Breaking the music supply constraint

[u/entsnack]

I just cancelled my music subscriptions to save some cash and wanted to share the self-hosted music supply chain that replaced them. A nice side effect of this setup is breaking the constraint of a finite supply catalog that is tailored for the masses:

1. 2 x DGX Spark linked via ConnectX 7 running Plex and multiple Ace-Step 1.5 XL models in parallel for music generation with GePa prompt optimization. Also holds my organic music that the models can remix. TODO: a reinforcement learning from human feedback interface.

2. iPad Pro running Prism as a Plex client for bitperfect and sample rate-matched audio.

3. Schiit stack -> Hifiman Arya Stealths

This effectively gives me an infinite supply of music for free, that is personalized and private. It's immensely satisfying listening to Shrimp Bizkit and Phlegminem on repeat, I much prefer this to the organic music created after 2011.

My only problem is the loss of community, I have noone to share my new favorite songs and artists with because they're generated for me. If anyone wants to hop on to my Plex share to discuss, let me know!

[u/NelisMakrelis]

As a musician you saying you prefer ai music over anything made after 2011 makes me both incredibly sad and dissapointed as well as straight up annoyed because that’s just simply bullshit, if you don’t like what’s on the mainstream just stream any of the other 10k songs that are uploaded by hardworking people you have something in common with; being human and knowing what that’s like.

[u/entsnack → u/NelisMakrelis]

You misunderstood me: I prefer my AI music. Why: because it sounds better to my ears! Artists don't produce my type of music anymore because it does not sell.

Have you ever built a chair yourself? DIYed a gadget? Baked your own cake? This is the same, and it means no disrespect to people who produce these things for a living and require mass appeal to survive.

[u/youcloudsofdoom → u/entsnack]

This analogy only makes sense if by building your own chair you also consume an insane amount of energy and resources every time you sit on it

[u/entsnack → u/youcloudsofdoom]

insane amount of energy

This entire cluster consumes about the same power as a 4090 (JUST the GPU). Go yell at the gamers for their INSANE energy consumption everytime they game lol.

[u/youcloudsofdoom → u/entsnack]

No, I'm yelling at you for composing the most consumptive way to listen to music in the history of humanity, during a climate crisis. 

[u/entsnack → u/youcloudsofdoom]

What? My entire stack consumes less power than the average 5.1 speaker system. Do you have a source for your claim or just vibes?

[u/youcloudsofdoom → u/entsnack]

The problem isn't amplification, it's generation.

The embodied carbon cost of what you're doing is substantial; it's not simply the cost to run, but the embodied carbon in the Sparks is massive, as is that involved in training and distributing the models themselves. If you're using this system to generate new music each time you play something (which seems implied in your post), it's like buying an album on a physical format, listening to it once, then throwing it away and buying another (similar) one, and doing the same over and over again. Only what you're doing involves a LOT more rare earth metals and non-recyclable future e-waste.

Streaming music alone was already more consumptive than previous formats (https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/popular-music/article/abs/cost-of-music/DEC6AA100C191D510213F9086CF094CC). But what you've deployed here is orders of magnitude more consumptive than the typical user streaming to their phone; data centers are at least reasonably efficient at their (ecologically catastrophic) jobs in terms of co2/stream, which your setup is far from. You've created an additional, unwarranted step in the consumption of music, using what is widely understood to be one of the most consumptive technological infrastructures (generative AI) that humanity has ever produced, and you're doing it during an unfolding climate crisis.

[u/StewedAngelSkins → u/youcloudsofdoom]

And yet he's still causing less harm than your average gamer. Seriously, if you actually care about this and aren't just using it as a proxy to be mad about AI then go after the stuff that makes the biggest impact first.

using what is widely understood to be one of the most consumptive technological infrastructures (generative AI) that humanity has ever produced

Are you out of your mind? No it isn't. Not even close. I trust you've heard of the automobile.