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Continuation of the summerween saga - original post here: https://paragraph.com/@empresstrash/summerween-glitch-songs-of-the-summer?referrer=0x8469B7b08D30C63fEA3a248a198dE9D634B63d70
Previous episode of my AI music creation saga TL;DR: I have a concept album I made over the summer exploring grief using AI to create the music. I went to release it on SoundCloud and they rejected it, which made me super upset. I only had it released on Zora and Audius.
NOW though, an online friend of mine pointed me in the direction of DistroKid, a different web2 music distro service that DOES allow original AI music based on each store’s policy, not pushing their own agenda and letting artists and markets more autonomy. So I have released my albums on all major music platforms now and more to come!
Summerween: glitch songs of the summer part 1 and 2 were released serendipitously over Halloween/Day of the Dead, which I posted about lowkey on x and farcaster. I also released a single "sorry for all the despair". All these albums are darkwave/synthpop/glitchpop noise-adjacent experimental mostly instrumental AI music.
Instead of chasing the same polished, “safe” sound that dominates every playlist, I made a deliberate choice to go the opposite direction: treat AI like a chaotic new instrument that nobody has fully figured out yet. I wanted to drag out the weird glitches, the uncanny harmonies, the frequencies that make you feel like the song is falling apart and rebuilding itself at the same time; all the stuff that traditional music training tells you to “fix.” I kept pushing until the tracks felt alien, haunted, and deeply human all at once. The result is music that doesn’t sound quite like anything else out there right now, and honestly that feels like the biggest win of all. I’m stupidly proud of how unapologetically strange and personal it turned out.
While my complete catalogue is onchain on Zora and Audius, I have just these few, for now, distributed on all major networks like Spotify, Apple Music, Pandora, and even TikTok and Instagram.
I have to say I got really emotional, and still do, seeing my name in the Apple Music store with the word “Artist” under it, along with going to my TikTok profile and seeing the new music tab.
As someone who’s spent years slamming into wall after wall in my tradart and cryptoart careers with the rejections, gatekeeping, disappearing art from shows, policies and systems that seem designed to keep people like me (whatever that means) out, finally seeing my name sitting right there on Spotify and Apple Music, listed as “Artist” like it’s the most normal thing in the world, hits different. For once the system didn’t manage to shove me back into the margins. I get to take my seat at the same table as everyone else. It’s not just relief; it’s this stubborn, teary-eyed hope that maybe the doors aren’t all bolted shut after all.
There’s still a ton of outright hate and stigma aimed at anyone making art with AI, and honestly I think most of it is pointed in completely the wrong direction. The real fight should be with the corporations hoarding datasets and power, who have been exploiting artists some for decades already, not with independent artists who are just trying to express themselves and experiment with new technology.
The people like me who are wide-eyed critical of these tools, who spend hours wrestling with their limits and biases instead of blindly praising them...well, we’re the ones who actually understand what’s going on under the hood or at least trying. By staying in the mess, calling out the problems, and still creating anyway, we’re proving you can use the tech without selling your soul to it. I genuinely believe that’s how we steer toward a future that’s more fair and equitable for every artist and creator, not less, while inspiring the world to create more.I personally want MORE artists in the world, not less.
Speaking of building that fairer future, I’m lucky enough to be doing it right now with the support of people who actually get it.
I’m currently in a digital art residency with the Wait and Hope Foundation, and the project I’m working on feels like everything I’ve been fighting toward: a full narrative music video that weaves together AI-generated visuals and a brand-new track made the same unapologetically weird way as the albums. I’ll be dropping the song everywhere and minting/releasing the video itself as an NFT when it’s done. After years of making mostly isolated tracks, diving this deep into storytelling aspects I can bring together relatively quickly with AI feels electric.
Anyway, here are some links to my music! Please if you like it let me know <3
Audius:
Multiversatile Artist // Destigmatize // #cc0 #ai #glitch
Spotify:
Apple Music:
Listen to music by Empress Trash on Apple Music. Find top songs and albums by Empress Trash including sorry for the constant despair, wild seed and more.
Youtube:
3 comments
Great news article 🫶
Let's go
Now iam curious, time to you to your yt