Rights

With the dust still far from settled on the UMG / Deezer streaming royalty proposal, something even bigger is coming: Spotify is turning the concept into reality in Q1 2024. Streaming democratized access to the means of distribution, enabling an unprecedented growth in artists and releases. But the brake is now being firmly applied. Streams may have all been created equal, but now some streams are becoming more equal than others.

Source: Two-tier licensing is about to become a reality

As short-form video content platform TikTok continues to battle criticism from multiple fronts, the company revealed its latest data on copyright and trademark content removal requests in 2022, which have more than tripled from the previous year. In fact, the numbers from July to December 2022 far outshine and nearly double those from the first half of that year.

Source: TikTok Copyright Takedowns More Than Tripled in 2022

Since August, at least 535 news organizations — including the New York Times, Reuters and The Washington Post — have installed a blocker that prevents their content from being collected and used to train ChatGPT. Now, discussions are focused on paying publishers so the chatbot can surface links to individual news stories in its responses.

Source: Newspapers want payment for articles used to power ChatGPT

Universal Music Group said on Wednesday it has partnered with digital music firm BandLab Technologies to help protect the rights of artists and songwriters amid the growing use of artificial intelligence. The deal marks the latest move by the label in the music industry, which is grappling with songs created by generative AI — a technology that makes it easy for internet users to mimic artists’ voices, often without their consent.

Source: Universal Music, BandLab team up to protect artist rights amid rising AI use

We know startup Moises best for its stem-separation technology, helping musicians to remove or isolate vocals and instruments in songs. Launched in 2019, it reached the milestone of 30 million registered users in April this year. Now it’s launching a new tool: one that enables vocalists to clone and then license their voices to producers and other musicians.

Source: Moises is the latest company helping artists clone their voices – Music Ally

OMA3 (aka the Open Metaverse Alliance for Web3), a consortium of dozens of notable blockchain, NFT, and metaverse companies, announced Tuesday that it has established a working group to determine how best to standardize and ensure the survival of creator royalties on NFT marketplaces.

Source: NFT Creator Royalties Are Broken—Yuga Labs and Magic Eden Join Group Trying to Fix Them – Decrypt

Dubbed Universal Music for Creators, the new service gives consumers unlimited access to a pre-cleared music and sound effects library, starting at $5.99 per month. The program features what Universal says is over 50,000 “top-quality tracks” and 200,000 sound effects, “powered by a team that is constantly sourcing and creating the newest sounds to meet the dynamic needs of today’s creators”.

Source: Universal just launched a claims-free music subscription service for content creators with 50,000 tracks and 200,000 sound effects

Canada’s news publishers commended Google on Thursday for recommending “good faith” changes to the country’s law compelling digital platforms to compensate media outlets. Late last week, Google said Canada needed to make at least eight changes to the law, or else it would remove links to news articles on its search function for Canadian users starting in December. Its demands were included in a submission to the federal government.

Source: Canadian publishers ready to work with Google on proposed changes to online news law

Google said on Thursday that it will defend users of generative artificial-intelligence systems in its Google Cloud and Workspace platforms if they are accused of intellectual property violations, joining Microsoft, Adobe and other companies that have made similar pledges.

Source: Google to defend generative AI users from copyright claims

UK trade union The Society of Authors (SoA) is demanding transparency regarding publishers’ streaming deals with Spotify, raising concerns over the company’s claims that “all major book publishers” have agreed to deals with no input or approval from authors. “As far as we are aware, no authors or agents have been approached for permission for such licenses, and authors have not been consulted on license or payment terms,” the Society of Authors wrote on their website October 10.

Source: Society of Authors Raises Concerns Over Spotify Audiobooks