Creative and media industries have teamed up on this “Make It Fair” initiative, calling for readers to help protect British creative industries. The campaign was created to fight government proposals that would allow artificial intelligence companies to train their models on copyright-protected work without permission.
Source: UK newspapers blanket their covers to protest loss of AI protections
The milestone came with February’s royalty payout, SoundExchange said in a statement on Monday (February 24). It comes less than a year after SoundExchange’s payouts passed the $11 billion mark in 2024. The non-profit also reported it had distributed $248.6 million to creators in Q4 2024, bringing gross distributions for 2024 to $1.05 billion, up 4.9% year over year.
Source: SoundExchange surpasses $12bn in distributions to artists and rightsholders to date
Today (February 25), Kobalt has launched a new publishing platform called KOSIGN aimed at emerging artists and songwriters. Kobalt estimates over $1 billion in publishing royalties goes uncollected every year. It says its new KOSIGN platform was built to help independent artists, songwriters, and producers collect their share of this uncollected publishing royalty pool.
According to Create, under the new deal, Pack Records (stylized “Pack.”) and its artists will gain access to CMG’s proprietary technology, global distribution, data-driven marketing insights, and monetization tools, which the companies say will provide “new growth opportunities while preserving [CMG artists’] creative independence.”
Source: $1bn-valued Create Music Group acquires catalog from Pack Records as companies form new JV
Universal Music Group Chairman and CEO Sir Lucian Grainge, Sony Music Group Chairman Rob Stringer, and Warner Music Group CEO Robert Kynclhave thrown their weight behind a Daily Mail campaign urging the government to protect creators’ rights. “The UK stands at a decisive crossroads because what is ‘Made in Britain’ and exported to the world is not limited to physical products, but also intellectual property and copyright including music, visual art, life sciences and more,” said Grainge.
Source: Major record company bosses back campaign against UK AI copyright proposal
An architect of EU copyright law has said legislation is needed to protect writers, musicians and creatives left exposed by an “irresponsible” legal gap in the bloc’s Artificial Intelligence Act. Axel Voss, a German centre-right member of the European parliament, who played a key role in writing the EU’s 2019 copyright directive, said that law was not conceived to deal with generative AI models.
Source: EU accused of leaving ‘devastating’ copyright loophole in AI Act
The question is front of mind on the heels of Spotify’s latest teaser for a superfan-geared offering, which reports have referred to as Supremium, Deluxe, and Music Pro alike over the years. Against the backdrop of streaming-growth slowdowns in established markets, it makes more sense than ever (in theory) to squeeze additional revenue out of diehard fans. But not everyone is on board with Spotify’s expansion ambitions.
The design of the new initiative is yet to be determined, and a consultation paper on the code was due to be released early this year. But the threat of retaliatory tariffs from the US have fuelled concerns the news bargaining incentive, announced in December, could be delayed.
Source: Labor moving too slowly on making big tech pay Australian media for news, Coalition and Greens say
The Director General of The International Confederation of Music Publishers (ICMP) has suggested there is evidence that this could be the case. “DeepSeek falls into the category of AI companies choosing to scrape the internet’s content, including the world’s copyright protected music, [and] use it for commercial purposes, without a license from rightholders and creators,” ICMP Director General John Phelan wrote in a LinkedIn post.
Source: Is DeepSeek training its AI on copyrighted music without permission?
News organizations, book publishers, and now music companies want to join a copyright infringement suit against OpenAI being heard by a court in Delhi. The music companies are “concerned OpenAI and other AI systems can extract lyrics, music compositions, and sound recordings from the internet,” an unnamed industry source told Reuters.
Source: Record companies in India want to join a lawsuit against ChatGPT maker OpenAI