A year after entering the generative AI race with Europe’s largest-ever seed round of $113 million, Mistral AI is raising more cash — lots more, like, almost 6X that amount. The Paris-based startup today announced it has secured $640 million series B funding in a combination of debt and equity, taking its valuation to nearly $6 billion.
Source: Mistral raises massive $640M to take on OpenAI, Anthropic in the global gen AI race
The amount of royalties generated by European Union artists on Spotify has tripled in the past six years, and listeners’ tastes are becoming increasingly local. So says Spotify’s inaugural European Union-focused Loud & Clear report, which for the first time breaks down Spotify listener and royalty data specifically for the European Union.
Spotify is planning to launch a pricier Premium music tier later this year that includes access to high-fidelity audio. That’s according to Bloomberg, which, citing sources, reports today (June 11) that this new tier will cost “at least $5 more per month” and will be “an add-on” for existing subscribers. The report adds that the new plan will include high-fidelity audio as well as new playlisting and song library management tools.
Source: Spotify to launch pricier Premium music tier that includes high-fidelity audio (report)
Over the past decade, the music industry’s approach to talent discovery, marketing, and artist careers has become too data obsessed, near sighted, and damaging to the industry’s lifeblood. Artists are being sold short and, in turn, this has created a dysfunctional creative-commercial ecosystem.
Source: Stability from chaos: How today’s artists find sustainable success in a turbulent music industry
The confusion and anger surrounding an Adobe Terms of Use update last week caused Adobe to revisit its language and communications at large. Beyond a blog post late last week, Adobe today published another blog post, announcing plans for direct communications with customers and an updated Terms of Use.
Source: Adobe Revising Terms of Use to Clarify Content Licensing, AI, and Privacy
OpenAI’s licensing deals with The Atlantic and Vox last week show that both sides of the table are interested in landing these AI-training content licensing agreements. Human Native AI is a London-based startup building a marketplace to broker such deals between the many companies building LLM projects and those willing to license data to them.
Source: Deal Dive: Human Native AI is building the marketplace for AI training licensing deals | TechCrunch
The recent and dramatic increase in AI-generated images is blurring the lines of what’s real and fake—and underscores the need for more tools to discern between the two. In a recent study, researchers in Italy analyzed a suite of AI models designed to identify fake images, finding these current methods to be fairly effective. But the results also point to an AI arms race to keep pace with evolving generative AI tools.
Source: The AI Arms Race to Combat Fake Images Is Even—For Now
Adobe has clarified its Terms of Use update, which initially led users to believe their unpublished work was fodder for AI training. Adobe says it does not train its Firefly generative AI models on user content and that it “will never assume ownership of a customer’s work.” Backlash snowballed this week after Adobe users were notified of an update to its Terms of Use poli
Source: ‘Adobe does not train Firefly Gen AI models on customer content’: Company responds to backlash
Twitch has struck deals with all three major music companies, including Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, Sony Music, and a large number of independent labels via Merlin. According to Twitch, since early 2020, the number of DJs streaming on the service has more than quadrupled and that “over 15,000 of them
Source: Sony, Universal, Warner and Merlin strike music licensing deals with Twitch for DJ livestreams
While AI can produce generic music, many critics argue that it lacks the originality of human-created works. Merlin Connect seeks to address this by providing emerging tech platforms with access to a vast library of “high-quality” music from independent artists, the organization said Wednesday (June 5).
Source: Merlin launches ‘Merlin Connect’ to provide tech platforms with licensed indie music