Rights

Sony launches $2B music rights acquisition JV with Singapore’s GIC

Sony Music Group is forming a music rights-buying joint venture with Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, GIC Pte. According to Bloomberg, Sony and GIC plan to pursue “high-quality, marquee music assets across a range of genres”. “As a long-term investor, GIC seeks to be a creative and flexible capital partner to strategic industry leaders like Sony,” Girish Karira, head of the sovereign fund’s integrated strategies group, said in a statement.

Source: Sony launches $2B music rights acquisition JV with Singapore’s GIC

Apple says it demonetised 2bn fraudulent music streams in 2025

Apple Music identified and demonetised up to 2bn fraudulent streams last year according to longtime exec Oliver Schusser. “Streaming manipulation on our platform is already incredibly low. We literally have systems where we check and validate every single play on Apple Music,” claimed Schusser. “When we find fraud we remove the stream counts, we remove from the charts, and we take the money and put it back into the pool so that it goes to honourable artists.

Source: Apple says it demonetised 2bn fraudulent music streams in 2025

Spotify says it paid out over $11bn to the music industry in 2025

Today (January 28), the company announced it paid out more than $11 billion to the music industry in 2025, which it says is “the largest annual payment to music from any retailer in history.” Spotify previously paid out “a record” $10 billion to the music industry in 2024 and $9 billion the prior year. .

Source: Spotify says it paid out over $11bn to the music industry in 2025

UK media groups should be allowed to opt out of Google AI Overviews, CMA says

Web publishers and news organizations could be given the power to stop Google scraping their content for its AI Overviews, under measures announced by the UK competition watchdog to loosen its grip on online search. Media organizations have experienced a drop in click-through traffic to their websites – and therefore their revenue – since Google started posting AI summaries at the top of search results.

Source: UK media groups should be allowed to opt out of Google AI Overviews, CMA says

Wixen files $50m copyright suit against Meta, claims tech giant wants to replace songwriters with AI

The lawsuit, filed in California federal court last Thursday (January 23), claims Meta has “willfully” infringed the copyrights of over 330 musical works – including songs by The Doors, Weezer, Styx, The Black Keys, Missy Elliott and Townes Van Zandt – after the companies’ licensing agreement expired on December 10, 2025.

Source: Wixen files $50m copyright suit against Meta, claims tech giant wants to replace songwriters with AI

YouTubers sue Snap for alleged copyright infringement in training its AI models 

A group of YouTubers who are suing tech giants for scraping their videos without permission to train AI models has now added Snap to their list of defendants. The plaintiffs — internet content creators behind a trio of YouTube channels with roughly 6.2 million collective subscribers — allege that Snap has trained its AI systems on their video content for use in AI features.

Source: YouTubers sue Snap for alleged copyright infringement in training its AI models | TechCrunch

NY Times Publisher: AI Is Using Our Reporting Without Paying For It

A.G. Sulzberger argues journalism can survive AI—if facts can still be owned. At Stanford, the NYT publisher made the case against Silicon Valley. His message was direct. The New York Times sees itself as infrastructure. Its reporting underwrites trust across politics, markets, and public life. That work costs money, produces intellectual property, and deserves protection.

Source: NY Times Publisher: AI Is Using Our Reporting Without Paying For It

Brad Pitt and the Economics of the Digital Double — AI In Hollywood

As studios and agencies begin quietly modeling what AI means for long-term franchises and aging stars, Pitt represents a category that executives increasingly focus on: globally recognizable talent whose commercial value extends beyond peak physical performance. In other words, stars whose brand will outlive their on-screen output.

Source: Brad Pitt and the Economics of the Digital Double — AI In Hollywood

NVIDIA Accused of Training Its AI on Anna’s Archive

On Friday, a class action lawsuit filed against NVIDIA back in 2024 by several authors who claimed the company’s AI models were illegally trained on their works was amended, vastly expanding the scope of the litigation. The amended lawsuit now includes more books, authors, and infringing AI models, as well as claims involving the controversial “shadow library” Anna’s Archive.

Source: NVIDIA Accused of Training Its AI on Anna’s Archive

Record labels, Spotify sue Anna’s Archive over scraping, ‘brazen theft’ of millions of tracks

The complaint describes Anna’s Archive as formerly known as the “Pirate Library Mirror” and accuses it of “brazen theft of millions of files containing nearly all of the world’s commercial sound recordings.” According to court documents, on January 2, the record labels obtained an emergency temporary restraining order, and on January 20, Judge Jed S. Rakoff issued a preliminary injunction after Anna’s Archive failed to appear at a hearing or file any response to the court.

Source: Record labels, Spotify sue pirate group Anna’s Archive over scraping and ‘brazen theft’ of millions of tracks

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