I love music. I always have. I have spent the past thirty years going to more gigs, supporting more live acts, and putting more miles in for live music than almost anyone I know. Musicians, artists, and songwriters are people I hold in complete reverence. I am not trying to steal from them, diminish them, or take anything away from what they do. That is not what this is. That belief does not change just because the tools have changed.
Every song title, lyric, concept, and structure on this site is an original idea of mine. I come to the process the same way any songwriter does—with a song in my head, a title, a feeling, a story I want to tell. What I use AI for is the production side: the instrumentation, the arrangement, the sound. I treat it like a studio house band, working through takes and variations until I get something close to how I imagined the song. The songs are as much mine as they can be while using this technology. I am aware that even that position is viewed sceptically by some, and I understand why. But that is my position, and I stand by it.
CJ Song Factory uses AI-assisted tools to write, arrange, and produce music. Everything I release is generated using models and platforms that offer a commercial-use licence, which means I am legally permitted to sell and distribute what I create through them. I take that seriously, and I make sure every tool I use explicitly grants commercial rights before I offer anything for sale. I know that the question of commercial licensing in AI music is itself evolving and contested—I am watching that space closely, and I will adapt as the rules and norms develop.
I also know this is a complicated space more broadly. The question of how AI models are trained—and whether the artists whose work informed those models have been fairly compensated—is one the industry has not yet resolved. I am not going to pretend otherwise. I do believe that artists, writers, musicians, and songwriters should be compensated fairly for the work the models were trained on, and I hope that happens in the very near future. The legal outcomes from the cases currently working their way through the courts matter enormously, and I hope they come down fully in favour of the people who created the music. That conversation is happening, and I think it matters. I will continue to use these tools to create my own songs for as long as they are available and legal to do so—and as they get better, I hope the compensation issue is resolved properly alongside them.
I have also made a deliberate decision to keep my own songs off streaming platforms. I do not want to add to the deluge of AI-generated tracks that are already eating into the royalty pools that real musicians and songwriters depend on. Selling directly through my own site means I am not taking streaming revenue away from artists who have earned it. That feels like the right thing to do.
In the meantime, if you hear something on this site that you believe is too close to your own work, or that raises a concern, please get in touch directly. I will listen, and I will take anything down that anyone has a reasonable objection to. No argument, no delay.
And I am just trying to have fun, explore my love of music and tech, and hopefully give people a bit of joy along the way. My aim is to make genuinely good, fun songs and albums that people can enjoy—and buy, if they want to. I find these tools exciting, and I am curious to see how far I can take them. I am doing this in good faith, with real respect for the craft and the people who built it, and with a sense of adventure about what comes next.