Rights

Founding partner Ted Kalo spoke at last week’s Ivors Academy Global Creators Summit in London, explaining more about the campaign, its seven core principles for AI applications, and how he sees the regulatory environment. He certainly didn’t pull any punches. “The stakes are high and things are moving quickly. And there’s something that’s distinctly Orwellian that I think is going on with generative AI,” said Kalo in his introduction.

Source: Human Artistry Campaign on AI music: ‘The stakes are high’ – Music Ally

ASCAP has embraced new and emerging advances in technology, and we have the capacity and infrastructure to manage it at scale. But it has remained painfully clear that any new technology needs to respect existing copyright law. Music creators are concerned about the threat to their livelihood and 8 out of 10 believe A.I. companies need better regulation.

Source: Protecting Songwriters In the Age of AI (Guest Column)

Stephen Fry recently revealed at the CogX Festival that his voice from the “Harry Potter” audiobooks was taken by AI software and replicated without his consent, much to the horror of both himself and his agents.  He said the discovery of AI mimicking his voice led him to warn his agents, “You ain’t seen nothing yet. This is audio. It won’t be long until full deepfake videos are just as convincing.”

Source: Stephen Fry ‘Shocked’ to Discover AI Stole His Voice From ‘Harry Potter’ Audiobooks and Replicated It Without Consent, Says His Agents ‘Went Ballistic’

Independent musicians will have more power to negotiate with artificial intelligence developers over “fairer rates and terms for the use of their music” if a newly introduced version of the Protect Working Musicians Act passes the U.S. House, according to Rep. Deborah Ross (D-N.C.). The revised act would allow artists to behave like plaintiffs in a class-action suit, she adds, “fighting for their rights” with a central attorney.

Source: Congressional Bill That Would Enable Indie Artists to Negotiate Better Streaming Rates Takes Aim at AI

US performance rights organization SoundExchange distributed USD $269 million in digital royalties to creators in the second quarter of 2023. The distribution marked a17% YoY increase from the same period last year, SoundExchange said in a press release. This resulted in H1 2023 distributions reaching $498 million, up 7.1% from $464.9 million in the first half of 2022.

Source: SoundExchange paid out $498m to artists and labels in the first half of 2023

Metaphysic, which made its name via convincing deepfake videos of celebrities, is launching a tool Thursday that aims to help individual performers secure their rights to their own images. The new platform allows creators to “create, store and protect their personal biometric data and manage how it is used by third parties and generative AI to build photorealistic performances, digital identities and AI avatars.”

Source: Startup gives stars new way to lock down their AI likenesses

Yet another group of authors has filed class action copyright infringement lawsuits against artificial intelligence pioneers Open AI and Meta, claiming the companies’ AI services used unauthorized copies of their books to train their AI models, including copies that were allegedly scraped from notorious pirate sites.

Source: More Authors, Including Michael Chabon, Sue AI Developers Over Copyright

According to JKBX, the program will give artists and songwriters the opportunity to receive ongoing payments for the music they helped make – even if they’ve already sold their rights or no longer own the rights in their catalog. JKBX says it will pay a portion of revenue to artists and songwriters who sign up for the program.

Source: JKBX, launching this week, confirms it will pay songwriters and artists direct via ‘Creator Program’ – even if they don’t own their rights

On the heels of Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet’s report last week of criminal gangs using Spotify’s royalty system to launder money through artificially inflated stream counts, a new report from the Financial Times has prompted further industry conjecture about the legitimacy of DSP stream counts. Although few would argue against the simplicity introduced by Spotify’s initial financial model upon its 2011 debut in the US the distribution of that money back to the artists has long been a hotly debated topic.

Source: Are 10% of Spotify Streams Really ‘Fake’?

Financial analysts at JP Morgan estimated someone could make $1,200 a month in royalties by playing a track they owned for at least 30 seconds at a time—24 hours a day. But Spotify CEO Daniel Ek says that kind of rigging the system isn’t possible because that’s not how the system works. “If that were true, my own playlist would just be ‘Daniel’s 30-second Jam’ on repeat!” Daniel Ek tweeted in response to the report.

Source: Spotify Says ’30-Second’ Royalty Scam Plays Trick Doesn’t Work