The organizations urge publishers to negotiate usage-based e-book lending models as well as perpetual-use options. “Our organizations, representing the vast majority of public libraries in the U.S. and Canada, call on the Big Five publishers, as well as platform providers, to come to the table to work with libraries to identify and implement sustainable solutions, no matter the format,” the signatories state.
Source: Library Orgs Urge Big Five to Address Digital Pricing
As AI video models become more powerful, YouTube is no longer solely relying on creators to label their AI videos — it will now automatically label videos on their behalf. The company announced on Wednesday that its internal systems will apply labels when it detects that “significant photorealistic AI” has been used. YouTube will also be making its AI labels more prominent, so they’re easier to spot across both long-form videos and YouTube Shorts.
In Spotify’s rapidly evolving quest to become the home of everything audio-related, the company announced on Tuesday that it’s bringing narrated long-form magazine articles to its app. The articles will be available to Premium subscribers as part of their 15 hours of audiobook listening time per month. Free users can opt to purchase stand-alone articles for $1.99.
Source: Spotify now lets you stream narrated magazine articles, too
Google’s new AI features for Search signal a further shift away from publisher traffic despite the tools not yet being the default for users, according to SEO experts. The update includes users having the choice to continue searching in AI Mode through follow-up prompts from AI Overviews. The changes, initially revealed in January, could escalate fears for publishers already seeing reduced clickthroughs from Google Search.
The current crop of AI image-authenticity tools tends to do one thing. You upload a photograph, the tool returns a number. 73% likely AI-generated. 0.21 confidence of manipulation. The number is supposed to settle the question. It doesn’t, of course, because the number is a statistical probability that the image was entirely or partially generated by an AI. That’s it.
Sony Music Entertainment has asked a federal court for permission to expand its copyright infringement lawsuit against AI music generator Udio, seeking to add over 30,000 copyrighted sound recordings to its complaint. The motion, filed on Friday (May 22) in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, says Sony identified the additional works after gaining access to Udio‘s training data during the discovery process.
Source: Sony Music moves to add more than 30,000 copyrighted recordings to its lawsuit against Udio
A.I. has made it easier to quickly create audiobooks using synthetic narration. Because most antipiracy technology is designed to catch identical files, not altered ones, many of them avoid detection by programs used to identify copyright infringement. A.I. versions of highly anticipated titles often appear on YouTube hours after they are released.
Source: YouTube Is Crawling with Pirated Audiobooks Made Using A.I.
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission announced the increase on Thursday (May 21), as part of its implementation of the Online Streaming Act – legislation enacted in 2023 that expanded the regulator’s authority to include online content. The music DSPs are already battling the CRTC‘s original 5% levy – first imposed in 2024 – which required non-Canadian streaming services to contribute 5% of their domestic revenues to funds supporting Canadian content creators.
Source: Spotify and major music DSPs on alert as Canada triples streaming tax to 15%
A revised version of the NO FAKES Act (Nurture Originals, Foster Art, and Keep Entertainment Safe Act), a bill originally introduced in 2024 and designed to regulate the use of AI to replicate a person’s likeness and voice, was introduced this week hoping to gain momentum. The original version enjoyed bipartisan support from a laundry list of lawmakers, studios, and even tech giants like Amazon, YouTube, and OpenAI.
Source: The ‘No Fakes’ Act is Back; Can a 2026 Version Pass in Congress?
Stability AI has announced the launch of Stable Audio 3.0, a family of four new AI music models that the company promises are trained entirely on licensed data. These new models can generate tracks of more than six minutes in length. Three of the four models are “open-weight,” meaning they are free to download and build upon.
Source: Stability AI Releases ‘Stable Audio 3.0,’ Trained on Authorized Sources