Today (January 28), the company announced it paid out more than $11 billion to the music industry in 2025, which it says is “the largest annual payment to music from any retailer in history.” Spotify previously paid out “a record” $10 billion to the music industry in 2024 and $9 billion the prior year. .
Source: Spotify says it paid out over $11bn to the music industry in 2025
Web publishers and news organizations could be given the power to stop Google scraping their content for its AI Overviews, under measures announced by the UK competition watchdog to loosen its grip on online search. Media organizations have experienced a drop in click-through traffic to their websites – and therefore their revenue – since Google started posting AI summaries at the top of search results.
Source: UK media groups should be allowed to opt out of Google AI Overviews, CMA says
Media companies expect web traffic to their sites from online searches to plummet over the next three years, as AI summaries and chatbots change the way consumers use the internet. An overwhelming majority are also planning to encourage their journalists to behave more like YouTube and TikTok content creators this year, as short-form video and audio content continues to boom.
Source: Publishers fear AI search summaries and chatbots mean ‘end of traffic era’
The lawsuit, filed in California federal court last Thursday (January 23), claims Meta has “willfully” infringed the copyrights of over 330 musical works – including songs by The Doors, Weezer, Styx, The Black Keys, Missy Elliott and Townes Van Zandt – after the companies’ licensing agreement expired on December 10, 2025.
Source: Wixen files $50m copyright suit against Meta, claims tech giant wants to replace songwriters with AI
A group of YouTubers who are suing tech giants for scraping their videos without permission to train AI models has now added Snap to their list of defendants. The plaintiffs — internet content creators behind a trio of YouTube channels with roughly 6.2 million collective subscribers — allege that Snap has trained its AI systems on their video content for use in AI features.
Source: YouTubers sue Snap for alleged copyright infringement in training its AI models | TechCrunch
President Trump renewed his threat to tariff films made overseas on Monday, but also suggested that he would offer “low-interest bonds” to help stimulate domestic production. In an interview with the New York Post, the president did not explain his proposal but indicated he is still considering the decline in production.
Source: Trump Offers ‘Low-Interest Bonds’ to Help Hollywood Production While Again Threatening Tariffs
The real question “is not what machines can or will be able to do, but what we can and will be able to achieve by growing in humanity and knowledge through the wise use of the powerful tools at our service,” Pope Leo XIV said in a new message. He warned against letting tech override human creativity, imagination and intellect.”
Source: Let communication be conducted by real human beings, not AI, pope says
A Senate committee will examine the proposed Netflix acquisition of Warner Bros. at a hearing next week, with co-CEO Ted Sarandos scheduled to testify. The Netflix acquisition has drawn an unusual amount of commentary from lawmakers in the weeks since it was announced, while some have also weighed in on Paramount’s hostile bid for all of Warner Bros Discovery.
Source: Senate Hearing On Netflix-Warner Bros Transaction Set For February; Co-CEO Ted Sarandos To Testify
Netflix is not yet close to completing its $82.7B takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery, but the deal already is facing serious opposition in the UK. A group of 18 influential cross-party lawmakers, including three former culture secretaries and an ex-BBC director general, have written to the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) demanding an investigation.
A.G. Sulzberger argues journalism can survive AI—if facts can still be owned. At Stanford, the NYT publisher made the case against Silicon Valley. His message was direct. The New York Times sees itself as infrastructure. Its reporting underwrites trust across politics, markets, and public life. That work costs money, produces intellectual property, and deserves protection.
Source: NY Times Publisher: AI Is Using Our Reporting Without Paying For It