Why Metadata May Be the Last Truly Human Job in Music: A Conversation with Spinney Media’s Robert Bach

In today’s music industry, we talk a lot about AI, automation, and scale.. but rarely about the quiet infrastructure that makes the entire ecosystem work: metadata. It’s not glamorous, but it determines whether a release gets distributed, flagged, taken down, monetized, or lost in the void.

I recently met with Robert Bach, Founder & CEO of Spinney Media, longtime COO at CD Baby, and a veteran operations leader whose career spans Amazon, Virgin, Lattice Semiconductor, and over 30 years of optimizing supply chains, catalog systems, database workflows, and global distribution networks.

Metadata’s Weakest Link: Inspection

When I asked Robert what he has noticed trending as far as metadata gaps and roadblocks for those in our industry, he summed it up clearly:

“The main issue with metadata is inspection—ideally automating inspection of the most critical issues that get content blocked or pulled down.”

At CD Baby, he helped build a system that blended a manual inspection team, automated audio fingerprinting, metadata validation checks, and fraud-prevention workflows. These processes protected a catalog of over 300,000 active SKUs and supported more than 1 million artists worldwide. Most companies, let alone independent artists, simply aren’t that far along. His point was clear: The industry desperately needs smarter, more scalable metadata inspection.

Why AI Still Can’t Do What Humans Do

AI can analyze sound, but it can’t interpret intention. If an AI “hears” a saxophone, upright bass, drums, and vocals, it may confidently tag the track as jazz.But what if the actual record is a death-metal project featuring organic instruments?

Genre, feeling, context, and cultural nuance cannot be reduced to waveforms alone. Music is deeply subjective—and often deliberately deceptive. Artists cross genres. They subvert expectations. They create hybrids that no machine-trained taxonomy can meaningfully classify.

Until AI understands emotion, context, and artistic purpose, it will always misread something.

Handcrafted Metadata vs. Mass-Produced Metadata

The gap is similar to the difference between Toyota and Rolls-Royce. Toyota represents automation, efficiency, scalability. Rolls-Royce represents craft, precision, and human touch. Both have value. Both can succeed. But they are not the same product, and they do not serve the same client.

What Robert and I are building at Spinney Media and Amunson Audio are for those who are intentionally artisanal with every experience. Each step is built for depth, not mass throughput.

AI will absolutely become faster, but humans may remain the only ones capable of doing this work well.

Music as Art, Not Product

Recorded music is a relatively new form of property, only a century old. And because the radio democratized access, everyone had begun acting like a curator, even when they aren’t equipped to be one.

For centuries, fine art’s value was shaped by trained experts and high-net-worth patrons who understood context, craft, and cultural significance. Today, in a world with 120,000+ new tracks uploaded daily the signal-to-noise ratio has inverted.

Metadata is now the new curation.

It’s the interpreter, the historian, the archivist, the guide. And the people who excel at metadata are modern stewards of modern composer's legacy.

Why Physical Media Still Matters—and Why Robert’s Work Is Crucial

This is where Robert’s work with Spinney Media resonates deeply with me.In an industry obsessed with infinite digital supply, he is bringing back scarcity, craftsmanship, and meaningful ownership.

Spinney Media handles physical fulfillment for as little as $2/month while allowing artists to keep 100% of their sales. But the real value lies in the philosophy:When something is physical, it is finite—therefore inherently valuable.Five hundred vinyl records in a world of eight billion people is an artifact. A cultural moment. A collectible.

Robert isn’t running a warehouse—he’s preserving a tradition.

It’s the same tradition that metadata artisanship protects in the digital realm.

The Last Bastion of Human Work?

I half-jokingly told Robert that metadata might be the last domain where humans outperform AI. He laughed, but he didn’t disagree.

Music crosses boundaries.Genres evolve.Emotion defies classification.

Machines can only recognize patterns. Humans recognize intention.

And as long as that matters, there will always be work for those who take the time to listen, interpret, and care.

Two Craftsmen Standing Together

What started as a conversation about metadata turned into something broader:a shared philosophy about craftsmanship in a world moving too fast to appreciate it.

Robert built systems that supported millions of artists.I built publishing and metadata frameworks that preserve the integrity of their work.Both efforts—physical and digital—aim at the same goal:

To treat music like art, not inventory.

Robert, I’m grateful for the conversation.And I look forward to standing beside you as a peer as we build the next chapter of this industry—one vinyl record, one metadata tag, and one artist at a time.