Headlines

Isaac Hayes Estate Settles with Trump in Copyright Lawsuit Over Election Rally Song

The estate of Isaac Hayes has reached a confidential settlement with President Donald Trump to end copyright litigation over the allegedly unauthorized use of the 1966 song “Hold On, I’m Comin’” at 2024 election rallies. Hayes’ son and estate manager, music producer Isaac Hayes III, says in a Monday (Feb. 23) Instagram statement that the lawsuit “has been mutually resolved, and we are satisfied with the outcome.”

Source: Isaac Hayes Estate Settles with Trump in Copyright Lawsuit Over Election Rally Song

The Fight Over AI in Hollywood Is a Battle Between Money and Activism

The number of AI studios blanketing Hollywood, along with the VC dollars to power them, is increasing at an astonishing rate. Hollywood-focused video-generation platform Runway AI revealed a new cash raise of $315 million; Saudi Arabia led a $900 million funding round for Amit Jain’s startup Luma; all-purpose AI giant Anthropic raised $30 billion.

Source: The Fight Over AI in Hollywood Is a Battle Between Money and Activism

Google Brings Lyria 3 Into Gemini, Expands ‘SynthID’ Support

The tech giant debuted Lyria 3 today, touting the DeepMind-developed model as its most advanced music offering to date. At the top level, this refers to automatic prompt-based lyric generation, bolstered control over outputs, and the ability to pump out “more realistic and musically complex tracks.” Against the backdrop of a rapidly evolving AI sector – and increasingly intense competition on the music-generation side – these improvements don’t necessarily come as a surprise.

Source: Google Brings Lyria 3 Into Gemini, Expands ‘SynthID’ Support

AI Sample Generator Just 4 Noise Closes $1 Million Round

Founded by Max Shafer and Henning Nobmann in 2024, the startup deals in prompt-based samples that it says come from an ethically trained model. Per the appropriate website, the royalty-free outputs integrate into DAWs. “Producers stop scrolling through folders and start generating one-shot samples and instruments that fit the track, then drop them straight into their DAW,” BADideas summed up when touting its Just 4 Noise investment.

Source: AI Sample Generator Just 4 Noise Closes $1 Million Round

People Loved the Dot-Com Boom. The A.I. Boom, Not So Much.

The creators of a new technology have always sold it as producing a fundamental transformation of human existence. The radio was touted as bringing “perpetual peace on earth.” Television was supposed to arouse so much empathy for different cultures that it would end war. Cable television would educate the masses and lead to widespread enlightenment. This time, though, the masses have not been won over.

Source: People Loved the Dot-Com Boom. The A.I. Boom, Not So Much.

A Slow-Motion Eulogy for the TV Industry

The past couple of years have increasingly felt like I’m writing a slow-moving, multi-part obituary for television as most of us knew it. The television that involves real sets being built, fully staffed writers rooms, series regulars, dozens of recurring and guest roles, attention spent on production value handled by below-the-line pros and an audience of millions of viewers who regularly tune in on a weekly basis.

Source: A Slow-Motion Eulogy for the TV Industry

The Rise, Fall, and (Slight) Rise of DVDs: A Statistical Analysis

Physical media was a cash cow for movie studios, who could sell a single film to the same consumer multiple times. Let’s say you loved The Lion King in a world before streaming: you might be paying Disney for a movie ticket, a VHS tape, a DVD, a Blu-ray, and now a 4K disc. That’s at least $100 of Lion King spending. Many films enjoyed active second lives on DVD and VHS, with hit titles grossing over $500M in additional revenue for Hollywood studios.

Source: The Rise, Fall, and (Slight) Rise of DVDs: A Statistical Analysis

Google adds music-generation capabilities to the Gemini app

Google announced on Wednesday that it’s adding a music-generation feature to the Gemini app. To use the feature, you’ll describe the song you want to create, and the app will generate a track along with lyrics. For instance, you could ask Gemini to create a “comical R&B slow jam about a sock finding its match,” and the app will generate a 30-second track along with cover art made by Nano Banana.

Source: Google adds music-generation capabilities to the Gemini app | TechCrunch

Watching AI Films On A Cinema Screen Exposed The Tech’s Huge Flaws

Ultimately, the Chroma Awards entries shared two things in common: Firstly, they revealed that the technology is not yet mature enough for ambitious ideas. Secondly, the storytelling skills of these AI creators could not disguise the fact that their films are artificial. But there is optimism in the community that both these hurdles can be cleared.

Source: Watching AI Films On A Cinema Screen Exposed The Tech’s Huge Flaws — But Seedance 2.0 Showed Things Can Change Fast

Why an A.I. Video of Tom Cruise Battling Brad Pitt Spooked Hollywood

According to Crabtree-Ireland, the real concern is that, even if videos generated by Seedance and other A.I. platforms “are not malicious in intent,” they could “really violate someone’s right to control how their image, their likeness and their voice is used.” The kind of material represented by the Cruise-Pitt battle, he said, “could not be produced by any of the signatories to our contracts — the studios, the streamers — without the specific, informed consent of those individuals.”

Source: Why an A.I. Video of Tom Cruise Battling Brad Pitt Spooked Hollywood

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