Chan discusses the value of human creativity and the importance of compensating artists when training AI
Artificial intelligence has taken over the cultural conversation in the last several years, and its use in creative spaces like the music industry is still being negotiated between fans, artists and industry leaders. Tracy Chan, CEO of Splash Music whose resume includes leadership roles at Twitch, Soundcloud and YouTube, is working to weave the human experience of making music into generative AI. In a conversation with Curb College Dean Brittany Schaffer, Chan shared how he innovates in the technology space by putting artists at the center of AI development.
Splash Music is a music-focused game development company that creates content for the online gaming platform Roblox. After noticing his daughter using the platform in early 2020, Splash’s founder began to build an AI model by hiring commissioned musicians to create music for AI training, then implementing it in the game for players to interact with and make their own musical creations. Today, Splash is the biggest music game on Roblox with 480 million players since its launch.
After joining the company as its CEO, Chan saw the success of the game and wondered how it could be even more interactive. “One thing that's true about today's media ecosystem is that most platforms are made for consumption – you listen to music, or you watch videos,” he said. “They all struggle to reach the younger generations because, as it turns out, y'all are creators.”
In his previous work across interactive platforms like Twitch and Soundcloud, Chan discovered the connections that fans have with their favorite artists. He then combined fan communities and the creator economy by commissioning various artists to each train one AI model so users could collaborate with it in a way that felt as though they were collaborating with their favorite artist. Through this innovative approach, Chan enabled players to forge deeper connections with to their favorite artists by giving them a glimpse into the collaborative artistic process.
Chan emphasized the importance of keeping human fingerprints on AI-generated work, even when it is created by users as part of a game. “The question is ‘Why do people create?’” he explained. “If you have a product where people can create things but no one cares about it, it’s not a good product.
“That's kind of the stage we are in with AI. What we have in AI art is a bunch of technologists who found an interesting technology, but they haven't actually found the use. We have to figure out how to make it resonate.”
Building Platforms for Artist Success
This isn’t Chan’s first time bringing creators to the tech table; he helped develop YouTube Creators and Spotify for Artists, both of which enable creators to track data on their success and monetize their content. “Any time you create art, the only thing that you care about is if it resonates with the world,” he said. “What technology can enable is the chance to actually know how your art is resonating and reaching your audience.”
After making his mark on Spotify, Chan moved to Twitch at the beginning of 2020. During a time when concerts were getting canceled and merchandise sales were falling, Twitch served as a platform for artists to keep making a living through virtual concerts and interactive fan experiences. From hosting music festivals on the platform to creating new content highlighting up-and-coming artists, Chan and his team ensured that music kept people employed and connected through an overwhelmingly difficult time for the music industry.
It was also during his time with Twitch that he realized the value of dedicated fans. He explained that in streaming, an artist needs 50 to 100 million streams to earn $50,000, whereas an artist only needs 183 fans watching at any given time to earn that same amount on Twitch. “If you focus on a small set of people who really resonate with your art, that's where there's a big opportunity,” he said. “The future of music is learning to engage with superfans the way they want to engage.”
Chan’s extensive work as an advocate for musicians in the tech sphere has given him insights into the complex relationship between artists, fans and the broader music industry. His conversation with Schaffer is just one in a series of seminars held by the Curb College of Entertainment & Music Business.
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