Rights

Rod Stewart Sells Song Catalog to Iconic Artists Group for Nearly $100 Million

Legendary rock singer Rod Stewart has sold his song catalog to Irving Azoff’s Iconic Artists for nearly $100 million in a deal that comprises interests in his publishing catalog and recorded music, as well as some name and likeness rights. The deal comes as Iconic announced that it has raised more than $1 billion in new capital for future catalog investments, primarily from the investment firm HPS Investment Partners.

Source: Rod Stewart Sells Song Catalog to Irving Azoff’s Iconic Artists Group for Nearly $100 Million

Duetti raises $90 million in new funding to acquire indie artists’ catalogs

In the roughly 18 months since it was founded by Lior Tibon, former COO of Tidal and now Duetti’s CEO, and Christopher Nolte, a former Business Development executive at Apple Music, the company has partnered with more than 250 indie artists, including Olivia O’Brien, Sevyn Streeter and Łaszewo. Now Duetti announced it has raised USD $90 million in new funding, including $15 million in new equity and a $75 million credit facility.

Source: Duetti raises $90 million in new funding to acquire indie artists’ catalogs

Take the Cash or Fight? Media Moguls Split on AI Deals

Publishers and CEOs across the industry agree AI is an existential threat to the future of journalism, and their businesses have spent the past year wrestling with a conundrum: Ink a deal with the AI players or fight it out in court. Do the CEOs and publishers of these trusted news brands prefer paying journalists’ salaries or attorney fees?

Source: Take the Cash or Fight? Media Moguls Split on AI Deals

Only 19% of artists on Spotify had over 1,000 monthly listeners in 2023

Inspired by Universal Music Group‘s ‘artist-centric’ streaming strategy, Spotify’s new rules see ‘premium’ artists and ‘premium’ content financially prioritized over so-called low-quality tracks and creator accounts with low engagement. Amongst those rules are that tracks on Spotify must have reached at least 1,000 streams in the previous 12 months in order to generate royalties on the platform.

Source: Only 19% of artists on Spotify had over 1,000 monthly listeners in 2023

AIM CEO Silvia Montello: Apple Music Atmos royalty change hurts Indies

Apple Music’s moves to increase royalties, by a rate of 10%, for tracks available in Dolby Atmos is being presented by the company as a magnanimous reward; independent labels, however, are reading it as a collective punishment and the opening up of a disquieting two-tier royalties system.

Source: AIM CEO Silvia Montello: Apple Music Atmos royalty change hurts Indies – Music Ally

AI chatbots should pay for news, bipartisan Senate group says 

Senators who have raised bipartisan outcry over the demise of newsrooms at the hands of Big Tech companies are rallying to protect journalism from the potentially fatal blow of artificial intelligence. They’re hoping to ensure that news organizations receive full compensation when algorithms are trained using news articles — and are urging colleagues to act before the twilight of human-generated news sets in.

Source: AI chatbots should pay for news, bipartisan Senate group says – Roll Call

EU AI Act headed for parliamentary vote, with some copyright provisions still unclear

The AI Act is clear on transparency requirements: Developers of “general-purpose” AI models will have to provide a “detailed summary of the content used for training” in order to “facilitate parties with legitimate interests, including copyright holders, to exercise and enforce their rights.” However, the law is less clear on what constitutes a “general-purpose” AI model: are AI models designed to create music, and trained primarily on music, “general purpose”?

Source: EU AI Act headed for parliamentary vote, with some copyright provisions still unclear

On Copyright, Creativity, and Compensation

Copyright infringement hits home – a cautionary tale. Some of you may have seen the article by David Segal in the Sunday NY Times several weeks ago about a rather sordid copyright fracas in which I have been embroiled over the past few months. It’s a pretty wild story. If you don’t feel like reading the whole NYT article, here’s a brief summary of how it unfolded:

Source: On Copyright, Creativity, and Compensation

The MLC Sues Pandora to Recover Unpaid Royalties, Late Fees

In a lawsuit filed Monday (Feb. 12) in Nashville federal court, The MLC seeks to recover the royalties that Pandora allegedly owes them and all associated late fees. The MLC is particularly concerned with “unusually low royalties per stream” reported and paid out by Pandora, starting in 2021 which they say is due to the exclusion of substantial “Service Provider Revenue and TCC for Pandora Free.”

Source: The MLC Sues Pandora to Recover Unpaid Royalties, Late Fees

Court Dismisses Authors’ Copyright Infringement Claims Against OpenAI 

Several authors, including comedian Sarah Silverman, have suffered an early loss in their copyright battle against OpenAI. The authors accused OpenAI of using pirated copies of their books to train its models. A California federal court dismissed the vicarious copyright infringement and DMCA violation claims. However, the lawsuit isn’t over yet.

Source: Court Dismisses Authors’ Copyright Infringement Claims Against OpenAI * TorrentFreak

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