Why Creativity Still Beats AI (Even at 40)
Turning 40, reflecting on creativity, AI, and ownership—from The Birthday Song’s copyright fight to how creators are building the next Nike.
Hey, Friends! I turned 40 yesterday, and I’m feeling really grateful for all that I have and all that I’m working towards. I’d just like to say thank you for reading and being a bright spot in my life. Ok, let’s get into things!
The Birthday Song
Fun bit of trivia for you: the melody to The Birthday Song was originally composed in 1893 by sisters Patty and Mildred Hill. The song was originally called Good Morning to All and was intended for Kindergarten classrooms. The birthday specific lyrics were added later and contributed to its widespread adoption.
Here’s where things get interesting. At some point, Warner/Chappell Music acquired the rights to the song, and enforced licensing fees on its commercial use generating upwards of $2,000,000 in revenue annually. That’s the reason your favorite chain restaurants (think Bennigan’s or TGI Friday’s) used to sing off-brand versions of the song to their patrons. That also means Mike Myers incurred a licensing fee in 1992, while wearing a pink bra over a black t-shirt, in his portrayal of Wayne Campbell in the iconic scene below:
So what does this have to do with anything? I don’t really know, but it’s my birthday and I thought this story was interesting. Also, ten years ago, 69 years after the melody—though not the lyrics—entered the public domain, a filmmaker named Jennifer Nelson challenged Warner/Chappell’s IP claim in court, and a judge ruled they, in fact, did not hold a valid copyright claim to the lyrics which then immediately entered the public domain.
So…
Happy birthday to me. Happy birthday to me. Happy Birthday to me-ee. Happy birthday to me.
Estimates suggest Warner/Chappell Music earned $50-100 million in royalties over the decades in which they claimed rights to the song. It’s important to remember that creative works, even simple children’s songs, have real value.
While some see monetizing their work as a threat to artistic integrity, I believe it can be the very thing that enables deeper pursuit of creative passions.
Takeaway: While starving as an artist has its romantic qualities, everyone has to eat. When that becomes a struggle, it can be hard to find the energy to be creative.
The Next Nike
The Colin and Samir Show is a great podcast for content creators. With a primary focus on the YouTube economy, they explore all sorts of topics related to the growing industry that is content creation.
Recently, they discussed an interesting trend they’ve observed around creators and brand affiliations that turns the celebrity endorsement on its head. The quote that stood out to me most is:
“The next Nike won’t be a brand that needs an athlete to create distribution, it will be an athlete that creates Nike.”
Listen to the full discussion at 15:42.
This isn’t just a prediction. Rather, it’s a reflection of what’s already happening.
Mr. Beast’s Feastables chocolate brand is available in every Walmart in the country.
Emma Chamberlain’s Chamberlain Coffee is reportedly doing tens of millions in revenue annually.
Gabriel DeSanti built an experiential platform called Staj which helps you find your dream career by job shadowing experts in their fields.
Whereas the old playbook was to get ridiculously famous and book a mega-contract with an enormous brand, the new model appears to be to develop niched fame and then build a business for that audience.
Working with young people as a classroom teacher has helped me realize that common cultural touch points are a thing of the past. You wouldn’t believe the silence my movie references get these days. It’s not just that I’m forty. Kids rarely laugh at each others’ references. Everyone is into their own thing: music, streaming series, TikTokers, and it’s just impossible to know all of the things that everyone is talking about, so this model makes a lot of sense to me.
While I personally lament the ability to crack a one liner from a movie we’ve all seen and fill a room with laughter, it is cool to see a diversity of interests celebrated by young people. The business teacher in me also gets excited by the different opportunities that these engaged, though geographically diverse, communities represent.
Takeaway: The current workforce is in the early stages of disruption, but new opportunities are on the horizon for creative and enterprising individuals.
Two Kinds of Writing
Back in March, writer and entrepreneur
said this about writing:There are two kinds of writing:
Writing as a MEANS (marketing copy, viral threads, how-to, technical manuals)
Writing as an END (essays, journaling, manifestos, stories)
AI is going to devour the first, but have a very hard time making a dent in the second.
See the original note below:
If you’re a copywriter, technical writer, or marketer, you would be wise to either stay on the cutting edge of AI and use it as leverage in your work, or develop complimentary skills to broaden your abilities and offerings. It seems increasingly likely, that it’ll be hard to carve out a living doing what AI can do better, faster, and cheaper.
If, however, you write as a means of expression, you may find yourself in a position where what you do is more meaningful than ever before. I think Eliason is likely correct about this second form of writing. A handwritten note is special not just because of the words on the page, but because those words were written with intention—by and for someone in particular.
As I’ve grown this newsletter to nearly fifteen hundred subscribers, I imagine those who read with any amount of regularity do so not just because of the words I write, but because I am the one who writes them. I know I feel a kind of kinship with the writers whose work I follow, and I imagine the same may be true for those who follow mine.
I’ll never be able to compete with AI when it comes to facts, spelling, grammar, or vocabulary, but I’m betting that AI will continue to struggle to think just like me. And that is the value I can uniquely offer.
Takeaway: The more your work reflects you, the wider the moat becomes between your voice and anyone else’s—AI included.
One More Thing
I’d love to know what sort of creative things you are up to. Please leave a comment to let me know what projects you have brewing.
See you next week!
-Mike
Surprised that you only used one sentence talking about your big birthday, then started talking about the story of The Birthday Song. I would have used the entire article talking about my birthday :)
Hope you had a great one!