In a promising development Amazon AWS Startups has invested in Apps for Artists by applying $1000 of credits to the company AWS account.
AWS, Amazon Web Services, is one of the largest providers of compute services …
“The customer base spans millions of organizations, encompassing over 4 million businesses with physical addresses as of 2025, including high-profile enterprises like Netflix for streaming infrastructure and global content delivery, BMW for AI deployment across vehicles, Adidas for faster application launches and real-time data“
Apps for Artists, a trading name of Freeman Marketing Services LTD, is thankful to AWS Startups for recognising the potential of the apps that the company is developing !
The model access will become part of the development of my app REAPER Assistant (this is a working name as I don’t think I can use “REAPER” in the final product name) which evolved from Pilot for Ableton.
Apple’s AI approach prioritises models running on the local device for specialised tasks. This is how the iPhone or Mac can have Siri AI search your emails or set a new calendar entry. But for more advanced work the prompt is forwarded to Apple’s cloud models. They are quite different to what other providers serve being privacy first services.
These models will handle more advanced tasks for REAPER Assistant.
Suffice to say there were around 600 very excited looking developers there. Everyone felt very grounded and real. In fact you might forget that you are at one of the world top developer meetings with one of the world’s top companies. Apple is currently the world’s 2nd most valuable company by market capitalization, behind Nvidia. The room felt like it was full of people doing what they love and seeking the best advice to make their app successful 😄.
Deezer says 44% of its daily uploads are now AI. Yet AI is under 3% of actual streams, and most of those plays are bots, not people.
A flood of supply. Almost zero real demand.
Apps for Artists mission is to use AI intelligently as a tool and aid for artists …
Every tool you love was once called cheating.
The drum machine. Auto-Tune. The sampler. The laptop in the bedroom studio. Each one got the same “that’s not real music” speech, right up until it made some of the best music you have ever heard.
AI is getting that speech now.
Some of the best software being produced out their is aided by AI coding agents. So why not “vibe code” your music ? Not in a “leave the AI agent overnight to write it all” way. That would be absurd. Music is pure human expression. Raw human emotion. A GPU in a data center can’t do it how ever clever it algorithms are. But AI is very good at navigating complicated structures like software languages … or complicated DAW’s that lack immediate access to instant musical expression. The only app that ever gave us instant musical expression was Propellerhead Rebirth RB-338. But its innovations have been lost up until now. No instant randomise a rhythm to solve the “blank sheet” writers block. No pre setup connections for instant play. Where is it ?
Apps for Artists DAW assistant can help with that. Instant scanning of any VST GUI so the assistant can understand it.
Eventually completely new DAW/Rebirth-like software that makes your laptop into an instrument, not some bank managers ledger for hundreds of little controls and audio entries.
Things are moving quickly beyond Ableton Assistant. With Apple’s new Siri AI in macOS beta 27 we have the perfect agent to allow musicians and creatives to use Siri to get everyday things done in a DAW.
Apple has been a late comer to all this AI stuff, but maybe they were just watching and waiting ?
AI is incredibly powerful technology with the potential to shape society in profound ways, and, with proper care, unlock meaningful benefits for people everywhere.
Still, some appear to be racing forward, seemingly pursuing AI, for the sake of AI, without clear regard for the people, all of us, that it’s ultimately meant to serve.
At Apple, our mission has always been to turn the potential of advanced technology into helpful and intuitive products for everyone.
As a DJ and musician with over 30 years of experience I noticed a reduction in the quality of music in the dance music field from about 2006 onwards. There are many reasons for this that I won’t get into here, but suffice to say I believe enabling Siri AI to act as an assistant for the musician, using any DAW, could really help enable people’s creativity. Human creativity. As Apple so aptly point out we are the people, we are “all of us” ! Here’s a quote from my first year essay …
“I didn’t want there to be a revolution of technology, I wanted to revolutionise my soul to be more symbiotic with everything. The future can’t just be technology; that would be a dangerous future.” (Turner 2021: 21).
