AI music startup Soundverse AI has attracted more than 200,000 creators to its service, who have made more than 500k tracks so far. The startup revealed the figures in an announcement that also stressed its “ethically trained AI model”, with the company saying it has only trained its technology “by securing explicit artist consent and compensating contributors”.
Source: Soundverse AI attracts 200k creators with ‘ethical practices’
Daily Mail publisher DMG Media has made a “significant investment” in Prorata.ai, a generative artificial intelligence platform that plans to share revenue with publishers each time their content is used to answer a user query. The deal gives Prorata access to DMG Media’s content, which includes the archives of the Mail, Mail Online, Metro, the i and New Scientist.
Source: DMG Media invests in publisher-friendly generative AI start-up Prorata
SoundCloud users will have access to six new assistive AI tools, including Tuney, Tuttii, AIBeatz, TwoShot, Starmony and ACE Studio. The company is also using Audible Magic and Pex to ensure that these new AI integrations are backed up by strong content identification tools that provide rights holders with proper credit and compensation.
Source: SoundCloud Expands AI Integrations With Tuney, Pex, Audible Magic Partnerships
HarperCollins has become the first Big Five publisher to strike a licensing deal to provide access to select nonfiction books for AI training purposes. And so far, authors and agents appear to be approaching the deal with caution and skepticism—if also with a measure of hope. In a statement, Harper representatives confirmed only that the agreement with an undisclosed company will “allow limited use of select nonfiction backlist titles” for use in training AI models “to improve model quality and performance.”
Dialogue from these movies and TV shows has been used by companies such as Apple and Anthropic to train AI systems. The files within this data set are not scripts, exactly. Rather, they are subtitles taken from a website called OpenSubtitles.org. Users of the site typically extract subtitles from DVDs, Blu-ray discs, and internet streams using optical-character-recognition (OCR) software.
Source: There’s No Longer Any Doubt That Hollywood Writing Is Powering AI
AllTrack, billed as a digital-era performing rights organization (PRO) with a focus on the independent music sector, has announced the launch of a mechanical rights division. According to the company, the move makes AllTrack the first PRO in the United States to offer integrated performance and mechanical rights collection services that music creators and publishers can manage through a single platform.
Source: AllTrack — America’s 5th PRO — Opens Mechanical Rights Option
Sir David Attenborough does not approve of AI being used to replicate his voice, telling BBC News he is ‘profoundly disturbed’ by the technology. “Having spent a lifetime trying to speak what I believe to be the truth, I am profoundly disturbed to find that these days, my identity is being stolen by others and greatly object to them using it to say whatever they wish.”
Social-music service Hangout has gone live, launched by Turntable Labs – the startup founded by one of the early employees in Turntable·fm, which ignited a big (if ultimately brief) buzz around the category more than a decade ago. All three major labels and Merlin are on board for Hangout’s launch, with the company claiming a library of more than 100m tracks available for its users to DJ with.
Source: Turntable Labs launches Hangout social music service with label deals
Amazon Music Unlimited is adding Audible audiobooks under its individual subscription plan — though unlike Spotify, it’s working with publishers. Spotify angered songwriters and publishers by arguing it didn’t need to pay the full mechanical royalty rate since it offered multiple royalty-earning services in one, it appears that Amazon Music will work with publishers to determine new rates privately.
Source: Amazon Music Now Has Audible’s Audiobook Catalog — And the NMPA Is ‘Optimistic’ About It
GEMA alleges that OpenAI, via its ChatGPT chatbot, “reproduce[es] protected song lyrics by German authors without having acquired licenses or paid the authors in question.” According to the organization, the lawsuit aims “to prove that OpenAI systematically uses GEMA’s repertoire to train its systems.” GEMA represents the copyrights of around 95,000 members in Germany (composers, lyricists, music publishers) as well as over two million rightsholders worldwide.
Source: ChatGPT maker OpenAI, valued at $157bn, sued by GEMA in Germany over unlicensed use of song lyrics