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Is Art Basel’s AI embrace a turning point for the art world?

January 15, 2025By rightstech0 Comments

When “Théâtre D’opéra Spatial,” an AI-generated artwork, won first prize at a prestigious competition in 2022, the backlash was swift and visceral. For many in the art world, it wasn’t just a controversial winner—it was a direct threat to the human essence of creativity. Generative AI was dismissed as a novelty at best and a cheap imitation at worst. Now, one of the industry’s most influential authorities is challenging that assumption.

Source: Is Art Basel’s AI embrace a turning point for the art world?

Chartmetric tracks 11m Spotify artists. Fewer than 1.6m have over 10 listeners

January 15, 2025By rightstech0 Comments

How many artists are releasing music right now? Analytics firm Chartmetric has a new figure: 11.3 million. That’s how many its platform is now tracking, and it represents a 1.7m increase from a year ago according to its annual report. “On average, 4.6k artists were added to our platform every day,” noted the company. “Alongside artists, a total 25.7 million tracks were ingested into the Chartmetric system in 2024.”

Source: Chartmetric tracks 11m Spotify artists. Fewer than 1.6m have over 10 listeners

Suno boss targets ‘bigger, brighter future’ with music industry

January 15, 2025By rightstech0 Comments

AI music startup Suno is being sued by major labels, but its CEO Mikey Shulman seems optimistic that it can build bridges with rightsholders again. “There’s the traditional Silicon Valley mentality of, like, ‘Screw you, existing industry! I will disrupt you, there’s nothing that you can do about it’ and then there’s the existing incumbent approach, which is like ‘I will sue you until you go away!’ Both of those are obviously wrong,” Shulman told the 20VC podcast.

Source: Suno boss targets ‘bigger, brighter future’ with music industry

Reuters Institute: Publishers Pivot To Video Amid Search Disruption

January 15, 2025By rightstech0 Comments

As social media referral traffic from platforms like Facebook and X continues to decline—67% and 50%drops over the past two years—publishers are increasingly turning to Google Discover. The Reuters Institute notes that Discover grew by 12% year over year, and many publishers now rely on it as their primary referral source. Its personalized recommendations have made it a focus for publishers looking to replace lost traffic from other platforms.

Source: Reuters Institute: Publishers Pivot To Video Amid Search Disruption

The Shutterstock-Getty Images Merger: A Bold Move in a Shifting Landscape

January 8, 2025By rightstech0 Comments

The stock photo industry has been gasping for air, struggling to adapt to a market that continues to be extremely challenging. Over the past two decades, licensing prices for rights-managed (RM) images have plummeted by 20–50%, while royalty-free (RF) prices have dropped even more sharply, by 50–80%. The rise of microstock and subscription models has driven licensing fees as low as $0.27 per image.

Source: The Shutterstock-Getty Images Merger: A Bold Move in a Shifting Landscape – Kaptur

Is ‘AI slop’ breaking the internet?

January 6, 2025By rightstech0 Comments

Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, has deleted a host of fake social media profiles generated by artificial intelligence after a backlash against what Gizmodo called an invasion of “AI-powered slop.” The AI avatars managed by the platform include “Liv”, who “posts photos of children that do not exist, and “Jade”, who posts photos of her non-existent vinyl collection. “The AI apocalypse is here and it’s far stupider and more depressing than we were promised.”

Source: Is ‘AI slop’ breaking the internet?

Adobe sets out its approach to AI art and copyrights for 2025

January 3, 2025By rightstech

Adobe has been one of the biggest creative brands to embrace the potential of generative AI with Adobe Firefly, and in doing so has divided the creator community. But Adobe’s approach to including AI features in Photoshop and other software has been nuanced, and it’s been done in tandem with clear initiatives designed to protect artists and copyrights. The idea is to add creator-first AI tools to its software, as well as develop new AI-first tools, like Adobe Project Concept AI while setting up tools to protect ownership.

Source: Adobe sets out its approach to AI art and copyrights for 2025

AI Images in 2024: Photography Strikes Back

January 3, 2025By rightstech

At the end of 2023 it was beginning to look like AI images — a new and novel way of producing pictures — were an existential threat to photography. By the end of 2024, that threat had been extinguished somewhat. In 2023, AI images were winning prestigious photo competitions. In 2024, real photos were winning AI image competitions.

Source: AI Images in 2024: Photography Strikes Back

Is Amazon Music Plotting a 1,000-Stream Minimum for Royalties?

January 3, 2025By rightstech

Is Amazon Music joining Spotify in establishing a 1,000-stream minimum before tracks can generate recording royalties? The question is front of mind – even if a concrete answer isn’t readily available – following the announcement of an “artist-centric” Universal Music deal. Amazon Music and UMG revealed that bolstered deal on Monday, pointing to a variety of components, the most interesting being the planned joint “advancement of artist-centric principles.”

Source: Is Amazon Music Plotting a 1,000-Stream Minimum for Royalties?

YouTube is letting creators opt in to allowing third-party AI training

December 17, 2024By rightstech

YouTube is rolling out a way for creators to let third-party companies use their videos to train AI models. To be clear, the default setting for this is off, meaning that if you don’t want to let third-party companies scrape your videos for AI training, you don’t have to do anything. But if, for some reason, you do want to allow that — Google says that “some creators and rights holders” may want to — it’s going to be an option.

Source: YouTube is letting creators opt in to allowing third-party AI training