Light Box | Ep. 1: Inside the Black Box
Light Box
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A composer goes inside the machines learning to make music

Light Box is a ten-part reported series from Mark Henry Phillips that asks: What happens when a machine can do the thing that you thought made you, you?

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Inside the black box.

Mark Henry Phillips has spent twenty years making music for a living. Then one night he typed a few words into an AI music generator, and it did his job better than he ever could. In ten seconds. Basically for free.

Light Box is what happened next: a ten-part investigation into what AI is actually doing to music, told from inside the industry by someone who is both a working composer and a veteran audio journalist.

Light Box asks what it means when a machine can do the thing that you thought made you, you.

Mark Henry Phillips

Mark Henry Phillips

Mark is a composer and audio journalist with twenty years at the intersection of music and storytelling. He spent five years as a staff producer and reporter at WNYC's On the Media, and has produced and reported for Radiolab and All Things Considered. As a composer, he has scored Serial, This American Life, StartUp, Homecoming, Passenger List, award-winning films, and commercials for Google, Nike, and Ford.

Light Box began as a pilot about his own crisis with AI music generators in 2024. He spent the next year reporting the full story. He is the founder of Windhill Studios, an audio production company in Vermont.

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Windhill Studios

Light Box is made by Windhill Studios in Vermont, an audio production company specializing in podcasts and audio fiction.

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