Between vinyl and algorithm: AI on Mother Earth

A frank word from me, as the operator of Mother Earth Radio. You may not know the person behind the music, the technology and the stories, but you can imagine that there are many hats to wear behind a project like Mother Earth Radio: Sound engineer, music curator, musician, listener, web designer, radio operator – on top of being a family man and employee. At some point, you reach the limits of what you can manage on your own.

This is exactly where a topic comes into play that I would like to talk to you about today, quite transparently and honestly: the use of artificial intelligence (AI) at Mother Earth Radio.

My digital sparring partner

Let me be clear right away: When I talk about AI, I’m not talking about technology that composes music or generates sounds for our hi-res vinyl streaming. Quite the opposite – Mother Earth Radio stands for authentic sounds from real musicians, brought to you straight from the vinyl record or in the best digital quality. That is our core business, and it will remain so.

Where AI comes into play is as a kind of “co-pilot” – a tool that supports me so that I can concentrate on the essentials: the music. I’m not a trained writer. Sometimes the ideas and thoughts just bubble up, but putting them into understandable, appealing words is another story.

This is where I use Gemini, an AI from Google, for example. It’s like a conversation: I explain what I’m up to, what I think about a topic or what questions I have about it. I talk about my passion for high-resolution sound, about the vinyls, about the stories behind the artists. And then the AI helps me to structure these thoughts, find formulations or optimize texts such as our newsletters or blog posts.

It’s a fascinating process in which we both learn – I learn to formulate my thoughts more precisely, and the AI learns to better understand my “voice” and the values of Mother Earth Radio. But in the end, it’s always my message, my idea, my choice of words. The creative control and final responsibility remain completely with me. The AI is my mixer, not the musician.

AI in art: where do we draw the line?

The discussion about AI in art, especially in music, is currently huge and often heated. You hear experts like Rick Beato talking about how music is generated by programs like Suno – and how this is basically just the “thousandth copy of other people’s ideas”.

This criticism is understandable and important. It touches on the question of originality, soul and human creativity. And this is where we make a clear distinction: Mother Earth Radio is not about playing machine-generated music. We celebrate human creativity, the hours spent in the rehearsal room, the emotional depths that only real artists can put into their work. Our focus is on the authentic performance of vinyl and hi-res streaming – that’s our DNA.

The tools I use serve to better transport the music and the stories to you. They help to overcome communication barriers, not to blur musical boundaries. It is the balancing act between the passion for analog perfection and the use of modern efficiency tools to be able to share this passion with you.

Transparency creates trust

I wanted this openness because transparency is extremely important to me and Mother Earth Radio. AI is a powerful technology that we need to use responsibly. For me, that means using it as a helper so that I, as an individual, can run this project on this scale at all. Because Mother Earth Radio is also about making the most of the digital world, embracing new technology and refining it until it meets our high standards. We do that with audio quality, and we do that with the tools that help us share our stories.

We are excited to see what the future holds and look forward to continuing this journey with you. What do you think about it? Let’s get talking in the comments!