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
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 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)
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
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
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
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.
In the publicly released elements of the Audio Publishers Association‘s proprietary annual consumer survey, the organization today (June 3) has reported that audiobook revenue in the United States grew 9 percent in 2023 to US$2 billion. While this represents a dollar valuation above the $1.8 billion figure of last year’s report issued on June 1, 2023, the growth rate appears to have slowed a bit from the previous survey’s 10 percent.
Source: Audio Publishers Association Survey: 9-Percent Growth
The Spotify Premium Individual plan is increasing by $1, from $10.99 to $11.99 per month, according to the company’s updated price listings. The Premium Family plan, which provides access for up to six members a household, is going up by $3, from $16.99 to $19.99 per month.
Source: Spotify Raises U.S. Prices of Premium Streaming Plans for Second Time in One Year
On Wednesday, Axios broke the news that OpenAI had signed deals with The Atlantic and Vox Media that will allow the ChatGPT maker to license their editorial content to further train its language models. But some of the publications’ writers—and the unions that represent them—were surprised by the announcements and aren’t happy about it. Already, two unions have released statements expressing “alarm” and “concern.”
Source: Journalists “deeply troubled” by OpenAI’s content deals with Vox, The Atlantic