your job? And rest uneasy, because unless we start resisting the robots soon, AI will eventually steal everyone’s work and their purpose for getting out of bed in the mornings. So what do we do? I don’t know. I’ve been suffering from depression and anxiety for years as a result of my life’s work being devalued to the point that people don’t even want to pay 99 cents for it. So I’m afraid if you were looking for solutions, then you’re in the wrong place.

All I know for sure is that we need to resist the robots, and support human creativity. So please look at your monthly budget. Where can you reallocate a little money to the arts? And when I say “the arts”, I mean all the creative ways that humans use to express themselves, from playing music to writing fiction, from dancing to gardening, and all the other wonderful ways, too!

Imagine if everyone in the world who owned a smartphone simply waited one year longer than planned before buying a new phone (or any other tech gadget), and spent that money on the arts instead. That would change everything, overnight!

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Remember, you’re voting with your dollars every day. For example, despite the fact that my income is a lot less than minimum wage, I still buy paper books. I rent a basement suite, I don’t go out, I don’t eat much, the last time I went to a restaurant or got takeout food was in 2018, my phone is 11 years old, and I haven’t bought any clothes in many years. But, there are always new books arriving at my door. Priorities!

Here’s another example. You know that financial guru who’s always talking about lattes, and how if people bought index funds instead of their daily latte, they’d all be millionaires eventually. That’s built on a ton of speculations and assumptions about the future, though, whereas spending your latte money (today) on supporting the arts, changes the world right now. You win. The artist wins. The world wins.

Be the change you wish to see in the world. And for that artist who you give your latte money to today, you not only help them pay their bills, you also give them purpose, and that purpose gives them hope. You’re giving them a reason to get out of bed in the mornings. And that’s priceless. Please take a moment with me to imagine a world where people spend their daily latte money on supporting the arts instead. Now that’s a world I want to live in!

And on that note, if you want to support my work, it’ll only cost you one latte a month. If my writing doesn’t resonate with you, though, I totally understand. I’m a Marmite kinda guy. Always have been, always will be! But please consider becoming a paid subscriber to another writer on Substack.

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Or perhaps buy a paperback book with your latte money. Or go to a concert. I know that’ll cost you a few lattes, but live music is infinitely more valuable than coffee, and while that caffeine buzz will wear off after a few hours, the memories from a live show will last a lifetime. Now that’s value for money!

Lastly, if you’re interested in making music yourself, you can download my Free Book and Free PDF Tutorials. I’ve got resources for songwriters and producers at every level, from complete beginner all the way up to advanced. And if you’d like me to keep doing this work, you can become a paid subscriber on my Substack.

A heartfelt thank-you to all the kind people currently paying. There are 23 of you at the moment. I know each one of you by name. I see you, and I thank you for sticking with me through this difficult time. It means the world to me. And please know that I’m working really hard on overcoming my depression and anxiety, so I can post more regularly once again.

If you can’t afford to become a paid subscriber or make a one-off contribution right now, though, no problem, you can give the podcast a 5-star rating in your app, and share this episode with someone who may find it interesting. That helps support my work, too. Thanks for being here, I truly appreciate you. I’m Ray Harmony, and I hope you’ll join me again next time. Until then, remember to stop and smell the music.

Photo by Mart Production

 

 

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About.

 

Ray Harmony is a multi award-winning music lecturer who’s made music with Serj Tankian (System Of A Down), Tom Morello (Rage Against The Machine), Steven Wilson (Porcupine Tree), Devin Townsend (Strapping Young Lad), Ihsahn (Emperor), Kool Keith (Ultramagnetic MCs), Madchild (Swollen Members), and more. Ray is also the founder of Hack Music Theory, a YouTube channel with over 10 million views and over 255,000 subscribers learning the fast, easy and fun way to make music without using AI, cos it ain’t no fun getting a robot to write “your” songs! Everything here is 100% Human and 0% AI.

 

 

Photo by Timur Weber