In May 1976, at a place then known as Jersey City State College, a man with vast experience in and a great understanding of the music world spoke to the music students and faculty. His name was Stan Sheldon. On that day, Stan said two things will affect musicians for the rest of their careers: the changing trends in popular music…and technology. After his talk, several faculty members told him not to worry, saying, “The big bands are coming back,” and “Machines will never replace live instruments.”

Since then, a few things have happened.

• DJs, which had been a small part of the wedding and live event industry, eventually dominated the world of club dates.
• Sampled sounds quickly replaced human instrumentalists in the world of commercial music and elsewhere. (Around that time, Local 802 did a survey. For the period 1983 to 1984, Local 802 found there were 40 percent fewer players listed on recording contracts, indicating a huge drop in the number of musicians hired for recording dates. And that was 40 years ago.)
• Music notation software became more usable, with Finale entering the scene in 1988. This revolutionized music copying and music preparation.
• With the beginning of cable TV, music cues known as library music started to saturate TV as well as jingles.
• By the year 2000, musicians were recording and sending tracks from their home studios.
• A few years later, hologram performances were taking place with musicians seen on stage who were actually thousands of miles away…or completely computer generated.
• And of course, virtual orchestra technology (and now KeyComp) intruded into the musical theatre world.

All of this tech — and too many other things to be mentioned here — has eliminated thousands of jobs. At the same time, a few folks have figured out how to adapt.

Now artificial intelligence, which has been around for decades, has hit like a tidal wave and is improving virtually every day. Consider this: hundreds of thousands — maybe millions — of music cues already exist in digital music libraries. Combine this with AI, and so much of the existing composing and performance work can be done by a computer. Is this the end of fair wages, benefits, session fees, doubles, cartage, music prep and more? That is the fear. But is that how it will really end up?

This is why the Local 802 AI Committee was formed and why it is needed: to see what is actually going on and inform the membership what they are up against. A few would rather waste time and argue about who will sit where at the table. So many meetings at Local 802 over the years have turned into 90 percent of the meeting being folks talking about “what we used to do.” The AI Committee needs to be about what we can do…now!

To join us on the Local 802 AI Committee, send an e-mail of inquiry to Local 802 Chief of Staff Dan Point at dpoint@local802afm.org. Or reach out to me to talk about AI and how tech is changing our field, which is so important to all of us. You can reach me at bobpawlo@hotmail.com or (973) 714-0665.

Bob Pawlo, a member of Local 802 since 1985, is a longtime professional woodwind player who worked as a recording rep at Local 802 for many years. Opinion pieces in Allegro, including MEMBER TO MEMBER, do not necessarily reflect the views of the officers, members or staff of Local 802. To inquire about submitting a piece to Allegro, send an e-mail to Allegro@Local802afm.org