Meta acquires AI audio startup WaveForms to advance emotional voice synthesis and integrate tech into Superintelligence Labs. WaveForms’ main focus is the ‘Speech Turing Test,’ a challenge to create AI-generated speech that is indistinguishable from human voices. The platform incorporates what it calls ‘emotional general intelligence’—software designed to replicate the emotional nuance of human speech within generated speech.
Source: Meta Acquires WaveForms to Boost AI Audio Capabilities
The opt-in agreement between Kobalt and $3.3 billion-valued Eleven Labs establishes what sources describe as “parity” between publishing and recorded music revenues. Each side will receive an approximate 50/50 split of royalties generated from the AI platform. Eleven Music’s basic tier is trained on production music, but a forthcoming ‘Eleven Music Pro’ offering will soon be trained on cleared catalog from Kobalt and Merlin.
Leading music funding platform beatBread has announced securing an additional $124 million in credit and equity capital as it continues to scale. The company will use the capital to expand its sales, marketing, and product operations, while providing more flexible funding to artists, writers, and independent label clients. Strategic investors who took part include Citi, Deciens Capital, Mucker Capital, and Advantage Capital.
Source: Music Funding Platform beatBread Secures $124M in Latest Round
A report last month from search analytics firm Ahrefs showed Reddit appearing in 5.5% of Google’s AI Overviews responses, the most of any source. Reddit’s position as a repository of knowledge shared and curated by actual people is a big part of the appeal. “Human conversation is not being replaced by AI, instead, it’s becoming more important,” Reddit Chief Executive Steve Huffman said on the company’s earnings call.
Source: As AI Changes Internet Search, Reddit Lies in a Sweet Spot
Recognition Music Group has priced its USD $372 million asset-backed securities (ABS) offering on July 30, with the bonds carrying a 5.604% coupon and yielding 1.7 percentage point over the benchmark. The bonds were three times oversubscribed, suggesting strong investor appetite for music royalty-backed debt.
Source: Recognition Music prices oversubscribed $372M bond deal backed by Justin Bieber and Shakira catalogs
The deal raises SESAC Music Group’s outstanding senior notes to a total of approximately $1.1 billion. This bond issuance is notable as it is the largest 144A-rated whole business securitization ever completed in the music sector. The newly issued bonds are backed by nearly all of SESAC Music Group’s assets and revenue streams, spanning both its Performing Rights and Music Services divisions.
Source: SESAC Music Group Closes $889M Whole Business Securitization
The financial terms of the multiyear deal, which haven’t previously been disclosed, offer a window into how publishers and artificial-intelligence companies are valuing news content in the midst of a seismic change in how consumers seek information online. The annual payment amounts to nearly 1% of the Times’s total 2024 revenue. It was the first AI-related licensing pact for the Times and Amazon’s first such agreement with a publisher.
Source: Amazon to Pay New York Times at Least $20 Million a Year in AI Deal
UMG today disclosed the high-profile tie-up as well as its aggressive focus on AI patents. Regarding the aggressive descriptor, the label has already filed 15 applications with the self-described IP asset management firm Liquidax. These applications concern technology at the intersection of music and collaboration, “AI threat protection,” multimedia content, health, rights management, and administration, the companies indicated.
Source: Universal Music Eyes AI Patents Under Liquidax Partnership
According to a statement released on Tuesday (July 22), Concord is issuing $1.765 billion in bonds via a series of new five-year, seven-year, and ten-year senior notes. The bonds are backed by Concord’s catalog of over 1.3 million music copyrights. The latest bond issuance represents Concord’s fourth securitization offering and is claimed to be “the largest and longest tenured asset-backed term securitization of music rights to date”.
Source: Concord closes $1.76 billion asset-backed securities transaction to ‘fuel continued growth’
The world’s largest music rights company confirmed in a press release on Monday evening (July 21) that it has “confidentially” submitted a Form F-1 to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, “relating to a proposed public offering in the United States of the company’s ordinary shares held by certain shareholders”. Monday’s press release did not disclose the timing, pricing, or venue of UMG’s proposed US listing.
Source: Universal Music Group takes step closer to US listing, filing draft registration with SEC