Former Evanescence guitarist and celebrated metal guitar player Jen Majura has announced she’s stepping away from the music industry, citing AI and societal changes as the key factors behind her decision.
Stints as a guitarist in Knorkator (2012–2014), and as a bassist in Equilibrium (2014), eventually led to Majura joining Evanescence in 2015. She featured on two studio albums and a raft of tours before departing in 2022.
Since then, she's featured on former Dream Theater drummer Mike Mangini's 2023 solo album, Invisible Signs, and formed a new band, How We End, with ex-Nervosa vocalist Diva Satanica.
However, Majura has now revealed she's quitting the music business, as she forecasts a bleak future for the industry.
“After careful consideration, observing what‘s going on in the music industry, AI-related developments, and changes in society, I‘ve come to the conclusion to step away,” she says via a Facebook post.
“Instead of wasting another year of my life constantly hoping for new energy, drive, and creativity, I‘ve reached a point in my life where I can confidentially lean back in peace,” she continues. “While time allowed me, I was able to collect an amazing amount of beautiful experiences, tours, shows, travels, and moments. I am grateful for every bit of that, but the world has changed. I can confidently make up my mind to stop.”
Majura doesn’t specify her exact motivators, but it’s clear she feels that AI does not represent a positive influence on the future of the industry. Major labels are currently in negotiations with AI firms over a deal that will see their artist's work used in AI training – with the artists themselves seemingly kept outside of those talks – and major names have spoken out against the technology’s growing prominence.
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Jimmy Page has rallied against proposed UK law changes that will mean artists need to 'opt-out' of AI using their music for its learning, and has used his experiences as a session player to punctuate his argument.
“If someone had taken my riffs without acknowledgment or payment, it would have been deemed theft,” he said. “The same standard must apply to AI.
“[AI-generated songs] are but hollow echoes, devoid of the struggles, triumphs, and soul that define true artistry.”
Brian May has echoed that sentiment, but, perhaps adopting a line of thinking similar to Majura’s, feels AI already has its claws in the flesh of the industry.
He believes that “nobody will be able to afford to make music” if “monstrously arrogant” tech companies can freely develop AI technology by analyzing copyrighted works without the creator’s express permission.
“My fear is that it’s already too late," May adds. "This theft has already been performed and is unstoppable, like so many incursions that the monstrously arrogant billionaire owners of Al and social media are making into our lives. The future is already forever changed.”
Majura’s post doesn’t rule out the possibility of a return to the industry in the future, but she levels a dig at “the overwhelming amount of ridiculousness that comes with the music industry nowadays”.
“I just can’t identify with today‘s attitude and values anymore,” she continues. “I wholeheartedly want to wish all the ambitious and remaining ‘creators’, young and old, all the best. With time, the meaning will become clearer.”
Of course, there are two sides to AI's increased presence in the music business. AI-generated songs are still a major sticking point for many. That’s why Alex Van Halen's hopes of using the technology to finish Van Halen demos have proven controversial.
Elsewhere, though, it's seen as a viable assistant to players. The Spark 2 uses AI to help guitarists craft specific guitar tones, one firm has used it to create a constantly regenerating overdrive pedal, and a guitar tutor has explained why he's embracing AI, feeling it can be revolutionary in that regard.
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