Ah man, c'mon now.
Spurred on by two things: this skeet (yes that's what we're calling Bluesky posts now) by Posthuman, and the fact that Blank Tape had it's birthday a few days ago, I just wanted to say, for the record, that AI album covers look like absolute shit.
I'm sorry, but they all look exactly the same, like a fucking takeaway menu or something, and even after you divorce the catastrophic environmental impact it has, not to mention the theft of millions of copyrighted works, or the very questionable business practices by a lot of them, the fact of the matter is it looks and feels like absolute shit.
I mentioned Blank Tape, because the argument I heard more often than not in that Bluesky thread was 'oh I don't have time' or 'I don't have the money', etc. and I'm like, buddy - you think worriedaboutsatan has millions of pounds for these things? No of course I don't, but I do what every single artist has had to do for every release they've ever done up until the year 2024: get creative. Blank Tape's cover is just a photo of my garage door with a Critteri visual synth blasting at it. Literally all it is - took longer to clean the garage than it did to take the shot, but it means that the aesthetic of the album, the feel of it, remains 1) something I controlled and 2) connects on a much greater scale than AI slop ever could. It does not, I'd like to think, look like absolute shit.
There were lots of arguments for and against being chucked about all day, but the one I just can't get out of my head is: what are you even doing this for if you're going to just cop out right at the point where you want to draw attention to this wonderful piece of art you've just created? Typing "I dunno, some trees or something" into an AI generator and slapping that as your cover just screams "sorry, couldn't be arsed even doing the absolute bare minimum to present this incredible piece of music to the world, so I cheaped out and slapped some slop I found" - like carrying around a £10k guitar in a binbag - why would you do that?! Just to reiterate: it looks like absolute shit.
The only reason you're making music, I'm guessing, is because you have some feeling, or some sort of emotion that you want to express in a musical form - that's literally the reason art exists. If you outsource one very vital part of that to a computer, why should I be bothered by it? I can log onto Facebook and see millions of grandpa AI slop pictures if I want, none of them really resonate or connect on any level, because it's not trying to express anything - it can't by it's very being. Computers don't feel emotions, or have vibes or know what looks aesthetically pleasing - it's just a deeply inhuman attempt at making something it thinks it's vaguely like what you're after. Why should I try to connect with this piece of art, musical or otherwise, if you're just giving that job to a computer? It doesn't feel, so why should I try to? If you can't be arsed mate, I'm not going to be - why? Because these things look like absolute shit.
And anyway, as this skeet from Tarotplane explains, making friends with other cool artistic people is fucking ace. Why would you not want to do that?! If you can't bring yourself to make a cover yourself, well then find someone who can! More often than not, you can licence a picture pretty cheaply, or free if you're mates - the last couple of satan releases that had covers which weren't by me were just by friends who very kindly offered their photos completely free of charge - Providence, Crystalline, Falling But Not Alone, Time Lapse - all were free. Why? Because I made friends with cool people, and although I offered to pay them, they didn't want it because they believed in the artistic value of it. And it's that easy! Jusk ask! Tarotplane even revealed that a Gerhard Richter piece they used as a cover cost them the sum of €25 euros for the admin fee - that's insane! Use your fucking brain, your imagination, the very thing you're supposed to be presenting to the world with your music, because I'm sorry, but these things look like absolute shit.
Making a cover should be fun too, the whole process should be fun to be honest - I'm not here to impart a lecture about the value of art, etc. but as none of us are making mega bucks, the whole process should be fucking fun. There's no joy in just typing a prompt, burning a rainforest and ripping off millions of artists so you can have a front cover that looks like absolute shit. Have some fucking joy in it! If you still can't find or make a picture for your art, then go to MSpaint and fill a big square with any colour. Because even that is more creative than letting some computer program do it for you. Whip out your camera phone, download a trial of Photoshop, talk to some people, do something. "oh but I just make the music, I can't do art" well tough shit buddy, it's 2024 so you're gonna have to learn. We all did! It's easy, it's fun, it's never been easier and never been more fun to do it. Buy a cheap camera off ebay, use your camera phone, do fucking anything, I beg you, than use AI for your covers, because:
THESE THINGS LOOK LIKE ABSOLUTE SHIT.
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