Google has been quietly striking deals with some publishers to use new generative AI tools to publish stories, according to a report in Adweek. The deals are apparently part of the Google News Initiative (GNI), a six-year-old program that funds media literacy projects, fact-checking tools, and other resources for newsrooms. But the move into generative AI publishing tools would be a new, and likely controversial, step for the company.
Source: Google is reportedly paying publishers thousands of dollars to use its AI to write stories
The companies are battling over how much TikTok pays Universal—the world’s largest music company—to make the label’s vast catalog of songs available to one billion-plus social-media users worldwide. The fight escalated this week, with Universal bringing on what many in the industry call “the nuclear option”—requiring TikTok to take down songs on which any songwriter signed to Universal’s publishing division has a credit.
ASCAP collections grew 14.1% to $1.737 billion in 2023 and payouts to songwriters and publishers increased 14.7% to $1.592 billion, the performance rights organization reported Wednesday (Feb. 28). Those figures represent a record year for ASCAP in both revenue buckets, as well as all-time highs for any U.S. performance rights organization ever, ASCAP claimed.
European independent-music body Impala is weighing in to the row over Apple Music’s plans to give music catalogues that are available as spatial audio a boost in its royalties calculations. “The boost in royalties, as already highlighted in the press, is less accessible to independents,” claimed Impala in a statement this morning. Impala wants Apple to “discuss alternative ways, rather than unilaterally introducing significant changes, resulting in the redirection of revenues from independents to be redistributed among the major players”.