SunoCharts shows how AI music’s trending creators and breakout genres could be tracked

The recently-launched SunoCharts website carries the tagline ‘the analytics layer for AI music’. The twist is that none of the trending tracks or artists included in those analytics are real. That’s not us making a snarky jab at those creators. They’re literally not real, as the site’s creator Kieron Donoghue explains. “SunoCharts is a site built on dummy data that shows what could be possible if Suno released an API. It does not use any live data, it’s purely a demo,” he says.

Source: SunoCharts shows how AI music’s trending creators and breakout genres could be tracked

Deezer Achieves Profitability In Fiscal 2025; ‘AI Transparency’ a Serious Differentiator

On Wednesday, French music streamer Deezer unveiled its 2025 financials, reporting profitability for the first time and exceeding all three key metrics across adjusted EBITDA, positive net income, and free cash flow. This, Deezer said, marks “the start of a cycle of sustainable profitability.” This growth was attributed to a $14 million (12 million euro) reduction in expenses, while earning more users through the company’s position on AI in music and artist compensation.

Source: Deezer Achieves Profitability In Fiscal 2025; ‘AI Transparency’ a Serious Differentiator

ElevenLabs launches Music Marketplace to let its users monetize their AI-generated tracks

According to the company, once published to its Music Marketplace, tracks can be downloaded and used as they are, remixed into new projects, or licensed for use in videos, games, ads, and other commercial work. When a paid subscriber uses a published track, the original creator earns from that use. he company says that more than 14 million “studio-grade tracks have been created” via ElevenLabs since the launch of its AI music generator last year.

Source: ElevenLabs launches Music Marketplace to let its users monetize their AI-generated tracks

OpenAI Will Shut Down Sora Video App; Disney Drops Plans for $1 Billion Investment

OpenAI said it will discontinue Sora, the generative-AI video creation app it launched last year, without providing a reason for the decision. “We’re saying goodbye to Sora. To everyone who created with Sora, shared it, and built community around it: thank you,” OpenAI’s Sora team said in a statement Tuesday. The announcement comes just three months after Disney inked a groundbreaking deal with OpenAI.

Source: OpenAI Will Shut Down Sora Video App; Disney Drops Plans for $1 Billion Investment

News/Media Alliance Partners with Bria AI to Launch AI Licensing Agreement

The News/Media Alliance (NMA), representing around 2,200 news, magazine, and digital media organizations, has partnered with Bria to let NMA members opt into an AI licensing agreement that would see them compensated for the use of their content in AI systems. This partnership will also form the foundation for a new Bria product in development – designed to ensure reliable, grounded AI-generated outputs based on participating publishers’ owned content.

Source: News/Media Alliance Partners with Bria AI to Launch AI Licensing Agreement

Sony Music has targeted 135,000+ deepfakes for removal from streaming platforms

Sony says the 135,000 tracks it has identified so far are likely only a fraction of what has actually been uploaded. Since last March 2025 alone, the company flagged roughly 60,000 songs falsely attributed to artists from its roster, according to the report. In a submission to the government’s consultation on AI and copyright law, obtained by the Financial Times and The Sunday Times at the time, Sony flagged more than 75,000 AI-generated deepfakes.

Source: Sony Music has targeted 135,000+ deepfakes for removal from streaming platforms

First-Ever US Streaming Music Fraud Case Ends In a Guilty Plea

On Thursday, Michael Smith, the man accused of defrauding music streaming services with AI-generated slop tracks, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Smith agreed to pay back the $8,091,843.64 he received in royalties from the streamers, and his charge carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison. “Michael Smith generated thousands of fake songs using artificial intelligence and then streamed those fake songs billions of times,” said Jay Clayton, a U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York.

Source: First-Ever US Streaming Music Fraud Case Ends In a Guilty Plea

Indie Label Owner Says Streaming Has Failed ‘The Middle Class of Musicians’

Streaming has failed “the ‘middle class’ of musicians” – at least according to Hopeless Records founder Louis Posen, who’s calling for major changes to the current pro-rata compensation model. Posen took aim at streaming’s shortcomings – and floated an interesting solution – in a blog post entitled “The Digital Paradox.” Technically, said post was attributed to the Organization for Recorded Culture and Arts (ORCA), an indie advocacy group that counts Hopeless as a founding supporter.

Source: Indie Label Owner Says Streaming Has Failed ‘The Middle Class of Musicians’

The Licensing Mirage: Why Collective Models Won’t Save the Visual Industry from AI

On March 10, the European Parliament voted overwhelmingly to demand a new licensing framework for AI training. Across the Atlantic, private data brokers are raising tens of millions to license content directly. Both approaches claim to solve the same problem. Neither does. The problem is structural. The resolution leans heavily on Collective Management Organizations. And what we know about them should give visual creators pause.

Source: The Licensing Mirage: Why Collective Models Won’t Save the Visual Industry from AI

A.I. Is Writing Fiction. Publishers Are Unprepared.

For months, speculation has been building online that a buzzy horror novel, “Shy Girl,” was written with the help of A.I. Earlier this year, Max Spero, the founder and chief executive of Pangram, an A.I. detection program, heard of the claims about “Shy Girl” and decided to run a test of the full text. Its results indicated that the book was 78 percent A.I. generated. “I’m very confident that this is largely A.I. generated, or very heavily A.I. assisted,” said Spero, who posted his research on X in January.

Source: A.I. Is Writing Fiction. Publishers Are Unprepared.

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