As machine-made books flood online marketplaces, a new UK initiative is introducing an Organic Literature stamp to help readers identify books created by real authors. The scheme will involve Organic Literature stamps being placed on books written by humans, with only limited AI use permitted for tasks such as formatting or idea generation.
Source: Certified organic and AI-free: New stamp for human-written books launches
Spotify has announced an extensive partnership with Universal Music Group, Sony Music Group and Warner Music Group, digital licensing company Merlin and distribution services company Believe to develop AI music products. Spotify didn’t specify what specific software or AI tools the company was developing, stating only that was working with the partner companies to create “responsible AI products that empower the artists and songwriters they represent, and connect them with the fans who support them.”
Source: Spotify to Develop AI Music Products in Partnership With Major Record Labels
Spotify is partnering with Netflix to bring select video podcasts to the streaming platform starting in early 2026. The deal will feature curated shows from Spotify Studios and The Ringer, expanding later to include more genres. The move reflects Spotify’s growing focus on video as a key driver for engagement and ad revenue, with video podcast consumption now growing 20 times faster than audio-only content.
Source: Spotify partners with Netflix for video podcast distribution deal | TechCrunch
For years, the narrative has been that movies, in contrast to TV series, were in decline. But there’s new data that paints a different picture. Streaming services are, in fact, relying more than ever on films to keep their growth engines humming. A Parrot Analytics analysis of thousands of titles across Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, Netflix, and Max finds that movies deliver disproportionately high engagement relative to the volume of content hours they represent.
New research from BrightEdge offers insights into how Google’s AI Overviews ranks websites across different verticals, with implications for what SEOs and publishers should be focusing on. The data shows that 54% of the AI Overviews citations matched the web pages ranked in the organic search results. This means that 46% of citations do not overlap with organic search results. Could this be an artifact of Google’s FastSearch algorithm?
Publishers with OpenAI licensing deals benefit from a ChatGPT clickthrough rate almost seven times higher than those without agreements, according to the latest State of the Bots report from Tollbit. This suggests that AI gatekeepers’ discretionary deal-making, which currently largely locks out all but large, premium, English-language titles, will be a key determinant of success as AI adoption and diffusion continues to accelerate.
Source: Publishers with AI licensing deals have seven times the clickthrough rate
SAG-AFTRA has issued a statement condemning Tilly Norwood, the AI “actress” who has become a contentious subject in Hollywood after her creator, Eline Van der Velden, recently claimed that multiple talent agents were interested in signing the AI creation. “To be clear, ‘Tilly Norwood’ is not an actor, it’s a character generated by a computer program that was trained on the work of countless professional performers — without permission or compensation,” SAG-AFTRA wrote in a statement.
Independent music licensing group Merlin and Spotify have renewed their global, multi-year licensing partnership. According to the companies, the agreement, announced on Tuesday (September 30), “reinforces the vital role of independent music on Spotify and provides Merlin members continued access to a platform that reaches fans worldwide”.
Source: Spotify and Merlin ink multi-year global licensing deal
Rather than generate new songs, Adapt lets users reshape tracks in Epidemic’s catalog of 50,000 tracks and 200,000 sound effects —adjusting length, tempo, structure, or instrumentation with a few clicks. “It’s quite common you find a track you like, but then making it perfect for your story takes hours,” Höglund said. “The idea behind Adapt was to put those tools in the hands of creators so they can make those decisions immediately.”
Source: Epidemic Sound’s Bold AI Bet, Helping Creators And Paying Artists More
The figure was disclosed during a press briefing where executives outlined a three-pronged approach to combat AI-enabled fraud while supporting legitimate artistic use of artificial intelligence tools. “In the past 12 months alone, a period marked by the explosion of generative AI tools, we’ve removed over 75 million spammy tracks from Spotify,” the company confirmed in its official blog post announcing the measures.
Source: Spotify has deleted 75m+ ‘spammy tracks’ – as it unveils new AI music policies