Amid all the arguments about AI and copyright, it’s encouraging to see some companies making ethical training part of their launch pitches. An example outside music this week is Moonvalley, a US startup that has just unveiled its Marey AI video model. It’s billed as “the first fully clean AI model” with the company claiming it has only been trained on “owned or fully licensed source data”.
Source: Moonvalley’s Marey AI-video model was trained on licensed content
Music tech company Audoo has partnered with the German performing rights society GEMA for a music impact study utilizing Audoo’s meters. Audoo meters installed in hundreds of venues recognized over 130,000 tracks, contributing to the insights demonstrating that the use of background music increased sales in retail by an average of 8% and in gastronomy by an average of 5.4%.
Spotify updated its annual Loud and Clear report on Wednesday, confirming that for a second consecutive year, the streaming giant paid out half of its royalties to independent artists. Of the $10 billion Spotify doled out to music rights holders last year, it gave about $5 billion to indie labels and artists, the company said, a $500 million increase from 2023. The report comes weeks after Spotify announced its first-ever full year of profit, 18 years after the company was founded in 2006.
Source: Half of Spotify’s Royalties Are Going to Indie Artists
France’s leading publishing and authors’ associations have filed a lawsuit against U.S. tech giant Meta , opens new tab for allegedly using copyright-protected content on a massive scale without authorisation to train its artificial intelligence (AI) systems. This is the first such action against an AI giant in France but there is a wave of lawsuits notably in the United States against Meta and other tech companies.
Source: French publishers and authors file lawsuit against Meta in AI case
Google’s launch last week of a new ‘AI Mode’ on search in the US appears to abandon its previous position as a friend to publishers. The tech giant, which made $265bn (£205bn) in media revenue last year, is introducing an AI information delivery system built entirely on information taken from content creators without their permission, showing disregard for the health of the media ecosystem on which it relies.
Source: With launch of AI Mode Google threatens to bleed news media dry
Catalog management platform OpenPlay has launched OpenPlay Reach, a new service aimed at providing delivery, distribution, and monetization services for music and video assets. The company has appointed Bob Barbiere as Executive Vice President and General Manager to lead the new service. Barbiere brings extensive experience in music technology and rights management from previous executive roles at Dubset Media Holdings and Pex.
Source: OpenPlay launches music distribution and monetization service led by industry veteran Bob Barbiere
Hipgnosis, the catalog company with rights to songs by artists including the Red Hot Chili Peppers that became the face of music-as-an-asset-class for Wall Street investors, is being renamed Recognition Music Group, the company said on Wednesday (March 12). The new name covers Hipgnosis Songs Fund, Hipgnosis Songs Assets, and Hipgnosis Song Management.
Source: R.I.P. Hipgnosis: New Owners Change Influential Catalog Company’s Name to Recognition Music
In a ruling filed on Friday (March 7), US District JudgeVince Chhabriagranted in part and denied in part Meta’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit. The judge ruled that the authors’ claim under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) over alleged removal of copyright management information (CMI) can go forward. “The plaintiffs have adequately alleged that Meta intentionally removed [copyright management information] to conceal copyright infringement,” Judge Chhabria wrote.
Source: Sarah Silverman’s Meta copyright lawsuit advances as judge allows authors’ DMCA claims
Voice cloning AI technology has made remarkable strides in recent years, and many services can effectively mimic a person’s cadence with only a few seconds of sample audio. A new survey of the six leading publicly available AI voice cloning tools found that five have easily bypassable safeguards, making it simple to clone a person’s voice without their consent. Deepfake audio detection software often struggles to tell the difference between real and synthetic voices.
Source: AI can steal your voice, and there’s not much you can do about it
New details are emerging about Amazon Music’s “artist-centric” recalibration, which, like its Spotify counterpart, includes minimum-play thresholds before uploads can begin accruing royalties. Brussels-based IMPALA fired back against the thresholds today, after Amazon Music unveiled an “artist-centric” Universal Music deal late last year.
Source: IMPALA Calls Out Amazon Music Minimum-Play Thresholds