The Lab Report 22 - Vision Pro, Mind Against and Lessons from Japan

Hi everyone,

It's been a busy few weeks here at Mega Labs. Between traveling for vacations and weddings, and launching Mind Against's new label HABITAT, we haven't had much time to come up for air. So we appreciate your patience despite the lack of newsletter. Today's edition will be a bit shorter than usual. We'll mostly stick to sharing interesting links and we'll be back with deeper commentary in a few weeks.

A few thoughts first though. As always there's a lot going on in the worlds of music and tech. If AI and crypto weren't enough to contend with, we now have Apple coming in with their new Vision Pro device. With a hefty price ($3499) and some time before it hits the market, this probably won't shake things up for music in the short term, but the device does provide a glimpse into what the future might hold.

Stratechery's Ben Thompson–who actually tested the Vision Pro–provides a optimistic and in-depth breakdown of how the new mixed reality headset might transform how we engage with media. His experience of seeing a clip of an NBA game in the immersive video format (filmed with a new kind of camera invented by Apple) made me think of how concerts might be experienced given this new kind of technology. Is this the new VR future we were promised?

Elsewhere famed investor Marc Andreessen explains why the doomers are wrong and why AI will actually save us. While Andreessen embodies the kind of Silicon Valley techno-optimism that so many today begrudge, he has the pedigree to back it. He invented Mosaic and is the co-founder of Netscape, the first widely used web browsers. He was also the first to proclaim that "software is eating the world" over 10 years ago. So whether you agree with him or not, he's certainly worth listening to. Here, Andreessen takes on the more common arguments around AI risks and addresses them one-by-one. Will AI kill us all? Will it take our jobs? Lead to crippling inequality? It's all in there and worth a read.

See you in a few weeks. More below.

Artist/Platform News

• Mega Labs Partners With Mind Against to Launch Their New Label HABITAT
• Japan Goes All In: Copyright Doesn't Apply To AI Training
• Grimes Teams Up With TuneCore To Distribute Songs Featuring Her AI Vocals
• Apple Unveils The Vision Pro - Its New Mixed Reality Headset
• Meta Just Released An AI Music Generator That Was Trained on 20,000 Hours of Licensed Music
• The SEC is Suing Coinbase

Deeper Dives

• UMG, Endel, and the case for labels in the AI space | Tatiana Cirisano
• An Analysis of 47 Million Transactions Tells an Amazing Story about the Music Business | Ted Gioia
• Why AI Will Save the World | Marc Andreessen
• Apple Vision | Ben Thompson
• Why the Music Business Should be Watching Japan’s AI Developments Very Closely | Music Business Worldwide