Taryn Southern

Taryn Southern is an artist and futurist who created the first solo album composed and produced with AI.

Intro:

Taryn Southern is an artist and futurist with more than 700 million online views across her online videos.

As one of the earliest creators on YouTube, Taryn has spent a decade working at the intersection of emerging tech and storytelling. As the first solo artist to release a pop album composed and produced using artificial intelligence, "Break Free" received more than 1.7 million views on YouTube and was featured in Fast Company, Wired, Billboard, Forbes, and more. "Break Free" was the first single off her upcoming album, I AM AI, released on September 27th, 2018. As part of the album, she released the world’s first tokenized song (Taryn Song Token) that enables artists to share royalties with fans/collaborators using Ethereum smart contract.

Taryn is currently directing and producing a documentary on the future of the future of man and machine, I AM HUMAN. Active in the blockchain community, she is co-founder of Ladies of Crypto, a community for women interested in blockchain and cryptocurrency information, and  

An active VR/AR evangelist, in 2017, Taryn was granted one of ten Google grants to create an experimental VR series. She has partnered on initiatives with HTC Vive, Samsung, Oculus, Geena Davis’ Women in Media. She was recently named one of the Top 20 Women in VR, featured in Ford’s national “She’s Got Drive” campaign, and nominated for Best Female Influencer for The Crypto Awards. 

Taryn has performed at VidCon, Google’s AI Summit, The NY Times AI Conference, Web Summit, The Next Web, and Near Future Festival, and been featured in Vanity Fair, Fast Company, People, Forbes, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, and more. 

Selected AI projects:

Southern’s background:

As a child, Taryn always had an interest in technology and music. She composed her first piece of music with computer software when she was ten years old.  Soon thereafter, she starred in the pre-broadway musical Jane Eyre as Young Jane, and released her first LP "Hello World" in high school, recorded in a friend's basement.

In 2007, Taryn uploaded her first music video to YouTube. The song went viral, and Taryn continued making videos - writing, producing, and/or starring in more than 1500 videos over the course of a decade.

Over that time, she guest starred on more than a dozen TV shows (New Girl, Rules of Engagement, The League)  hosted series and specials such as the The American Music Awards Live, The Grammy’s Red Carpet Live, The X Factor Pre-Show, Discovery Channel'sShark After Dark, and her own weekend summer countdown show for Sirius XM's "The Pulse."

As a producer/writer, she hosted and produced the first season of Project MyWorld on DirecTV, as well as sold her first scripted comedy pilot, Private High Musical, to MTV. In 2013, her song “Crush” on the Mediabase Top 200 radio charts and featured as a new and noteworthy artist by Billboard. Her second album, Flashback Friday, an ode to her favorite 80's songs, earned more than two million streams on YouTube. 

In 2013, she founded digital production + consulting company Happy Cat Media, which advised dozens of companies on digital media strategies, production and influencer campaigns for companies like Snapchat, Marriott, Maker Studios, Focus Features, ATTN, and more. 

Other facts about Southern:

• Graduated magna cum laude from University of Miami with a double BA in Anthropology and Mixed Media Journalism

• Recipient of the Project Amazonas grant to study ayahuasca for senior thesis; continues to support MAPS psychedelic research.

• Has been a guest columnist for The Observer, TechCrunch, ATTN, Today Show, and Backstage 

• Guest star on shows including New Girl (NBC), Rules of Engagement (CBS), Guys with Kids (NBC), Last Man Standing (ABC), The League (Comedy Central), Legit (F/X), Status Updates (MTV/Hulu), and American Dad (FOX).

• TV host credits include Discovery Channel’s Shark After Dark, FOX’s The X-Factor, Vh1’s Countdown Specials, TVGuide’s Hollywood 411, and G4’s Attack of the Show; as well as more than 50 live shows and premieres including The Grammy's, Golden Globes, and Oscars, and for movie premieres such as Twilight, Avatar, and Hunger Games.

Selected press quotes:

• “One of a few trailblazers looking to make A.I.-generated music a mainstream tool…” - Inverse

• "The robots are coming. And they’re bringin’ the jams." - Toronto Star

• "The world's first AI-composed music album is here, and it sounds amazing" - Catch 

• "It’s only a matter of time before your favorite AI-created song or movie is accepting its Grammy or Oscar award." - HuffPost 

• “Is music about to have its first AI No. 1?” - BBC Music

• “A thumping pulse sets a tense heartbeat tempo. The song swells and recedes, transitioning between brooding and empowering.” - IQ Magazine

• "Break Free, it's a brooding ballad that wouldn't sound out of place on the Hunger Games soundtrack" - BBC 

• "The song is a big, moody ballad — the kind that might play during the climax of a Steven Spielberg movie." - The Verge 

• “…a catchy, radio-friendly 4-minute track” - Inverse

• “a glacial synth-pop track about transcending the limitations of the human body” -  Toronto Star 

• "This new AI-composed pop song sounds like something from a Spotify playlist" - Fast Company 

Learn more about Taryn Southern:

• Taryn Southern’s website: https://www.tarynsouthern.com/

• Taryn Southern on Twitter: https://twitter.com/tarynsouthern

• Taryn Southern on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/TarynSouthern

• Taryn Southern on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tarynsouthern/