Music industry professionals joined The Hollywood Reporter and the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music to look to the future by co-hosting the inaugural Future of Music event Thursday evening.
Yungblud, who was recently nominated for three Grammys, was the evening’s guest of honor, speaking to THR music editor Ethan Millman on the resurgence in popularity of rock music. The 28-year-old rocker made the crowd laugh and applaud.
Audrey Benoualid, partner at Myman Greenspan Fineman Fox Rosenberg & Light, Serona Elton, associate dean of the Frost School of Music and chair of the music industry department, Evan Winiker, managing partner of Range Music, Isabel Quinteros, vice president of industry marketing relations at Jen AI, and songwriter and producer Roahn Hylton also participated, speaking on the Future of Music panel.
The group delved into the realities of artificial intelligence in the music industry and what the landscape might look like in the future; The industry’s move away from a monetization model in the AI music era was a hot topic during the panel. Quinteros brought up Suno, the AI music platform, which recently raised $250 million in funding, and that she believes private equity firms will soon join the conversation.
“More than $20 billion has been invested in music acquisition over the last six years. Private equity now owns a large portion of the music catalogs being trained on,” she said. “I think depending on where we land here over the next year, I can see people like BlackRock and other big private equity firms getting into the fight, because they now have skin in the game.”
Shelly Berg, Audrey Benoualid, Evan Winiker, Isabel Quinteros Annous, Serona Elton, Roahn Hylton and Ethan Millman.
JC Olivera
The big question for the assembled industry executives was whether AI would lead to a better or worse music industry in the coming years. The entire panel seemed optimistic about the future. “I think we’ll start to see all the tools get licensed and we’ll talk more about how monetization is going to work, rather than whether that’s what’s going to happen,” Elton said.
Later, Yungblud brought his signature energetic approach to talking about rock and its place in the future of music. The 28-year-old singer had a banner year that earned him three Grammy nominations, including Best Rock Album, Best Rock Song and Best Rock Performance. “I was at that point in my life [where] I was so tired of trying to be a little less of what I am,” the rocker said. “I did [latest album Idols]and it could have gone like a fucking pear shape, but it didn’t.
He emphasized that he wanted to make a classic rock album in the modern era, and that the reasoning for leaning fully into rock, as Yungblud explained, was quite simple. “I didn’t like the sound of my third record. I thought it was like fucking watered down [soda]he told the crowd, which drew laughter for his frankness.
Yungblud
JC Olivera
When it comes to the resurgence of mainstream popularity of rock music, Yungblud pointed to several factors as to why he thinks things are happening the way they are. “As a band, we always say, ‘Who’s going to save rock and roll?’ We’re still kind of identifying that it’s going to be one person,” he said.
“The reality of the situation is that every time she has stood up and dominated or kicked the ass of the mainstream, it’s always when she’s spherical. It’s multiple scenes happening at the same time, and it’s multiple scenes enhanced by the freedom of the Internet,” he continued. “I think with rock music, it’s not going to be one person’s thing.”
The singer also lamented the fact that historically, the media aspect of rock music has led people to compete with each other, instead of being open to collaboration or touring with artists they like. He noted that the genre was not as open to admitting that they take inspiration from the music they love, citing hip-hop and rap as genres that have succeeded in this way.
