MusicWatch: 17 Million US ‘Fans’ Ripped Music Last Year, UP 13%

June 3, 2019By rightstech

How much of a problem is stream-ripping? From the latest MusicWatch Annual Music Study, we estimated that there are 17 million stream-rippers in the US during 2018, up from 15 million in 2017. For context, that’s more people than bought a new vinyl record last year!

Source: 17 Million US ‘Fans’ Ripped Music Last Year, UP 13%

RightsTech Extra

AI Companies Get the Picture

By Paul Sweeting

One of the biggest challenges facing copyright owners in grappling with the rapid development of generative AI technology, apart from a murky legal status, has been market failure, as discussed here in previous posts. The amount of existing material needed to train gen-AI models is so great, and so varied, that gauging the value of any one piece of it to establish a market price for it for licensing purposes is often effectively impossible. One group of rights owners is finding willing buyers among AI companies, however. An active, albeit for various reasons mostly sotto voce market has begun to emerge for the use of images held in large photo archives and by photo agencies and social media platforms, complete with per-unit industry and at least a nod toward creator attribution... Read More >>

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