A Letter from Andre: Care of the Soul.

I learned recently that Spotify have a program where they hire ghost artists to record tracks that sound the same as existing music on their popular playlists. They then buy the rights to the master copies, and quietly insert them in curated playlists. This saves Spotify a huge amount on musician royalties (these ghost tracks can achieve millions of streams and out-perform Grammy award winning artists), and according to internal communications at Spotify, they believe that listeners "won't know the difference". If you're interested more in the story you can search for the article in Harpers by Liz Pelly or for the newsletters written by Ted Gioia on Sub stack.

This really disturbed me when I read it, and as well as prompting a changing of my listening habits on Spotify (goodbye recommended playlists, and hello to full albums again), it made me start to think about the nature of art, creativity, and underneath that; soul.

What's the difference between a musician being paid to write a track as a ghost artist, versus being paid to write an original track?

Why has my passion for music dwindled over the years?

Why do I often think of music these days as something for the background, rather than obsessing over artists, album launches, and lyrics like I used to?

Are the two linked? Has my relationship with the art of music been affected by capitalist and corporate policy?

Have I unconsciously realised that music (at least in curated playlists) has lost it's soul?

There is a greek word - "meraki"; which means to put your love into the creation of something.

Have you ever heard the phrase that the most important ingredient for cooking is love? I certainly know that when I cook with love and care, my dishes turn out wildly different than when I don't. I can literally taste the difference. I can taste that love. That soul.

And why would music be any different? It's an intangible thing. Maybe impossible to measure. But I believe there is incredible value, maybe the most value, contained in the care and love of another human being.

I think this is an important time to consider these questions, given the degree of AI driven interactions and content that is out there at the moment. And trust me, I am not an anti-AI lobbyist. I even used to run an AI company. But I do believe that there are many things AI can do extremely well, and also that there are some things that they can't. Delivering soul is one of them.

I also believe that AI is just the latest tool of a system that is driven by the market. Where bottom lines and P&L statements dictate how things are done, rather than human intuition. The ends are driving the means. The cart is pushing the horse.

What's the difference between a chat bot and a human doctor consultation?

McDonalds versus your mums home cooking?

Chat GPT versus Mary Oliver?

One of our live edge solid wood tables vs a flat pack construct from Ikea?

A hand crafted cup created by Clare Anderson, or a mass produced one from a kitchen wholesaler?

I'm not saying that Al-generated, machine made, or mass produced things are bad. Far from it. Functionally they can be excellent. They can perform (and often out-perform) just as well as the more human alternative.

But I think there is something else. Something intangible and inescapable and integral to things made with more of a human touch. More human care. More soul.

And given my experience with Spotify and music, I now see that all these intangibles (or lack of) do rub off on me. They do affect me. They change my soul too.

A lack of soul drains mine away. An abundance of soul fills it.

This isn't an essay to wage war against the system or AI or the state of the world. All of these systems for scale and growth and profit have been created for good reason, and I know I have benefitted from them greatly. Sometimes I know choices are made for good financial reason. Sometimes cheaper and mass produced is all that we can afford. And sometimes, like the case with Spotify, a decision to choose a track with soul can be entirely free. All it costs is your attention.

This is simply a personal reminder to myself that soul matters. Intention matters. And if I have a choice, then to recognise it and choose the path of soul will leave me feeling more full, more whole. It will leave me more human.