The string of pop flops is the latest evidence of how difficult it has become for the music business to generate the kinds of genuine moments that turbocharge sales and move the cultural needle, music executives say. Making pop hits has always been a crapshoot. But today, with the world awash in content, TikTok rewriting labels’ playbooks and listeners burrowing deeper into their own personalized niches, even avid pop fans don’t recognize what’s in the Billboard top 10.
Marketplace
‘Devastating’ potential impact of Google AI Overviews on publisher visibility revealed
The dramatic impact of Google‘s AI-written summaries on search result visibility for publishers has been revealed through exclusive new research. A Press Gazette-led investigation has found that AI-written summaries were returned for nearly a quarter of news-related search queries in mid-May in the US, with the result that organic links to publisher articles were pushed far down the page.
Source: ‘Devastating’ potential impact of Google AI Overviews on publisher visibility revealed
This Is How GenAI Will Transform Media and Entertainment.
Generative AI “is nothing more than mathematics, probability, and statistics,” I2A2 President & CEO Renard Jenkins said in a recent keynote, attempting to assuage those who might fear that AI will transform Hollywood’s “dream factory” into “a warehouse of nightmares.” Jenkins believes that the transformational nature of this technology is a foregone conclusion for Media & Entertainment.
What the Apple-OpenAI Deal Means for Four Tech Titans
The new agreement, announced Monday, gives the startup an important role in Apple’s push to bring AI to its vast population of users. At the same time, Apple rival Microsoft—OpenAI’s most important big tech partner—is also trying to make headway in consumer AI. The OpenAI-Apple collaboration deals a setback to Google, which has long paid Apple billions of dollars a year to be its default tool for internet searches.
Source: What the Apple-OpenAI Deal Means for Four Tech Titans
Europe’s music tastes becoming more local
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 to launch pricier Premium music tier that includes high-fidelity audio
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)
Human Native AI is building the marketplace for AI training licensing deals
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
Sony, Universal, Warner and Merlin strike deals with Twitch for DJ livestreams
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
Merlin launches ‘Merlin Connect’ to provide tech platforms with licensed indie music
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
Music streaming services come out swinging against Canada’s new ‘discriminatory tax’
Canada’s Online Streaming Act requires streamers to contribute 5% of their annual revenue to a number of programs designed to aid Canadian content creators. “We are deeply concerned with today’s decision to impose a discriminatory tax on music streaming services that are already making significant contributions to Canadian artists and culture,” Graham Davies, President and CEO of the Digital Media Association, said in a statement.