Meet &Nashville Member and the visionary behind Humanable, Chief Human and co-founder, Lily McGrady. Humanable is pioneering a movement to certify art as human-made, ensuring that music remains untouched by AI. This platform aims to protect and empower artists, fans, and the entire music ecosystem. With a background rooted in creativity, Lily is fiercely dedicated to preserving the future of human music in an increasingly AI-driven world. Through the Humanable certification, they’re championing a future where authenticity in music prevails and artists can thrive.
Who are you and what do you do?
I am the Chief Human of Humanable.
Humanable™ is a technology platform, social movement, and representative brand which aims to certify art as human-made and non-AI generated. Humanable’s solution leverages technology and human ingenuity, aligns incentives for the entire music ecosystem, including fans, and provides a credible and clear future for human music.
What’s something we don’t know about you?
Our co-founder, Lili McGrady, is a playwright educated at the University of London’s Central School of Speech and drama. Other notable alumni include Dame Judi Dench (Skyfall), Hugh Bonneville (Downton Abbey), and Andrew Garfield (Spiderman).
What inspires or motivates you to get out of bed?
My central focus right now is helping the music community survive and thrive through the generative AI incursion into the arts. If the music industry adopts the Humanable certification as the new standard to identify human-made music, we have a real chance of preserving the marketplace for artists, publishers, labels, and all those that professionally support them as well as protecting the platforms from fraud.
What is one thing you can’t live without?
I know the correct Middle Tennessee answer for this question is “Jesus” and I do love that guy. But, I think I should come clean and say live music. I am out in this amazing city at least four nights a week hearing my friends sing their hearts out and scoping out who is new and rising in the music scene.
Where do your brightest ideas come from?
Sedona. In fact, it is a bit of family insider knowledge that when we believe we need a new idea to solve a problem or start something new we go to Sedona. The idea for Humanable to solve the problem facing our artist community came over a breakfast with one of my co-founders as the sun came up in Sedona. Truly a magical place. For emergencies, though, it’s Santa Fe.
How do you spark your creativity when you’re feeling in a rut?
It would be nice if I always had time and money to travel west, but that isn’t the reality for a startup co-founder. But I find plenty of inspiration here in Nashville. In addition to being around other creatives, mostly musicians, I find just “vibing” in a creative space helps greatly. That is one of the things I like most about Ampersand. It is a beautiful space with comfortable places to simply “vibe.” We looked at other options, but those just recreated stale corporate environments.
Where is your favorite place to decompress & unwind?
Crystal River in Florida. I admit I have a bit of a manatee fascination. Crystal River is beautiful and has a large, friendly manatee population to swim with. My favorite day in Crystal River was the day a momma manatee left her toddler with me to babysit for a couple of hours and she took a break. I lived on that for weeks.
When do you feel your best, and what do you do to stay in good vibrations?
I’m a midmorning to midafternoon person. Too early in the day and I’m caffeine starved and too late in the day and I’m ready to go listen to the latest artist in town. My hyper productive hours are 10am-3pm. I get lots done during the other hours too, but those hours are my “zone.” As for good vibrations, Pilates helps me both physically and mentally. While I love Pilates, I’m not much for the Pilates princess culture at most places so I asked Santa Claus for a Pilates Reformer for use at home. Highly recommend it.
Why did you choose Ampersand Studios as your workspace?
Well, there are lots of reasons but I will list the top three. First, we enjoy an unparalleled location, especially for those of us in the music business. So many others in the ecosystem are just a block or two away. Second, the space is creative and calming while the competition we saw was cold and corporate. An easy choice. Third, and this can’t be understated, we just “clicked” with Nicole on our visit. Nicole is warm and welcoming and genuine. She is Ampersand’s not-so-secret weapon.
Where can our community connect with you? Please share your website, social media channels and/or other relevant links.
Any connections in the music industry are appreciated! We have a lot of work to do to make the Humanable certification the industry standard and the best way to do that is talk directly to those it will help. We would be thrilled to host a lunch and learn for anyone in our membership that is in the music industry to tell them what we are up to and how Humanable certification can help them.
