XLN released a new plugin & app recently, called LIFE
I own & quite like their drum machine plugin XO so I checked out LIFE and even installed the demo. So what does LIFE do?
Well it does two seperate things.
First, it provides an easy means of capture via a ‘field recorder’ app for your phone or a plugin for your DAW. And you then transfer the recordings to the LIFE app and it creates beats using your recordings as source material. At a glance it seems automagical – click random until you hear a beat you like & then proceed…
Cost US$109
So whats the second thing it does?
Well you wouldn’t know unless you read the T&C:
So the second thing it does, which you pay US$109 for, is that LIFE acts as a data harvester. By PAYING to use their plugin XLN obtain the right to harvest and use your recordings for AI training. So thats strike 1 and makes LIFE unuseable for me. But it gets worse, read that 7(a) clause again. They assume the rights to everything you make with their app!??
My two word review, before I deinstall the LIFE demo I hadn’t even tried yet?
UN-FCKNG-BELIVABLE
So this is one way around the legal issue of training AI with copyright material: slip a clause into your app granting all rights AND make the user pay for it!
The reputational damage of never trusting XLN again?
The reputational damage of all those synthfluencers & their testimonials?
