Fender’s CEO seems to think your bandmates are just analog AI — SkimNews
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- Fender CEO Bud Cole told T3 in a May interview marking the Telecaster's 75th anniversary that "AI has existed in music as long as there's been recorded music" and called cover music "analog AI" because it lets players without songwriting skills internalize and build on others' work
- Cole extended the analogy to bandmates, saying a drummer or bassist contributing to a riff is a second "analog" form of AI — "I actually think that we are in the brink of freeing up people to move beyond the same old covers and to really get into working like they do with their bands"
- Cole predicted AI will "help create a whole new world of guitar players" and help them move "across the chasm" from songwriting student to master songwriter
- The resurfaced comments deepened Fender's ongoing PR crisis after the company sent cease-and-desist letters to builders claiming copyright of the Stratocaster body shape, prompting some influential guitar YouTubers to say they were done buying Fender gear
- Steve Onotera (Samurai Guitarist) countered that a player's physicality and tiny human errors prevent them from replicating someone else's work perfectly — a form of serendipity an LLM cannot replicate
- Fender did not immediately respond to a request for comment or clarification on Cole's remarks
Why it matters: Fender's standing among its most loyal customers — independent guitar builders and pro players — is actively deteriorating on two fronts simultaneously: the Stratocaster copyright cease-and-desist campaign and now Cole's framing that human musicianship is equivalent to machine learning. With influential YouTubers already publicly cutting ties with the brand, Fender faces a concrete risk of losing grassroots endorsement in the community that drives its cultural cachet.
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