Global think tank and advocacy group ORCA (Organization for Recorded Culture and Arts) has released a first-of-its-kind report revealing how independent labels generate tangible value and income for artists through long-term partnerships and investment. It shows that in 2023, these labels invested $134 million that supported 569 artists across different genres and geographies, generating a combined revenue of $239 million.
Source: Indie Labels Return 77% of Profits Back to Their Artists—STUDY
Getty CEO Craig Peters told the Financial Times that if regulators block the $3.7 billion deal, “there’s parts of these businesses that probably don’t continue to invest in the UK.” But the real story isn’t whether two large companies should be allowed to merge. It’s what their convergence reveals about the collapsing economics of visual evidence and whether anyone is building the infrastructure that makes real images valuable before the last people who know how to create them find something else to do.
Source: Why the Getty-Shutterstock Merger Is Really About Who Controls “Real” – Kaptur
In a recent study by the streaming platform Deezer and market research company Ipsos, 97% of respondents could not tell the difference between music tracks made entirely by artificial intelligence and those made by humans. At first glance, it might seem that listeners are welcoming AI-generated music with open arms and ears. But the truth is muddier. The same Deezer study found that 52% of respondents were uncomfortable about not being able to tell the difference between human and AI music.
News Corp Australia has launched a licence agreement to give corporate Australia new confidence to download, share and copy content from across the publisher’s professional and extensive news, information and entertainment network, helping reduce the legal and financial risk copyright infringement poses. Importantly, given the rise of artificial intelligence, the licence also caters for copyrighted content to be used as a prompt in AI tools as well as delivering predictable value and ease of compliance.
Source: News Corp Launches Downloadable Copyright Licence Agreement – Content + Technology
Visits to Forbes.com were down 59% year on year and 4% month on month in October to 75.4 million visits, according to Similarweb. Phillips attributed the traffic decline to the rollout of Google’s AI Overviews in 2024, providing lengthy answers at the top of many types of search results (especially for evergreen content) meaning users may not feel the need to click through to the original source. “We’re losing that attribution of, you know, who’s the richest person in the world, according to Forbes, it’s Elon Musk.
Source: Interview: How Forbes CEO Sherry Phillips is responding to Google challenge
Sports teams have become content machines in the digital age, producing a constant stream of videos, highlights, and promotions to engage fans worldwide. But as James Bullock-Webster, director and head of tech, media & cyber at New Dawn Risk, told Insurance Business, this evolution has also exposed organizations to a surge in media liability claims. “What we’ve seen in the last few years is a real surge of media music copyright infringement claims,” he said.
Source: Copyright lawsuits push sports teams to rethink their digital content strategies
The feature positions Block-ownedTIDAL as a competitor to SoundCloud, which pioneered the direct-upload and discovery model for independent artists. The new TIDAL Upload service allows artists to post tracks directly to the music service, where the tracks become available alongside the platform’s catalog of 180 million songs. Uploaded tracks are accessible to all listeners, including those without paid subscriptions, and artists can keep tracks private to share only with selected collaborators.
Source: TIDAL opens direct uploads for indie artists, but tracks won’t earn royalties
WMG partners with Feed.fm, launching a music clip API that enables digital platforms to integrate song clips from major labels’ catalogs. The collaboration unites Feed.fm’s technology with WMG’s expansive catalog to make it easier for developers to integrate fully licensed song clips through a secure system. With this partnership, Feed.fm is now touting an ‘end-to-end solution’ for music clips that includes licensing, curation, and in-app experiences delivered via API.
Source: WMG and Feed.fm Partner to Bring Premium Music Clips to Apps
It’s been a big, big year for the music industry, with roughly $4 billion plowed into catalogs and white-hot startups in the last quarter alone. But who’s gonna thread the disparate pieces of this industry together and unlock all that value? Among those looking to supercharge the industry’s future growth is Songtradr, a company rooted in sync that now touches diverse disciplines like superfandom, catalog licensing, indie music development, and music strategies for major brands.
Source: In-Depth: Songtradr Chief Revenue Officer Paul Langworthy
One of the key issues that the story of man versus machine misses: Technology is not fate. Just as people make technology, people decide how it is used and what interests it serves. These decisions are made over and over again as AI is developed and deployed. AI is, furthermore, ultimately not that complicated. How AI works can be understood by anyone. The real conflict is not between a human and a machine but between the different members of society.
Source: Why Big Tech’s Abuse of Artificial Intelligence Doesn’t Need to Be Inevitable