A New Convert Builds an AI-Assisted Record Label
I’d spent a month and a half creating a compelling backstory for my new album. I’d read blogs, listened to podcasts, studied attachment economy, and come up with a name for my AI villain. I’d even devised an elaborate scheme that involved me getting kidnapped by human agents controlled by their incorporeal overlord. All that was left was to introduce my story to the world.
Let me back up – last year I performed 40 dates across the U.S. and Canada. The Soulveillance Tour was advertised as a human intelligence-gathering mission, with me (Soulful Secret Agent Ray) posing as an undercover spy.
What I (the fictional me and the real me) learned in those theatres, rooms, backyards and bars was a heartbreaking truth: many of us are carrying the same questions, fears, and longings. Instead of turning to each other for help, we drown our sorrows in scrolling, which leaves many of us feeling utterly alone.
So I wrote a collection of songs based on this shared “intel”. The plan was to release these songs covertly: limited-release demos with coded titles shared on obscure streaming platforms. The mission? To restore human connection far from the ubiquitous ear of the AI villain.
Then, just as I was sitting down to redesign my website and force my internet presence into hiding, a thought came to me: “We’ve been here before.”
See, my creative side has a habit of spending months concocting elaborate projects, only to launch them, half-cocked and untested, to meagre response. I wondered what would happen if, this time, I let my business brain take the reins.
I waded into ChatGPT a couple of years ago, and mainly used it to help me write social media post captions, suggest the best hashtags, outline workshop presentations, and suggest cool colour schemes for merch. More recently, it proved a very useful tool to keep my intricate album backstory from spinning off the rails, reviewing story versions for conceptual and chronological conflicts.
So I decided to run my disappearing album campaign strategy by it.
The first thing I did was write a prompt to create an A&R executive named “Quincy”. “Act as a senior A&R executive with 30 years of experience, specialising in identifying breakout talent through data analytics, sonic trends and gut feeling. Your name is Quincy, and you are based on the successes of Ahmet Ertegun and Jerry Wexler.” I defined the agent’s capabilities – trend scouting, data analysis –; supplied it with my career history, long-term goals, and current follower and monthly listener data; and tasked it to provide a report on my potential, biggest opportunity, brand and sonic weaknesses and strengths, my next 3 strategic moves, and a 3-month growth strategy.
“Quincy” responded with a very detailed assessment of my career, a very thorough growth strategy, and a very sobering fact about my current reality: if I were to achieve my long-term goals, there was no way I could “go into hiding.”
Well. Throwing away my elaborate album backstory would mean weeks of work down the drain. I didn’t much care for that idea. But I was intrigued by the possibility. What if “Quincy’s” advice turned out to be useful? What if I redesigned my album campaign to align with “Quincy’s” strategy, working towards my goals instead of against them?
What if – instead of framing AI as the villain in my story – I could use the technology to help my message reach more people, to strengthen human connection?
In the next post, I’ll share how I turned “Quincy’s” response into an AI-assisted record label: a six-department, 22-member organisation designed to help me achieve my goals.
Click here to read the original, elaborate album backstory.