“Most people know Sesac as a US-based performing rights organization. But, over the last eight years, we’ve acquired eleven companies and organically grown and broadened our business model…” That’s John Josephson speaking: the CEO who has overseen Sesac Music Group’s expansion into an organisation with three new business lines alongside its traditional business, and operations in territories well beyond the US.
Source: Sesac Music Group talks acquisitions, expansion and the fight against fraud
Warner Music Group has formally warned AI companies of training their models on protected media and other assets without a license. WMG forwarded the relevant notice to a number of high-profile artificial intelligence players, several of which are grappling with litigation over alleged copyright infringement. And that litigation centers mainly on the media, apparently including copyrighted works, used to train the underlying AI systems.
Source: Warner Music Warns AI Companies About Unlicensed Training
Now that Shari Redstone has signed on the dotted line to sell her father’s media empire to Skydance and RedBird Capital, what future awaits? First, and perhaps most importantly, Skydance is dropping $1.5 billion on Paramount’s balance sheet – a cash infusion that hopes to embolden the studio to woo creatives with “stability.”
Source: The Skydance Vision for a New Paramount: Cash Injection, ‘Stability’ for Creatives and Tech Savvy
Buying and selling movie scripts has been a thing since ‘Pulp Fiction,’ but now, Hollywood is transforming the trend from a nerdy side-hustle to a major source of revenue and prestige. “If the bulk of the proceeds from a screenplay book flow directly to a writer, then they should absolutely publish more of them,” Capps says. “In my experience, the industry has developed very efficient systems to deprive writers of the money they’re owed.”
His departure from the company will be effective upon closing of the proposed acquisition of Hipgnosis Songs Fund Limited by Lyra Bidco Limited, a company owned by Blackstone-managed funds. Blackstone already owns two other elements of Hipgnosis — the investment fund Hipgnosis Songs Capital and the advisor Hipgnosis Song Management.
Source: Merck Mercuriadis to Exit as Hipgnosis Song Management Chairman Ahead of Blackstone Acquisition
Privacy Sandbox, Google’s upcoming replacement for third-party cookies, will reduce publishers’ revenue from programmatically-sold online ads by 60%, according to new research from advertising platform Criteo. Meanwhile, trade group the IAB Tech Lab has warned Sandbox would “throttle” smaller news publishers and restrict the media industry’s growth.
Source: Google Sandbox rollout could cost publishers 60% of online advertising revenue
The tentative deal on a new Basic Agreement includes additional benefits plan funding and AI protections, according to a memo to IATSE members. The tentative Basic Agreement — which comes more than a month before the current contract was due to expire on July 31 — will calm fears of another industry shutdown so soon after last year’s double strikes.
Source: IATSE, AMPTP Reach Tentative Agreement on New Contract
For a company facing a legal death sentence, TikTok sure isn’t acting like it plans to go down anytime soon. Either that, or its hedging its bets.
This week, the ByteDance-owned social media platform, along with eight named users, filed their expected formal lawsuit against the U.S. government challenging the law passed by Congress and signed by President Biden earlier this year requiring TikTok to be sold to a non-Chinese owned company by January 19, 2025 or face permanent banishment from the United States.
Microsoft, Google and other rivals raced ahead, and jittery with anticipation that the House that Jobs built would soon announce a category-redefining advance of the technology.
What they got at this week’s Worldwide Developers Conference was a clearly articulated but hardly revolutionary implementation of existing AI tools and use cases wrapped up into a very Apple-centric strategy, right down to the attempted rebranding of “artificial intelligence” as “Apple Intelligence.”
You can find the details on Apple Intelligence here. But the main goal of the strategy seems to be to turn AI into an iPhone feature rather than a standalone product or service. Its hallmark is to keep as much AI processing as is possible on the phone itself, which it does largely by limiting what you can do with Apple Intelligence.
TikTok is forming an in-house Music Content Investment Team based in Los Angeles, New York, and San Jose, focusing on “partnership or acquisition opportunities in the music content space on a global level.” In other words, TikTok is moving into the competitive music M&A market. Tellingly, it’s looking to the world of investment banking and private equity to find the execs who will lead this charge.
Source: TikTok is forming an investment team to acquire music content and companies