Matt Connarton Unleashed 10-10-26 hour 1

0:03 Speaker 1: You're listening to Matt Connerton Unleashed on WMNH 95.3.

0:17 Speaker 2: Right now on Matt Connerton Unleashed, we have the world radio premiere of the new single from Awaiting Abigail. This is called Backstabber.

0:28 Speaker 1: You are listening to WMNH 95.3.

0:32 Speaker 2: World premiere. I thought.

0:49 Speaker 3: I knew, knew better than that.

0:52 Speaker 4: Give me what you want.

0:53 Speaker 2: Don't say I didn't.

0:55 Speaker 4: First time I think, oh, you act different.

1:00 Speaker 3: I thought I.

1:01 Speaker 4: Knew you better than that But your smile and my face talk.

1:05 Speaker 3: Behind your back Gave you.

1:07 Speaker 4: What you wanted, say I didn't First time I seen all you acting friends Dead end Going back on what you used to say then Heard you call me what you used to call them I don't really understand the problem You're the.

1:25 Speaker 5: Problem Foolish of me, I used to trust you.

1:30 Speaker 2: Wish I knew then, you've got issues.

1:33 Speaker 3: Knife behind your back, guess I was blind. Secretly jealous of me the whole time. Your two-face needs to get your story straight.

1:43 Speaker 4: I got the screenshot, but you won't see it in my face.

1:46 Speaker 2: When you see me, it's a different energy.

1:49 Speaker 3: Try to test me.

1:50 Speaker 4: Energy!

1:52 Speaker 3: I thought I.

1:53 Speaker 4: Knew, knew better than that But you smiled in my face, talked behind my back Gave you what you wanted.

2:01 Speaker 2: Say I didn't First time I seen girl.

2:03 Speaker 3: You act different I thought I knew, knew better than that But you smiled in my face.

2:09 Speaker 2: Talked behind my back Gave you what.

2:12 Speaker 4: You wanted, say I didn't First time I seen girl you act different Dead And going back on what she used to say Then heard you call me what you used to call them I don't really understand the.

2:28 Speaker 6: Problem You're the problem.

2:33 Speaker 4: Didn't think I'd hear What you.

2:40 Speaker 2: Did my own.

3:18 Speaker 4: I don't really understand the problem, you're the problem I thought I knew, knew you better than them But you smiled in my face, talked behind my back Gave you what you wanted, said I didn't First time I seen you, you act different I thought I knew, knew you better than them But you smiled in my face, talked.

3:41 Speaker 3: Behind my back.

3:50 Speaker 2: I love that. That is Backstabber by Awaiting Abigail. That is brand new. You heard it here first, the world radio premiere. First time that's been played on FM radio in the United States. Great band from Texas. Had a chance to see them live and meet them. When was that? What was it? Late winter, early spring? Hopefully they'll come around again sometime, but I know they tour a lot. They've been very busy and making new music, obviously, and we do love them so. So thank you again to James for sending us that, of course, from the band.

4:20 Speaker 2: And we will play that again later in the show. So if you missed it or if you came in at the tail end of it and you said, oh, that's catchy, I'd like to hear more of that. You will hear it again later because we are on for three hours on Saturday morning. But welcome, everybody. Here we go. Matt Connerton Unleashed. And we are live from the studios of WMNH 95.3 FM. in glorious Manchester, New Hampshire. Of course, you can stream the show from anywhere. Go to mattconnertonunleashed.com and click Listen Live, and that gets you the live stream.

4:51 Speaker 2: And, of course, you can stream the show on various social media platforms, etc., etc. You can also go to mattconnerton.com slash unleashed. for all that information. So there are many different ways to enjoy the program. So very happy to have you all with us today. We have an exciting show coming up in just a few minutes. The members of Then Comes Silence are going to be joining us. They are from Stockholm, so hopefully they don't have any problem connecting. You know, you never know with the transcontinental calls.

5:23 Speaker 2: No, but, uh, technology, uh, more often than not, uh, does come through for us. So, uh, so they should be joining us, uh, in just a few minutes. Let's see. Uh, we also have Mick Butler, uh, AKA sickie, uh, who will be joining us remotely as well. And then in the third hour we have, uh, uh, Dwayne Seagraves, I was trying to remember his last name, because I almost said Seagrams, but it's Seagraves, from Stevenson Ranch Davidians. I do love that name. Uh, he'll be with us, uh, in the first half of the third hour.

5:59 Speaker 2: And then in the second half of the third hour, we will be joined by Charles Richardson because tonight is the money in the bank, uh, WWE premium live event almost said pay-per-view, but we don't call them that anymore. I haven't called them that in a long time. But Money in the Bank, one of the big WWE premium live events, is going to be this evening. And so, you know, for you wrestling fans, especially if you're a fan of Mr. Iguana, I know that one of the other hosts here at WMNH loves Mr.

6:27 Speaker 7: Iguana.

6:29 Speaker 2: I don't think that he'll be coming up in the conversation specifically, but that will be in the second half of the third hour. Okay, did you get all that? So Charles Richardson from The Charles Richardson Show will be joining us. While we're on the subject, if you are listening live on Saturday, tonight, immediately after the Money in the Bank event, Eric Pilcher and I, and we didn't really announce this ahead of time, but surprise, well, I'm announcing it now ahead of time, but it is the return of the Tough Bumps podcast.

7:00 Speaker 2: We will be live streaming tonight right after the Money in the Bank premium live event. So if you go to the IPM Nation YouTube channel, best place to find it, you'll find the live stream there and it'll be on my Facebook and various social media platforms as well, Twitch and so forth. But best places, go to the IPM Nation YouTube channel. But we will be streaming live tonight, Eric Filter and I, right after the event. Let's see. I also do want to remind you, of course, a couple new sponsors that have come on board.

7:30 Speaker 2: I have come on board as a sponsor, Matt Connerton Hypnosis. So if you'd like more information about that and what I do, you can go to my website, mattconnerton.com. I like to spell the last name because people tend to spell it wrong. C-O-N-N-A-R-T-O-N. Matt, C-O-N-N-A-R-T-O-N.com. And, of course, we want to remind you about Xtrilly, who also came on just recently. Great ride share service. Manchester-based tech company launching their ride share service. And they are currently, right now as we speak, recruiting both drivers and riders in New Hampshire.

8:04 Speaker 2: So if you would like to be a rider and get the app, go to Xtrilly.com slash ride953. And if you'd like to make some money and be a driver, For Xtrilly, you can go to Xtrilly.com slash drive 953 to sign up. And Xtrilly, I should spell that for you as well. It is X-T-R-I-L-L-I. X-T-R-I-L-L-I. They've also come on board, of course, as part of our roster of amazing sponsors and advertisers here at WMNH, whom we are so very grateful for. They keep us going. But right now, we're going to play this track.

8:44 Speaker 2: This is the single from Then Comes Silence. I really like this project a lot. I like their sound. This is cool. This is called Remaker Redeemer. And then on the other side of this, we'll be talking with the members of Then Come Silence. Check this out.

9:44 Speaker 3: We close our eyes for the last time. Our reward awaits in the end. Another Redeemer. in the sky and then we die our hearts have joined a thousand.

11:23 Speaker 6: We take a step into the night.

11:31 Speaker 3: Opening our eyes things are new.

11:59 Speaker 4: Redeemer.

12:52 Speaker 2: I do love that. That is Remaker Redeemer. The band is Then Come Silence. They are from Stockholm. And we are going to play one more track from them right now. We're going to play another song called Judgment Day. This is another great song.

13:13 Speaker 8: Thank you.

13:45 Speaker 3: We built early from the judgment.

13:48 Speaker 6: Day Avoided being caught in the rain Made a deal for someone else.

13:55 Speaker 3: To pay We knew we'd never, ever be free From the sins and the choices we made We'd be the first to go.

14:09 Speaker 2: We'd be the first to.

14:13 Speaker 3: Go The things we were told.

14:29 Speaker 8: To do Stayed.

14:30 Speaker 1: Away, far away Lived our dreams without regret.

14:39 Speaker 3: We knew we'd never ever be free From the sins and the choices we made We'll be the first to go Senses streaming through the sleep. We don't need to wake up sooner.

16:40 Speaker 9: There's a party somewhere deep in the dreams.

16:46 Speaker 3: Putting all on the line.

16:50 Speaker 6: We only had so long.

16:56 Speaker 10: Wow.

17:26 Speaker 6: Before we go into their flames, this one's our man goes into the dark.

17:35 Speaker 3: Putting all on the line, we only have so long.

17:41 Speaker 10: Wanna fight for.

17:44 Speaker 3: More time, we only have so long.

18:29 Speaker 2: Oh, that is good stuff. That is Then Comes Silence. That track is called Boxed. But we will do some music industry news because I saw something that caught my attention. But when I tell you why this caught my attention, you'll see, you'll understand. Okay, let me preface this by saying, I'm not a gamer. Uh, and the reason I'm not a gamer is because I find it too psychologically addictive. And I've told the story on the air before. If you're a long time listener, you might've heard me tell this about how many, many years ago I was playing a game.

19:01 Speaker 2: It was the last time I ever played a video game. I was playing one of those raw versus SmackDown wrestling games and I got really into it. I was at a friend's house and we started playing this game together. I think it was like 10 PM and you know, Eventually, my friend fell asleep on the couch and I'm still awake, still playing the game. And it gets to be 2 a.m. I'm looking at the clock and realizing I've just spent four hours straight just playing this game. And it was 2 a.m. and I did have to be up early and I had other things I could have been doing.

19:34 Speaker 2: So I got to a point where I said, you know what, this is because I'd fallen into that thing of, you know, just one more game, just one more game, which is addict behavior, right? So I decided, I made a personal decision in that moment. I put down that control. and I never played another video game. That was it for me. Never played another video game. I said, it's just too psychologically addictive for me. I know that some people think that psychological addiction isn't real, that addiction can only be physical, chemical, that you can only be addicted to substances but not become psychologically addicted.

20:09 Speaker 2: You absolutely can be. And video games are a great example of how that can happen. I played a lot of video games, too, when I was a kid. Probably no more than the average kid. But yeah, so that was the end of my time as a gamer. Now, I have played GTA, Grand Theft Auto, again, before I decided I was never picking up another game controller. I used to play that with friends a little bit. Never really got hooked on it, though. Because my approach to playing, and I think this is probably true for a lot of people, my approach when I would play Grand Theft Auto was I wasn't really trying to accomplish anything.

20:44 Speaker 2: I'm just driving around in the game, just seeing what happens, seeing what crazy stuff happens, running people over, whatever. You know, not really trying, but just kind of having fun with it and goofing off. So I never got invested in it. Thank goodness. Because again, you know, it's a psychological addiction, or it can be. But one of the cool things about Grand Theft Auto is as you're driving around, songs come on the radio or different stations. You can listen to different stations as you're driving, and that's kind of fun.

21:14 Speaker 2: It's a fun feature of Grand Theft Auto. And then I saw this pop up on digitalmusicnews.com, GTA, what is it, VI, what is that, 6? GTA 6? I'm not good at my Roman numerals. That must be six, right? Because just V is five. V-I, that must be six. GTA 6 radio stations will feature hosts Bad Bunny, Burna Boy, Slayer, Trina, Robin, Lana Del Rey, and even Lana's husband. So the reason that that caught my eye is because, and if you're a longtime, this is something only longtime committed fans listeners to this program would know.

22:01 Speaker 2: But just like in Grand Theft Auto, and what I'm about to tell you, by the way, or if you don't know this, this is 100% true and verifiable. This is not a bit used to do when we were on in afternoons. The show is a little different, used to do a lot of bits. You know, you were never quite sure if you were a listener what was real and what was, you know, kind of embellished for the radio. Used to do a lot of that. We don't do that here anymore in the mornings on Saturdays. But I say all that to say, this is completely real.

22:31 Speaker 2: This isn't me doing a bit. This is completely real. Because sometimes when I tell people this, they don't believe me. But this show, Matt Connerton Unleashed, just like in Grand Theft Auto, where you have the different radio stations, different programming you can listen to while you drive around running people over or whatever you're doing in GTA, this show is actually in a video game. And the video game is called, and again, this is all 100% true, the video game is called Retired Men's Nude Beach Volleyball League.

22:59 Speaker 2: So this might sound familiar to people who've been with me for a long time, who are long-time listeners, but back in 2021, I think, it's obviously a very, I guess you'd call it an alternative game, right? It's certainly not a mainstream game, but you can find it. It is available on Steam.com. Retired Men's Nude Beach Volleyball League. And in the game, you know, you drive around the country and participate in different, well, different games of retired nude men's beach volleyball. And apparently as you drive into New Hampshire, I guess what comes on the radio?

23:42 Speaker 2: My show. Um, the makers of the game, they didn't even, it was a total surprise. Uh, they were fans of the show and they told me afterward after it was already out. So they never got my permission to, you know, use anything of mine, but that's fine. I honestly didn't care. I was so flattered and I just think it's the coolest thing in the world. So, and it is, uh, because I think it's the coolest thing in the world. I like talking about it and it's been a very long time since I've had an excuse to bring it up.

24:09 Speaker 2: But there you go. Yes, this show isn't a video game. We're not in Grand Theft Auto, but we are in the next best thing. Retired Men's Nude Beach Volleyball League. And that is a real... Everything I've told you is true. That's a real game. It is on Steam. You can get it. Yep, it's still available. I'm looking at it right now. It's only $ 6. 99. Yeah, it's cheap.

24:37 Speaker 7: But.

24:38 Speaker 2: You should get it and enjoy it. And enjoy when you drive into New Hampshire, my show comes on the radio. All right. Now, let's go back. Again, this has become a big thing in the music industry. Having your music in a Grand Theft Auto game is a big deal. It says here, and again, this is from digitalmusicnews.com. Ahead of the much-anticipated release of the latest Grand Theft Auto game, Rockstar Games reveals that the in-game radio stations will feature some serious talent on hosting duty. Rockstar Games' highly-anticipated new entry in the Grand Theft Auto franchise, Grand Theft Auto 6, again, I assume it's 6, is due for release on November 19.

25:19 Speaker 2: In the lead-up to that date, information continues to trickle in, including details about about the in-game radio stations, a fan-favorite aspect of the series. Now details have emerged about the respective DJs who will host those radio stations, and Rockstar has bagged some serious talent for the occasion. The game's programming will include a modern Latin station hosted by Bad Bunny, the hottest tracks in African music on AfroBank FM, hosted by Burna Boy and Palms Tracks, classic metal on Chamber 106.6, hosted by Kerry King and Tom Araya of Slayer.

25:55 Speaker 2: Oh, that's pretty cool. I like that. Pop hits and classics alike and et cetera, et cetera. It kind of goes through a list. It's quite the list. We won't go through the rest of this, but basically, but that's the deal with that. That gives you an idea of some of what you can expect in the new Grand Theft Auto game. The other thing that really caught my eye, because, jeez, you know, we talk about all this a lot on the show whenever we talk about music industry news. We talk about AI. We talk about streaming.

26:24 Speaker 2: We talk about piracy. We talk about this brave new world that we've entered with AI and how it impacts the music industry. And I say all the time, It reminds me, you know, for those of you who are old enough to remember, the sort of seismic shift and, frankly, some of the panic around some of it that we're going through right now in the music industry and how AI impacts it. It kind of reminds me of when Napster came in and file sharing became a thing. And vis-a-vis the Internet, music effectively became free.

26:56 Speaker 2: But this really jumped out at me again. This is from Music Business Worldwide. Music streaming fraud inquiry launched by U.S. Copyright Office. It says here, the U.S. Copyright Office has launched a public inquiry into music streaming fraud. The office published a notice of inquiry in the Federal Register on Wednesday, October 7, seeking information on how streaming fraud is carried out, its economic impact, and its relationship to AI-generated music. Now, I'm very curious to know, what exactly do they mean by streaming fraud?

27:33 Speaker 2: As I take a gulp of my water here.

27:34 Speaker 10: I apologize.

27:39 Speaker 2: I apologize. Because our guest wasn't able to make it on, I have to talk more than usual, and I've been sick this week. I don't know if any of you listening have, but there's something going around in this area, at least in a pretty serious way, and a lot of people have been sick. This is the best I've felt in a couple days, but I spent a great deal of both my Thursday and Friday unconscious. I just felt terrible. I'm going to take another gulp here. So sorry about that, but I do not have a choice in the matter.

28:09 Speaker 2: It's either that or I begin hacking uncontrollably, man. Uh, let's see. So it says here written comments are due by November 23rd with reply comments due by December 21. The inquiry follows a request from Scott Fitzgerald, the Republican U S representative for Wisconsin's fifth district who sits on the house judiciary committee. His letter says, to the US CEO dated May 21, opens by asking it to, quote, examine the contributory effects of artificial intelligence in music streaming fraud and the resulting effect on the music industry.

28:51 Speaker 2: While there is nothing inherently wrong with using AI as a creative tool in music development or the organic growth of AI-generated music, specifically, generative technology AI can serve as a catalyst for criminals to perpetuate streaming fraud, unquote. So that's from the letter. He then added in the letter, quote, when AI-generated outputs compete against human-made works, they divert money from a finite royalty pool that would otherwise be distributed to actual rights holders. If done fraudulently by bad actors deploying bots or other forms of manipulation, it represents a clear theft of the royalty pool, unquote.

29:33 Speaker 2: The letter cites Deezer's finding that, and we talked about this before on the show. this number, I remember this very specifically, and it shocked me. Okay. The letter cited Deezer's finding that, quote, up to 85% of the streams generated by fully AI-generated tracks were unquote on its platform in 2025 were fraudulent. Now, again, what, what do we mean by fraudulent? Because when I think of fraudulent in this context, I think of like, if you're, I mean, there's nothing fraudulent about just using AI to create music.

30:16 Speaker 9: Right.

30:16 Speaker 2: But if you, but, but what has gone on is sometimes people use AI to create music and then, um, you know, try to pass it off as somebody else. That's a weird thing that's gone on. I remember a number of years, before this whole current AI boom even really started, we were talking on the show a few years ago about something that happened to Celine Dion, where there was this Celine Dion track circulating that apparently fooled everybody. Everybody thought it was Celine Dion, and it wasn't Celine Dion.

30:50 Speaker 2: It was completely AI. But somebody did a really good job with it. and fooled a lot of people. But I'm curious. One of the things that I think is very important as we look into this, as we think about it, as we have these discussions, is we have to very clearly define what do we mean by fraud? What do we mean by streaming fraud? If you create a band that doesn't actually exist and you put out music as that band, and there have been examples of that, where the band itself is completely made up doesn't exist.

31:28 Speaker 2: These people don't exist. They're not real. Is that a form of fraud? I mean, you are kind of fooling people, but is that really fraud? And then, and then if in the process of doing that, um, you make money because you make your royalties, um, from the streams, is that fraud? If you're doing it with music that people, because where it gets tricky is, well, if people like the music, they're listening to the music. Raises a question. What would you do? How would you feel if you listened to a song and you loved it?

32:11 Speaker 2: You just absolutely loved it. You thought it was so good. One of those songs you just wanted to listen to over and over. You liked it so much. And then you found out That it was completely AI. That someone had used a program like Suno, for example. Suno is a very popular app. I've used it to create stuff. What if you found out that it was entirely made with Suno? What do you do? Does that affect how you feel about the song? Does the song now no longer mean the same thing to you? Do you no longer find it catchy and infectious if it's a song you really love?

32:51 Speaker 2: Sorry, I had to drink some more water there. I'm really struggling here. Like I said, I've been sick all week. Might have to... We'll see how much longer I can just... Again, I'm talking more than I expected to because our first guest didn't make it on. But, you know, again, these are things that we all have to kind of grapple with to some degree, I guess. I mean, I can give you my answer to that, but my answer is not.

33:20 Speaker 2: You know, to the scenario that I just proposed. My answer is not something people are going to necessarily like, but if I heard a song that I really loved and then all of a sudden one day I find out that it was completely AI, I don't think in my mind I could just say, Oh, okay, well I'm not going to like that song anymore. I mean, if there's something about the song that connected with me, you know, is, I mean, you know, But again, that's not going to be a popular statement. I realize that. A lot of you would say, yeah, well, if I found out it was AI-generated, I would never listen to it again.

34:00 Speaker 2: Okay, but what if it was a song that you really, really loved? You know?

34:05 Speaker 5: Anyway.

34:07 Speaker 2: I would prefer that.

34:11 Speaker 2: Then we get some little clearer definition of what we mean by fraud. We actually have a call. Let's grab this, and this might help save my voice. Hi, welcome to Matt Connors and Unleashed.

34:23 Speaker 3: Who's this?

34:25 Speaker 7: Hey, it's Jenny.

34:27 Speaker 2: Hey, what's up?

34:29 Speaker 7: I liked your question, and you might not remember, but that happened with me. Remember that song I came across the first time, Inner Fury?

34:40 Speaker 8: Oh, yeah, yeah.

34:41 Speaker 7: That was online. Yeah, I thought they were real, and I really loved the music. And I even reached out to the person who was like, hey, you know, my partner has this radio show, and we love highlighting indie artists. And then he told me the truth. And I was really disappointed, because I really did believe or hope that they were real people. That didn't change the fact that I liked the song. So there's one aspect of it that way.

35:10 Speaker 2: Right.

35:10 Speaker 7: You know?

35:11 Speaker 2: Right.

35:12 Speaker 7: But on another hand, I came across a song that was written by a CRPS warrior, somebody with disabilities. And they had poured their heart and soul into the lyrics for years, writing this, putting it together. And then they used technology to get their writing put to music. And it was powerful and meaningful. And I'm not going to, you know, so there's the side of technology that helps people be creative that otherwise wouldn't be able to be.

35:48 Speaker 11: Right.

35:48 Speaker 7: Does that make sense?

35:49 Speaker 2: It does. Absolutely.

35:53 Speaker 7: So I won't, like, ever just totally be like, oh, you used a computer.

35:58 Speaker 9: You stink.

35:59 Speaker 7: I would never do that to somebody. Because, you know, some of these people have poured their hearts into these lyrics. They don't have... thousands and thousands of dollars to take it to a studio and have somebody help them turn it that way or hire musicians to make it come forward. But they can use this technology to bring that feeling to life. And especially for folks who are disabled and the more technology comes out, the more they can have an equal footing in the world and create in ways that they never had available to them.

36:34 Speaker 7: I would never just completely be negative.

36:39 Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it would be pretty absurd to say to that person, well, what you did isn't valid because you used technology to create that music that you obviously wrote the lyrics for. I don't think anyone would want to say that to that person. And I think that's a really good point.

36:59 Speaker 7: The thing is that people, like the first person that I brought that to within our own community actually did react that way.

37:05 Speaker 2: Really?

37:06 Speaker 7: And they did. And one person out of many, one person. And it actually hurt me to get their response was something to the effect of, I'm not even going to listen to it. Like, I'm not even going to give it the time of day. I'm not going to listen to it because they used AI to create it. They used AI to create the music. but every lyric they painfully wrote over years, and they finally just now brought it to life and shared it. So my response was, you know, please remember when you're making these harsh decisions, Where people with disabilities fall into that line, because we want this world to be 100% accessible to everybody, right?

37:56 Speaker 7: You want somebody who's disabled to be able to create just as somebody else does, and that might take having accessible ways to do it. It doesn't make it any less valid or cheap in it. it's still an avenue for people. And that's one thing I ask of people to think about when you're making harsh decisions on AI. AI can be good and bad, yes, but it's not all bad. And for some people in our world, especially folks among the disabled community, it is a new window to the world and getting out and locked from their homes and out into the world in ways they've never had equal footing before.

38:40 Speaker 7: So think about that before you jump on something and say, oh, I'm not even going to give it a listen. You know, maybe hear their words and then make a judgment.

38:52 Speaker 2: Yep. No, I think that's an excellent point. Well said. Absolutely. All right.

38:58 Speaker 10: Yeah.

38:59 Speaker 7: I mean, there's a lot of that going on now. And if you stop and look, if you stop and actually look for it, you'll find it. but you've got to actually go look beyond that 30 seconds and see what's behind it. What is the human behind it? What are they doing? Are they just doing something because they want to make money? Or are they really trying to rip people off? Are they really trying to get away with something? Then to heck with those people. They're no good. But there is artistry out there that is beautiful and is finding a new voice in ways they never have before and at least give them a moment.

39:35 Speaker 7: There's a new one you've heard me listening to around the house. It's a husband and wife team. They're very real. They write everything, but they use AI to bring it to life. And there's parts of their music that is super powerful. And for folks with CRPS, there's sections in one of their songs where they talk about having phantom limb and going through the pain and not being really heard. And that is a connection for people that can be life-saving, right? If you can connect with somebody on that level, it can really be that powerful.

40:15 Speaker 7: So it's not just a game or an opinion. There's life behind it.

40:20 Speaker 2: Right, right. Very well said. Absolutely.

40:24 Speaker 7: All right.

40:24 Speaker 2: Well, thank you, Jenny.

40:25 Speaker 7: That's my two cents. I'll see you later.

40:29 Speaker 9: Okay.

40:29 Speaker 7: Bye-bye.

40:31 Speaker 2: All right. Very good. Jenny leaves us. And we will open the phone line up. We only have really a little bit of time left in this hour. But if you do happen to be listening live on Saturday morning and you would like to chime in on the subject, 603-250-6007 is the number. 603-250-6007. Like I said, we don't have a lot of time, but I know a lot of musicians listen to the show, so if you happen to be a musician listening and you have a thought on the subject, 603-250-6007. It feels like old times. I don't give the number out much since we moved to Saturday mornings, because the show's a little different than it used to be, but when we were on in the afternoons, we would take a lot of calls.

41:16 Speaker 2: Some of them would be good. Some of them would be not, uh, anyway, but we won't, we won't get into all that. Um, so, uh, just getting back to the article just to finish up on this. So like I said, uh, you know, these are, uh, back in, um, 2025, they found that 85% of the live streams were fully AI-generated tracks. Again, this is from musicindustryworldwide.com. Deezer's disclosure in April included that nearly 44% of its daily music uploads were AI-generated. Deezer said in July that that share had passed half in June, so now more than 50%, with close to 90,000 fully AI-generated tracks arriving a day.

42:03 Speaker 2: That's staggering too. When you think about it, 90,000 full, that means 90,000. Bully AI-generated tracks being uploaded to Deezer every single day. Fitzgerald asked the office to, quote, examine the prevalence of streaming fraud across digital platforms and how it may be affecting the music industry as a whole, and specifically the effects of AI-generated streaming fraud on the licensing and distribution of sound recording, performance, and mechanical royalties, unquote. The notice was published one day after Michael Smith, now we talked about this on the show too, you might remember this story, One day after Michael Smith was sentenced to 18 months in prison for a scheme, now this was definitely fraud, for a scheme that used bot accounts to stream hundreds of thousands of AI-generated songs.

42:54 Speaker 2: So what this guy did was, Michael Smith, from what I can recall from the story, because we did cover this on the show, he created, he developed a whole system of where he created all these different accounts with all these different AI, completely AI generated artists with all AI generated music, uploaded all of it, and then created all these bots to go and stream all of this music. And that generated royalties, of course, which amounted to millions. I mean, this guy, this, this whole scheme, this guy generated millions of dollars, um, by uploading AI, completely AI generated music, not real artists, and then creating bots to go and listen to that music.

43:44 Speaker 2: And it's impressive when you think about the scale on which he had to do all of that to make it work and actually generate millions of dollars. I mean, that's pretty impressive. Um, I'm not going to get, it does get into a little bit of the details. Um, Let's see. Okay. Smith of Cornelius, North Carolina, pled guilty in March to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. And it was conspiracy, by the way. Apparently he had a couple of other people involved in this with him. But, I mean, it's just amazing that anyone could even get away with that.

44:27 Speaker 2: And this was over the course of several years, you know, to generate millions of dollars in royalties from these... AI generated tracks that were not being listened to by actual people. Uh, on October 6th, us, a judge, John G. Co, uh, co-alt Colt, uh, ordered Smith to forfeit over $ 8 million. The last figure agreed by both sides. That's how much this guy generated in fraudulent, uh, royalties. Uh, the notice states that the primary harm of streaming fraud is the dilution of the royalty revenue pool.

45:03 Speaker 2: Um, The USCO also points to secondary harms, including effects on playlist placement and the streaming data that artists and venues rely on when planning tours. That's a very good point. Among the notices, 10 subjects... Actually, we should stop on that for a moment. Because if you are in that part of the music industry where maybe you're a promoter, and I used to do a lot of that, a lot of promoting events, kind of a nightmare in a lot of ways. we'll probably stop on this point because we're going to get to a break before the second hour.

45:37 Speaker 2: But if you were a promoter and you're trying to decide on who to bring to your venues, one of your venues for a show, and you're trying to decide, you know, when you're a promoter, you take a financial risk. You book the, you book the event, you hope it makes enough money and you hope you make a profit. So if one of your data points is, when deciding on whether or not to book an artist is how many streams they have. And if those streaming numbers aren't necessarily legitimate because it's all bots, then that's a problem that skews, you know, you're, you're working with data.

46:17 Speaker 2: That's not accurate. In other words,

46:21 Speaker 2: it's no different than, um, you know, say you're an advertiser and you're looking, um, you're looking at a potential YouTube streams of a podcast that you might sponsor and, and, uh, but their numbers are fake because they're actually using bots to inflate, artificially inflate their numbers. You know, then the product that the, uh, or I should say the, the podcast that you're potentially going to be advertising on, uh, And I use this as an example because it happens all the time. All the time. The podcast that you're considering advertising on might not really have those listeners or viewers.

47:02 Speaker 2: Those numbers are artificially inflated by buying bots. There's all kinds of ways this goes on. This is a little bit of a side street, but people use that for their businesses. They buy Google reviews. You can actually hire a company that will generate fake Google reviews, positive Google reviews for you. Um, now if you get caught and people tend to get caught because Google's, uh, detection methods are sophisticated enough, they can actually tell when, when these reviews are fake, they have ways, they have ways, uh, you know, then they'll deactivate your Google ads account, which no business wants that because that sucks.

47:47 Speaker 2: Uh, but anyway, uh, this kind of thing goes on all the time. and how it affects the music industry and how prevalent it is in the music industry is certainly a problem. But we don't have time for the rest of this. We're going to have to get to a break. There's a lot here. But if you want to look at the entire article, again, it's on musicbusinessworldwide.com, titled Music Streaming Fraud Inquiry Launched by U.S. Copyright Office. And that will give you all the dirty details. But coming up in the second hour...

48:17 Speaker 2: Let's see. So we've got Mick Butler, better known as Sticky. He will be joining us. And I really like his music a lot. I can't wait to talk to him. So he is our guest. For those of you listening live on Saturday, then in the third hour, of course, we have Dwayne Seagraves from the, I love, by the way, the name of this band. Stevenson Ranch Davidians. That will be in the third hour, in the first half of the third hour, and in the second half of the third hour, Charles Richardson will be with us from The Charles Richardson Show to talk about tonight's Money in the Bank pay-per-view, or premium live event, I should say.

48:52 Speaker 2: Did you get all that?

48:53 Speaker 12: I know.

48:54 Speaker 2: It's a busy show today. It's a busy Saturday. I'm glad, though. As a side note, I'm glad that all of my guests today are remote because I have been sick. You can probably even hear it in my throat a little bit. And so it's probably just as well not to have a bunch of people in here and shaking hands with everybody and spreading the illness. Then again, so many people have this right now, whatever this is, that it's probably unavoidable. But at least I don't have to worry about accidentally making anybody else sick today.

49:21 Speaker 2: That's a good thing. Peter White and I were talking about that because he stopped in earlier, right before the show we were talking, and we were talking about how nice it is once in a while to just not have any in-studio guests, just have everybody remote. Although it's not that nice, it kind of reminds me a little bit of during the pandemic when that was all we were able to do for a while. That was awful. That was awful. All right, on that happy note, let's take a quick break, show some love to our amazing sponsors, including me.

49:50 Speaker 2: And then we'll see you on the other side. There's plenty more to come. Don't go anywhere.

49:54 Speaker 3: WMNH. Rip the knob off.

49:58 Speaker 2: Are you ready to make a change in your life? My name is Matt Conerton, and I'm a certified hypnotherapist. Hypnosis can help you change habits, overcome obstacles, and reach your goals. Sessions are available online or in person. at Birchwood Salon in Hooksett. And your initial consultation is always free. Visit mattconnerton.com. That's Matt, C-O-N-N-A-R-T-O-N.com to learn more or book your appointment. That's mattconnerton.com.

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52:50 Speaker 3: Hey, everyone.

52:51 Speaker 14: This is Rob Azevedo, host of Granite State of Mind, and I want to tell you about Pembroke City Limits and the historic Suncook Village. PCL is an award-winning bar, restaurant, and music venue where there's live music five days a week and twice on Saturdays. Everything from blues, country, folk, funk, and a whole lot of jazz. We have 12 craft beers on tap dedicated to local brewers in the area and some of the friendliest bartenders around. Please come visit Pembroke City Limits at 134 Main Street, the historic Sunkook Village, only six miles outside of Manchester.

53:20 Speaker 14: Open Tuesdays to Wednesdays, 4 to 10. Thursdays to Sunday, 11 to 10. Pembroke City Limits, where it's all about the music.

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54:32 Speaker 13: Seven times out of ten, we listen to our music at night.

54:44 Speaker 7: Thus spawned the title of this program.

54:46 Speaker 13: Late Night Delight with DJ Midas, right here on WMNH Manchester.

54:50 Speaker 2: You want to know why? Because I'm on the radio.

54:54 Speaker 3: Saturdays and Sunday nights, midnight to 4 a.m.

54:57 Speaker 8: This hour on WMNH is sponsored by CGI Business Solutions, located at 5 Dartmouth Drive in Auburn. They serve all your business needs, including employee benefits planning, corporate design and business administration, investments and wealth management, and customized business insurance solutions. Their phone number is 866-841-4600 or on the web at cgibusinesssolutions.com.

55:30 Speaker 9: Behold the harmony of airwaves as you immerse yourself in the captivating frequencies of WMNHLP. The sonic heartbeat of Manchester. Transcending through the ether at 95.3 megahertz frequency modulation. Our transmissions emanate from the zenith of 1000 Elm Street. Venturing to the heart of our creative realm at 119 Canal Street. where innovation and sound collide. We bear the imprimatur of Manchester Public Television Service in the venerable city of Manchester, New Hampshire, USA. Enrich your auditory journey with the depth of our licensed residents.

56:04 Speaker 9: Dispatch your missives to WMNH953 at gmail.com or traverse the virtual corridors of WMNHradio.org. Engage with our sonic vibrations by communing with us through the digital channels your radio beckons. Eager to enthrall you with its mesmerizing cadence and envelop you in a symphony of boundless auditory wonder.

56:29 Speaker 3: WMNH, rip the knob off.

56:35 Speaker 1: You're listening to Matt Connerton Unleashed on WMNH 95.3.

56:57 Speaker 6: It's your party. It's your bubblegum party.

57:02 Speaker 3: You ain't right.

57:04 Speaker 6: Your dress is too tight. The neighbours phone down below.

57:10 Speaker 3: Big fight.

57:12 Speaker 6: Some hookers all night. The naked man's in your room.

57:17 Speaker 3: Hold tight.

57:18 Speaker 6: The moment's not right. He's angry and looking for you. They take sides, they always take sides. Now they're all having this view. It's a show party. It's a breaking up party. It's a heartache. It's a breaking up party. Fake eyes, you know what's inside. Dragging the tide to cool. Be nice, pretend it's alright And hit him with all you know He subsides, you got all his lies I'm blowing them all into view Feels right, he's up on his bike Now you can pick your own It's your party It's your breaking up party There's no heartache Breaking up parties.

59:05 Speaker 3: Thank you.

59:05 Speaker 10: Play.