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Comment by QuiDortDine | Hacker News Reader

> It’s something people love to be, but in a world with recorded audio, you don’t need as many musicians as you once needed (and it was actually a fairly common job).

I do wonder if people are going to start valuing in-person experiences more and more, as anything on the internet can now be faked (or AI-generation, which, artistically speaking, is close to the same thing). If we do, might we see a boom of live performers? Will minstrels make a comeback? An interesting possibility, if still not reassuring.

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Live performance hasn't gone away. I live outside a village (in Ireland) with around 1000 residents and there's live music in one or other of the pubs 4 nights (or more) a week

Irish trad scene is unique in this regard. There are Irish trad sessions everywhere in the world (I was able to visit some in quite faraway places like Moscow, Istanbul or Santiago de Chile), and in Ireland there are a few in every village, and then some.

But that's just it, Irish trad. Frenchies have something similar with balfolk, but not so epic, and while there are other strong European folk scenes, none of them is on the scale of Irish trad. Alas.

Source: I play jigs and reels for fun.

It's not just trad though really - there's a bit of trad (and a fair few ballads) in my local pub but you could also hear pretty much any popular song from the last 50 years.

(... for anyone who's curious - "trad" usually means traditional dance music like jigs and reels, "ballads" mostly means Irish-y sounding songs sung in English)

Although circleofavshape's observation applies equally well to my part of the US. Even very tiny towns around here have live music multiple nights per week.

The past 30 years have resulted in an erosion of in-person experiences. People used to be social: clubs, bowling, movies, whatever. Now people even work from home.

People prefer to be in their houses on their computers and to interact with “others” (people, bots, videos of people doing things) from their favorite chair.

I don’t think in-person experiences are coming back any time soon unless there is some sort of major cultural shift that nobody could predict. A lot has been written about this trend.

The problem with in-person experiences is other people. If we could solve that problem, the experience would be greatly improved. :)

More likely outcome is that people will consume even more content. Because it will be more addictive and tailor made for them.

Seems like big capture of peoples minds by comporations.

But is the idea of "content" really all that?

When I listen to a recording of a 18th century Danish fiddle tune, is it a bunch of notes and chords that can be imitated? Sure. And it can certainly be imitated by a professional human style imitator or an AI.

But I'm not just looking for a string of pleasant chords and tones to massage my feelings. The context is part of what it is. It's not really "content", it's communication. The guy who made it, wanted to say something. Something that was important to him, which he thought better put into music than into text. He's dead almost 300 years ago, but I want to hear what he wanted to say.

Which isn't to say there isn't room for AI-generated (or professional composer-generated) imitations. They're trained on the real stuff, it's the echo of real people we hear. But that's why it's valuable, not as generic "content".

Context is certainly important. Atleast for people who lived through times when art took human effort and was rare.

But what if upcoming generations see it just as something antique? Old concept thats dead because their concept of art/media has always been tailor made and generated for them.

Also who says the AI wont also generate the context. You will get some medival music with authors backround and everything. You might not even know the person didnt exist. The way AI is developing now nobody will care about AI just making things up on the way.

> I do wonder if people are going to start valuing in-person experiences more and more, as anything on the internet can now be faked

Probably not.

If I like some content, why would I care it it is "fake"?

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