Verve

This week a16z posted a clip of two OpenAI people, James Sun and Ari Weinstein, talking about something I see every day: the gap between how San Francisco thinks about AI and how the rest of us actually use it. They said it plainly. In San Francisco, people think, "the labs can do everything, why doesn't everybody just install it and have it do stuff?" But for the average small business owner, they listed four hurdles: Understanding what the tools can actually do. Connecting them in a way that makes sense. Deploying them. Servicing them when something goes wrong. They're right about all four. Their answer is "computer use," AI that runs your programs the way a person would, clicking and typing, so it works with any software without anyone building a special connection. That's a real step forward. I use an AI helper that works that way, and it saves me hours. But it only solves one of the four Computer use fixes hurdle number two, connect...

Business Advice: Who I've Worked With The Keene Chamber Orchestra Keene, New Hampshire, under Eric Stumacher. The Keene Chamber Orchestra was founded in Keene, New Hampshire, in 1991 by the pianist Eric Stumacher, who led it as music director and conductor for more than thirty years. I worked with the orchestra under Eric. What they needed A website Bios of the principal players A way to share their concerts MP3s of their performances A place for all their other important information What I did I built the website and wrote up the bios of the principals, and set up a way to share the concerts and MP3s so people who missed a performance could still hear it. I also advised them on booking events and marketing their performances in the Keene and Monadnock region. An orchestra lives on its audience, and in a small region that means knowing the venues, the papers and the people who show up. Need a hand with your business or ensemble? Send me a note or reach me throug...

Business Advice: Who I've Worked With The Berkshire Batteria Samba drumming from the Berkshires. The Berkshire Batteria is a samba troupe from the Berkshires, playing Brazilian rhythms on traditional Brazilian percussion. They've been at it since 1994. How we met I met them on the airplane, on the trip to Cairo in 1999. What they needed A website Social media profiles A way to share their videos, before YouTube was around Help marketing the ensemble to get more gigs What I did I set them up with a website and social media profiles, and found them a way to get their performance videos in front of people back when that took real work. Then I helped them market the group to the people who book that kind of act. A samba band is something you have to see and hear. The job was getting it in front of the right people, and that hasn't changed much since 1999. Need a hand with your business or ensemble? Send me a note or reach me through linktr.ee/verve413 . Ve...

Business Advice: Who I've Worked With Mando Mo Strings Holyoke, Massachusetts. 2016 to 2020. Mando Mo Strings was a small mandolin company in Holyoke, Massachusetts. I worked with them from 2016 until 2020. What they needed They asked me for the whole package: A website A Google Business page Social media profiles YouTube videos A sales and marketing plan What I did I built all of it. The website, the Google listing and the social profiles went up, and I made the YouTube videos myself, playing and reviewing their mandolins so people could hear what they sounded like. Then I put together a sales and marketing plan to tie it all together. How it ended Then the owner got sick, and we had to shut it down. That's the part of small business nobody plans for. The work was done. The company just didn't get the chance to grow into it. Need a hand with your business or ensemble? Send me a note or reach me through linktr.ee/verve413 . Verve, Granby, Massachusett...

  Local stories need local outlets. Finding the door is the hard part. Notes from a Granby songwriter on getting the word out in the Pioneer Valley These days I write songs about real western Mass stories: a Hadley witch, a fire chief on a gray Percheron, a WWI sergeant from my own family, and a freylekhs for Valley Light Opera's Fiddler on the Roof . Songs like these belong in local papers and on local radio. So this fall I set out to tell the people who cover the Valley about them. It has been an education. I want to share what I've learned, with respect for the people on the other end, because I think it helps musicians, small businesses, and the outlets themselves. The newsrooms are stretched thin When I emailed my Fiddler song to local writers and arts contacts, most of the replies were automatic out-of-office notes. I don't take that personally. Western Mass has fewer reporters covering more towns than it did when I started playing out. The people who are left are ju...

  "You can't be mystified by AI. You cannot be terrified by it." Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia Celticado on Stage Nearly every musician I know is afraid of AI. I wrote about that recently, and then Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said it plainer than I could: "You can't be mystified by AI. You cannot be terrified by it. You have to find a way to activate yourself to take advantage of it." He calls this the beginning of a new industrial revolution. Not in the production of energy or food, but the production of intelligence. We've been here before I've played fiddle since 1966. I've watched musicians fear the drum machine, the synthesizer, home recording, MP3s, and streaming. Each time, the players who did best weren't the ones who hid. They learned the new tool, kept what made them human, and got back to work. What AI can't do, and what it can AI won't sit in a kitchen and hear your grandmother's story. It won't know why a tune makes you...

Order by December 10 and the finished song is ready to play on Christmas morning. Running late? Give a gift certificate any time up to December 23, and the song follows in January. A gift nobody else can give them Most presents get used up, worn out, or put in a closet. A song about the people you love gets played at every family gathering for the rest of their lives. Maybe it's your grandfather's war story. The farm your family worked for three generations. Your parents' fifty years together. The aunt everybody quotes at Thanksgiving. Tell me the story and I'll turn it into a real, recorded song with your family's names and places in it. I'm Adam Sweet. I've played fiddle since 1966 and write songs about real people and real places in New England. Hear what I make The Ballad of Sergeant Kielty : my grandfather, a WWI sergeant who carried gassed soldiers to safety in France. The Reluctant Hero of Duxbury : my great-grandfather, who rode a horse bareback into...

  A letter from a dad who uses AI every day My son is almost seventeen. This is what I'd want him to know before he picks a path, and what I wish someone had told me at his age about a world that's changing faster than any of us expected. Dear son, You're going to hear a lot of noise about AI in the next few years. Some people will tell you it's going to take every job. Others will tell you it's a fad. Neither is true, and you deserve better than either story. I use AI every day. It does my research, keeps my paperwork straight, and handles chores that used to eat my evenings. I've watched it get better month by month. So I'm not writing this out of fear. I'm writing it because I've seen up close what it's good at, and that tells me a lot about which jobs are about to get squeezed. Here's the honest truth. If I were 18 today, I'd steer clear of these eight careers, because AI is already doing the core of the work. The eight I'd avoid ...

The songs, the playing, the late nights in the barn with the band: that's ours, and it stays ours. But the routine work that piles up around the music can be automated, and that's exactly where AI agents earn their keep. Last time I wrote that musicians shouldn't be terrified of AI, and that we need to activate ourselves, as Jensen Huang put it. A few of you wrote back with a fair question: "Fine, Adam, but what do I actually do with it?" This post is the answer. It's a hands-on list of the jobs an AI agent can take off your plate, with real examples of what to ask for. You won't find a word in here about writing songs, making beats, or generating vocals. I don't use AI for that and I'm not recommending you do. This is about the other 60% of a working musician's life: the email, the booking, the paperwork, the uploads, the research and the endless chores. First, what's an "agent"? A chatbot answers questions. An agent does things...