While mega-PROs like ASCAP and BMI do a laudable job of tracking, matching, and distributing royalties on billions of tracks played in the United States, a nagging question is whether these vast systems can be improved. Now, London-based Audoo has hard evidence showing that billions of song plays can be counted with near-100% accuracy.
Source: Audoo Shares Some Shocking Song-Tracking Data from Denver
The partnership with the ISNI International Agency (ISNI-IA) makes UMG an ‘ISNI registration agency,’ marking “the first of its kind for a major label,” ISNI-IA said Monday. An ISNI functions as a ‘digital passport’ for every contributor involved in the making of a piece of music, such as producers, writers, and other creative people. The system provides each creator with a specific identifier that enhances their visibility online.
Source: Universal Music adopts ISNI system, assigning ID numbers to songwriters and artists
The global generative artificial intelligence (AI) in music market reached a value of nearly $419.85 million in 2024, having grown at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 53.34% since 2019. The market is expected to grow from $419.85 million in 2024 to $4.3 billion in 2029 at a rate of 59.25%. The market is then expected to grow at a CAGR of 39.32% from 2029 and reach $22.57 billion in 2034.
According to MIDiA’s newest report, “Audio’s entertainment value: Examining audio listeners’ cross-entertainment lives”, podcasts and audiobooks have the potential to provide music rightsholders with one of the highest value audience segments out there. Across the board, data shows audio listeners are more willing than music streamers to engage with digital marketing efforts like pre-saves, add music to their collections, listen to full albums on streaming services, and listen to songs they have Shazamed.
Source: The audio listener is too valuable for the music industry to ignore
The release of the new R1 model by China-based AI start-up DeepSeek has a number of important implications for news publishers, cutting across the future economics of AI, the ability of IP holders to protect their rights and the risks that these technologies pose to the broader information ecosystem. DeepSeek’s training data was obtained without authorisation or even transparency; the crawlers it is using are undeclared, third-party or hidden.
Source: DeepSeek launch underlines value of news content to AI companies
Web publishers have responded to AI with a trifecta of lawsuits, legislation, and computer science. What began with a litany of copyright infringement suits, including one from the New York Times, has turned into a wave of restrictions on use of websites’ data, as well as legislation such as the EU AI Act to protect copyright holders’ ability to opt out of AI training.
Source: AI crawler wars threaten to make the web more closed for everyone
The DeepSeek R1 algorithm works. And it’s spreading. You can download the code, run it on your own server or PC, and see results that differ from those on Chinese-hosted versions. DeepSeek means that everyone, from researchers in São Paulo to start-ups in Stockholm and doctors in Nairobi, can access state-of-the-art AI at little to no cost. You just need a $2,000 machine with 512GB RAM to run DeepSeek R1 locally, generating 3.5–4 tokens per second.
Source: DeepSeek is a wake-up call for the music industry – and its data goldmine
Google Photos is adding its digital SynthID watermarks to photos that have been edited using the Magic Editor’s generative AI feature. The new feature is rolling out “this week” according to Google, and is intended to make it easier for people to quickly identify images that have been manipulated using the “reimagine” tool in Magic Editor.
Source: Google is adding AI watermarks to photos manipulated by Magic Editor
In a new quarterly series AOP managing director Richard Reeves analyses online publishing industry revenue trends. Five years ago, subscriptions accounted for just 22% of digital publishing revenue, dwarfed by the 42% delivered by display advertising. Today, the gap has narrowed significantly, and subscriptions may soon match or exceed display advertising revenues.
Source: Online publishing revenue trends: Audio rising, video stalls, data is golden
The ISNI International Agency, which provides tools to identify millions of contributors of creative works and those active in their distribution, has announced that Bowker, the ISBN services company, has rejoined the community as an ISNI Registration Agency. Bowker’s re-engagement also coincides with the Book Industry Study Group’s efforts to establish a nationwide ISNI workflow in the United States.