A series of interviews where I address questions related to how to use the convergence of AI in art and business to your benefit. My goal is to help you learn from my mistakes and successes.
If you have questions or comments, you’re invited to contact me or join me on X (Twitter). For the details about “how-to” and weekly tips, you’re invited to join my weekly Newsletter and Resources list.
TL;DR
- Secret to successful sales | Treat people as friends: someone who you contact just to say “hi, how are you?” instead of only reaching out when you need something.
- Secret to engagement | Be selective about which platforms you use to reach people who are current or potential clients. Respond to every comment.
- Artificial Intelligence (AI) | Use it as your personal sounding board.
- Good storytelling | Personal experience, writing for someone else, crafting a persona and writing for that persona.
Video
The full interview text with answers the the questions asked in the video starts after the video. And, how the video was made follows the interview.
Tom Libertiny Interview | Part 1
Fiona Taylor
As an artist, engineer, and business person, how do you integrate these disciplines into your projects? Are there particular initiatives or works you’re currently focused on that embody this intersection of art, business, and technology?
Tom Libertiny
My background started as an entrepreneur when I was a child selling products door-to-door.
Fiona Taylor
Impressive start! How do you think those early experiences of entrepreneurship influenced your later work at the junction of art, engineering, and business? What key lessons from those days have stayed with you throughout your career?
Tom Libertiny
I learned what it took to make a sale through cold walk-up selling.
Fiona Taylor
A valuable skill to have. How have you applied the lessons from cold walk-up selling to your more recent projects, especially in areas like art and technology? Have these experiences shaped your approach to business development and customer engagement in any specific ways?
Tom Libertiny
It’s all about having an engaging and ongoing relationship with the people who you’re trying to make a sale. Instead of treating them as a transaction, someone to contact only when you have something to sell, it’s treating them as a friend: someone who you contact just to say “hi, how are you” and carefully listening to their response and understanding what they mean by their response.
Fiona Taylor
In your ventures, how do you maintain this level of personal connection at scale, especially given the broad intersection of art, technology, and business in your work? Are there particular tools or strategies you’ve found effective in keeping these engagements genuine and consistent as your operations grow?
Tom Libertiny
By being very selective about what technology platforms I use to maintain relationships. Examples include always responding to people who have taken the time to comment on a YouTube video or X (Twitter) post.
Fiona Taylor
Wonderful strategy to keep the interactions personal and meaningful. How do you balance the time and effort it takes to maintain these kinds of interactions with the demands of creating new content and managing your business? Are there any particular challenges you’ve faced in this area, and how have you overcome them?
Tom Libertiny
Using AI to help both create content and manage business is a time saver.
Fiona Taylor
Interesting. How do you integrate AI specifically into your content creation and business management processes? Are there particular tools or platforms you’ve found especially useful for these purposes?
Tom Libertiny
For the writing of books, lyrics, and music, I use AI as a sounding board.
Fiona Taylor
So, how does this “sounding board” approach influence your creative process? Do you find that AI helps you explore new ideas or refine existing ones in a way that perhaps wasn’t possible before?
Tom Libertiny
I primarily use AI to explore new ideas.
Fiona Taylor
And how do you typically transition those new ideas explored with AI into finalized projects? Are there any standout examples of how an idea generated with AI assistance evolved into a successful project?
Tom Libertiny
Writing music and lyrics to music has started to become successful, particularly now that AI can create music through prompting.
Fiona Taylor
That’s exciting! Could you share more about how you use AI in your music creation process? For instance, do you start with AI-generated melodies or harmonies, or perhaps use it to refine lyrics? How does collaborating with AI impact the final feel and authenticity of your music?
Tom Libertiny
Everything from refining lyrics to generating the demo versions of songs.
Fiona Taylor
How do you decide when a song or piece of music is ready to move from the demo phase to final production? Also, do you involve other musicians in the process, or is it primarily a solo effort enhanced by AI?
Tom Libertiny
During the demo stage, it’s a solo effort enhanced by AI. The decision to move a piece of music from demo to final production is an age-old question; one that can only be answered on a case-by-case basis.
Fiona Taylor
It sounds like you have a thoughtful approach to the creative process. When you do decide to move a piece from demo to final production, what are some of the key factors you consider? Are there specific elements or feedback you look for that indicate a piece is ready for the next stage?
Tom Libertiny
If the demo song is to the point that I can hear in my head how the entire song should be structured and how it will sound, that’s a key indication that I’m ready to involve other musicians.
Fiona Taylor
When you bring other musicians into the project, how does the collaboration process typically unfold? Do you give them a lot of creative freedom to interpret your work, or do you tend to have a specific vision for how each element should sound?
Tom Libertiny
I have a specific vision, but I do work with great musicians and give them a certain amount of freedom to interpret my work.
Fiona Taylor
A great balance between direction and creativity. How do you handle situations where a musician’s interpretation differs significantly from your vision? Do you find these moments challenging, or do they often lead to unexpected and valuable outcomes in your music?
Tom Libertiny
It’s very clear-cut. Sometimes their interpretations are very valuable in moving a song in a direction that I wouldn’t have considered. Other times, it just doesn’t work and we start over.
Fiona Taylor
When you start over, do you find that revisiting the initial ideas with fresh perspectives helps refine the song further, or do you sometimes end up with a completely different track than what was originally planned?
Tom Libertiny
About half of my music projects are completed without major changes even after reviewing the song from a fresh perspective. Twenty-five percent are refined due to a fresh perspective and the other twenty-five percent lead to a completely new song.
Fiona Taylor
Given this approach, how do you maintain a consistent style or sound across your music projects, or is versatility a key part of your artistic identity?
Tom Libertiny
The end goal is writing a great song. If there’s an overarching theme to a particular project, then I do ensure once all the music is written for the project that the lyrics and music make sense in support of the story being told.
Fiona Taylor
With storytelling and thematic cohesion central to your work: how do you develop the themes for your projects? Do they often stem from personal experiences, or do you draw inspiration from other sources, like literature, film, or even other music?
Tom Libertiny
Three methods: personal experience, writing for someone else, crafting a persona and writing for that persona.
Fiona Taylor
That’s a diverse set of methods! Each one must bring a unique depth and perspective to your music. How do you navigate between these approaches? For example, when deciding to write from personal experience versus crafting a persona, what influences that choice?
Tom Libertiny
The goal of the project influences the choice. For example: if there’s an overall theme I’ll select one or the other approaches and stay with that same approach for the entire project.
Video | Process and Resources
Here’s the process for making the video.
- Concept: 100% human
- Interview: Human prompt into ChatGPT for the AI to act as an interviewer. ChatGPT asked me questions and I responded to them.
- Images: Human prompts into MidJourney AI. Increased the resolution of the images with Topaz Gigapixel AI. Retouches to the images and infilling with Photoshop (human retouches, AI infilling).
- Script for voiceover: Human editing of ChatGPT interview.
- Voiceover: ElevenLabs AI
- Video edit, part 1: Comped the voiceover together in my video editor for segment and total timing.
- Video: Imported the images and voiceover into Runway AI and used their Lip Sync function.
- Video edit, part 2: Imported the video into my video editor and edited the video together.
- Music: Human prompts into Suno AI.
- Video edit, part 3: Imported the music and audio EFX into the video and then rendered the video. Note: I own an EFX library, but there are plenty of ways to make or purchase audio EFX.
If you have questions or comments, you’re invited to contact me or join me on X (Twitter). For the details about “how-to” and weekly tips, you’re invited to join my weekly Newsletter and Resources list.