The Human Signal #42 - Simulacrum and the Future of Releasing Music.

In this episode I reflect on releasing my new single Simulacrum and what that process is revealing about the current state of music online. I talk about trying to protect the integrity of my work in an increasingly extractive digital landscape, the emotional and practical questions that come with that, and the tension between ethical release choices and the need for visibility, connection, and audience. I also speak about the song itself, how it was made, and why it feels strangely fitting to be releasing it at this particular moment.Mentioned in this episode: 6 week Ableton course run by Brian Dillon - if you’re interested in doing one you can find him on Instagram @brian_dillon.is_sound Today I want to talk about the song, the process of releasing it so far, the things I’ve been thinking about.Going through this process has brought up a lot. I’m trying to remain as ethical as I can and retain integrity in how I’m approaching my music releases, but at the same time I’m also trying to enjoy the fact that I have actually released a song - The Persona Project has been growing for a long time, it’s been years in the making, so getting to this point is a milestone.The overarching reality I’m seeing through this release is that the integrity of human-made music is very much at stake. I’m not trying to sound dramatic but this is just what I’m observing. It’s not only about who gets paid anymore, or what the royalties are. It’s about whether artists are actually able to release work online at all, without it being absorbed into the very systems that are destroying the online music ecosystem. It is technically possible, but it brings up existential questions.The biggest thought I’m wrestling with at the moment is this: if protecting the integrity of my work makes it so hard for people to find the music or access it, then what exactly am I preserving that integrity for? I make music to connect with people. I make music to share the human experience with other humans. At what point does protecting the work turn into making it inaccessible and therefore missing it’s core purpose or function entirely?So yesterday I published the first song from an upcoming record I’m releasing as part of The Persona Project. The record is called Flesh and Bone.For those who might not know, The Persona Project is a multidisciplinary music project involving multiple personas, different sound worlds, visual worlds, and eventually a larger performance. I’ve been working on it for years, funding it myself while also working freelance full-time in the arts. There have been setbacks and long pauses along the way, so I’m genuinely delighted to have finally reached the point where I could publish this single.The song I released yesterday is called Simulacrum. It’s written about the escalation of AI and the way that technology is warping our sense of reality and making it more difficult to distinguish what’s real and what’s not. You can’t trust what you see online in the same way anymore, but beyond that, it also feels like our lived experience of reality is being disturbed.One of the things I sing about in the song is how we are no longer seeing an authentic starscape when we look at the night sky, because thanks to Elon Musk there are now over 11,000 Starlink satellites orbiting the Earth, and that number is growing all the time. There is something deeply tragic about that to me. I think a lot about our ancestors, who used the stars for navigation, and about the role the stars have played in our collective human experience. I know all of that still exists, but it still feels like a loss that the integrity of the sky has been disturbed in this way.I wrote the song back in October, at a time when I was really grappling with Spotify, AI, and everything that was unfolding online. I felt overwhelmed by it all. This song became a way for me to process that uncertainty, frustration, and grief over the loss of the world we have known.Around the same time I was also reading Jean Baudrillard’s Simulacra and Simulations, which felt very relevant. The word simulacrum was already on the tip of my tongue, and the song emerged from those two things coming together: reading that text and observing the lived reality unfolding around me.Music-wise, I wrote the bones of the song while doing an Ableton Live course. The first version was dreamy, soft, and brooding, and over time it evolved into something much more aggressive and sonically dense. Once the song moved into the studio and Brian started working on it with me in more detail, it really opened up. The guitars, pedals, bass, and wider sound palette changed everything, and over time the track became what it is now.While all of that was happening, I was also trying to arrange a launch event in Dublin. I wanted to do a screening event with music videos and making-of material, but everything I looked at was prohibitively expensive. I had to accept that the in-person event wasn’t going to happen this time. So instead I turned my focus to the online release strategy, and that’s where the real trickyness became activated.I don’t want my music to fuel extractive, destructive systems. That feels ethically wrong to me. But I also know I’m painting myself into a pretty small corner by making these choices. I am constantly balancing visibility against ethical integrity.So far I’ve released the album as a pre-order on Bandcamp, and Simulacrum is available there as the playable single. Beyond that, Brian and I do want to make the music available on a select number of streaming services, but the details are very important. Spotify is out. YouTube Music is deeply problematic. SoundCloud has also been implicated in AI scraping and training. The only two platforms I’m currently considering are Tidal and Qobuz.But the real difficulty is not just the streaming platforms. It’s the digital distributors. Before you get anywhere near any of those platforms, you first have to sign a contract with a distributor, and their terms and conditions are often just as precarious.After pulling my music off Spotify, I still had distribution through DistroKid. But when I recently went back in, I discovered that because I had cancelled my subscription, I now have to pay again just to access the backend and find out what’s happening with my music. When I removed my music previously, the earnings from eighteen months of streaming came to forty-seven dollars before fees. What landed in my account was about thirty-three euro. So having to pay again just to access the account is infuriating, even if the amount itself seems small.Because of that, I decided I didn’t want to use a subscription-based distributor moving forward. I wanted a one-off fee model so I wouldn’t lose access later. The only digital distribution platform I could find that works that way is CD Baby, so that is what I’m going to try next.One of the biggest things I’ve learned is that you have to be incredibly careful with the distribution options you agree to. In many cases, everything is ticked by default, and some pathways now lead directly toward AI training or AI-generative platforms. Once your work is in there, you have very little control. It is limiting, distracting, and frustrating, but if you care, you have to take the time to understand it.So for now I’m focusing on Bandcamp. Bandcamp is the only platform that has formally stated that they are banning AI from the platform, and that feels like a genuine relief.There is also something strangely apt about releasing Simulacrum right now. Of all the songs to be putting out into the world at this moment, a song about AI, unreality, and the destabilisation of human creative life feels like the right one. The release itself is exposing the exact conditions the song is about.Before I sign off, I want to return to the question I’m still wrestling with: whether trying to preserve the integrity of my music and act ethically in how I release it is actually becoming prohibitive to my bigger goal, which is to connect with people. Visibility matters for that. Not because I care about having a big profile or being ‘successful’ in that conventional way, but because visibility is part of connection. It is part of how people find the work, hear it and resonate with it.So that is the thing I’m trying to get my head around now: how much do I value visibility for that reason, and how much am I willing to compromise on my ethics in order to obtain it?There isn’t a clear answer. These are not just ethical questions. They are existential ones too. What is the purpose of making music at all? What is the purpose of releasing it? It feels essential to me, but how much am I willing to compromise to remain true to myself in the face of the systems we are so dependent on?That’s where I’m at with it right now anyway, and I’m still unfolding all of this as I go. Thanks for being here with me, and thanks for taking these steps along the road with me. We all have choices. All we can do is keep putting one foot in front of the other and move forward as best we can.It feels right to end this episode by playing you the song. So here she is, and remember: put humans first. Don’t feed the machine.If you enjoyed this podcast please share it with a friend or consider leaving a comment or review, it really helps me out. You can also support me and my work by becoming a paid member, it’s €5 per month on Substack and Patreon. And lastly, you can still find me on YouTube / Instagram as @the_persona_project__ & @laurasheeran_ieThat's all for now. Thanks for being here, and remember: Put humans first. Don't feed the machines. 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