Both technologies certainly aren’t getting the attention they were a few years back. But this isn’t necessarily a sign that they are dead. In fact, it isn’t even necessarily a bad thing. When technology trends are at a peak in the hype cycle, they inevitably attract the attention of those who are just interested in moving in on the current Big Thing in order to make money. In the web3 world, the current most visible example of this is the recent collapse of FTX.
March, 2023
Midjourney Kills Free AI Image Generator Access After Explosion of Deep Fakes
Midjourney, the company behind the eponymous popular text-to-image AI image generator, has shut off access to its free trial version following a rise in viral deep fakes generated by its technology. “Due to a combination of extraordinary demand and trial abuse we are temporarily disabling free trials until we have our next improvements to the system deployed,” Midjourney founder David Holz wrote on the company’s Discord server earlier this week.
Source: Midjourney Kills Free AI Image Generator Access After Explosion of Deep Fakes – Decrypt
This Track Sung in Jay-Z’s Voice By AI Shows How Far the Artificial Intelligence Has Come
AllttA, a music band, has conducted a unique AI-generated experiment in which American rapper and songwriter Mr. J. Medeiros wrote the lyrics for their latest release “Savages”, while his teammate Sylvain Richard created a beat that included an AI filter to synthesize the voice of Jay-Z into the song. This innovative use of AI technology has generated significant buzz, showcasing the potential for AI to revolutionize the music industry and produce new forms of creative expression.
Source: This Track Sung in Jay-Z’s Voice By AI Shows How Far the Artificial Intelligence Has Come
Impact of AI on the creator economy market
According to the latest report by Citi, the creator economy market is estimated to be worth around $60 billion per year, and it’s expected to grow at a rate of approximately 9% until 2024, reaching $75 billion. However, this is missing the obvious. The impact of AI on the creator economy market is likely to be significant. AI has the potential to revolutionize the way creators produce and distribute their content and the way audiences consume it.
Publishers Worry A.I. Chatbots Will Cut Readership
New artificial intelligence tools from Google and Microsoft give answers to search queries in full paragraphs rather than a list of links. Many publishers worry that far fewer people will click through to news sites as a result, shrinking traffic — and, by extension, revenue. “You could essentially call this the Wikipedia-ization of a lot of information,” said Bryan Goldberg, the chief executive of BDG, which publishes lifestyle and culture websites like Bustle, Nylon and Romper.
AI Act: European Parliament headed for key committee vote at end of April
Technological developments like the stellar rise of ChatGPT played a role in disrupting the AI Act’s discussions, as EU lawmakers scrambled to decide how to deal with a technology that is moving at a neck-breaking speed and is not covered in the original proposal. This is perhaps the most significant political issue still open. A potential compromise discussed last week was to put stricter obligations on foundation models like ChatGPT, notably with strict risk and quality management requirements and external audits.
Source: AI Act: European Parliament headed for key committee vote at end of April
Songtradr closes $23.4m acquisition of B2B music firm 7digital
Songtradr said in a media release March 30 that the transaction “solidifies Songtradr’s position as a key leader in the B2B music industry, establishing the company as the only one-stop music solution for digital platforms and brands worldwide”. The acquisition will see UK-headquartered 7digital‘s music delivery platform combined, under one company, with Songtradr’s “technologies, licensing pedigree, and unmatched AI music search and metadata technology”.
Source: Songtradr closes $23.4m acquisition of B2B music firm 7digital
BMG annual revenues jumped 30.6% in 2022, as it spent $400m on catalog acquisitions
BMG‘s annual revenues hit EUR €866 million (USD $911m) in 2022 – climbing by €203 million, or 30.6%, year-on-year. In its annual fiscal report, Bertelsmann attributed the strong growth in BMG’s 2022 revenues and EBITDA to “organic growth in its recorded and publishing businesses… supported by an investment offensive”. That “investment offensive” involved a record €509 million ($535m) being spent on the acquisition of music catalogs plus artist signings in 2022.
Source: BMG annual revenues jumped 30.6% to over $900m in 2022, as it spent $400m on catalog acquisitions
PPL paid artists and rightsholders $21.5m in international neighboring rights money in Q1
According to the IFPI‘s recently published IFPI Global Music Report, the global neighboring rights market grew to USD $2.5 billion in revenue in 2022 – up 8.6% YoY, and accounting for 9.4% of the worldwide recorded music market. This week, UK-based PPL announced that it will pay out GBP £17.4 million (USD $21.5m at current exchange rates) in its Q1 distribution of international revenues (aka neighboring rights revenues).
A new analytics tool helps musical artists harness YouTube Shorts
YouTube is launching a new product called Analytics for Artists that will help musicians adopt a multiformat approach to video, Global Head of Music Lyor Cohen announced. Cohen shared some stats that show just how big YouTube Shorts has gotten. As of December 2022, the TikTok competitor records 50 billion daily views, many of which come on videos that feature pop music. According to Cohen, the top 1,000 songs on YouTube Shorts got more than 280 billion combined views in January 2023.