Spotify’s ‘bundle-pocalyse’ is nigh, with nervous IP owners pouring through early royalty statements to assess the damage. One source noted that the Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC) has already distributed preliminary reports for March, the month that marks the beginning of Spotify’s massive royalty cuts to music publishers, songwriters, and other compositional IP owners. Apparently, the data isn’t fully baked yet, though rights owners are getting a preview of the carnage.
How Low Will Spotify’s Royalty Payments Go?
This Is How GenAI Will Transform Media and Entertainment.
Generative AI “is nothing more than mathematics, probability, and statistics,” I2A2 President & CEO Renard Jenkins said in a recent keynote, attempting to assuage those who might fear that AI will transform Hollywood’s “dream factory” into “a warehouse of nightmares.” Jenkins believes that the transformational nature of this technology is a foregone conclusion for Media & Entertainment.
What the Apple-OpenAI Deal Means for Four Tech Titans
The new agreement, announced Monday, gives the startup an important role in Apple’s push to bring AI to its vast population of users. At the same time, Apple rival Microsoft—OpenAI’s most important big tech partner—is also trying to make headway in consumer AI. The OpenAI-Apple collaboration deals a setback to Google, which has long paid Apple billions of dollars a year to be its default tool for internet searches.
Source: What the Apple-OpenAI Deal Means for Four Tech Titans
Meta to give EU users an opt out for AI data training
Meta will start training its AI models using everyone’s social media posts though European Union users can opt out, a luxury the rest of the world won’t enjoy. The move, which the Facebook parent detailed in an announcement today, is ostensibly to bring its machine-learning systems to Europe. Meta has so far not included its European userbase in its AI training data, presumably to avoid legal conflict with the continent’s privacy regulations.
Source: Meta to give EU users an opt out for AI data training
Mistral raises massive $640M to take on OpenAI, Anthropic in the global gen AI race
A year after entering the generative AI race with Europe’s largest-ever seed round of $113 million, Mistral AI is raising more cash — lots more, like, almost 6X that amount. The Paris-based startup today announced it has secured $640 million series B funding in a combination of debt and equity, taking its valuation to nearly $6 billion.
Source: Mistral raises massive $640M to take on OpenAI, Anthropic in the global gen AI race
Europe’s music tastes becoming more local
The amount of royalties generated by European Union artists on Spotify has tripled in the past six years, and listeners’ tastes are becoming increasingly local. So says Spotify’s inaugural European Union-focused Loud & Clear report, which for the first time breaks down Spotify listener and royalty data specifically for the European Union.
Spotify to launch pricier Premium music tier that includes high-fidelity audio
Spotify is planning to launch a pricier Premium music tier later this year that includes access to high-fidelity audio. That’s according to Bloomberg, which, citing sources, reports today (June 11) that this new tier will cost “at least $5 more per month” and will be “an add-on” for existing subscribers. The report adds that the new plan will include high-fidelity audio as well as new playlisting and song library management tools.
Source: Spotify to launch pricier Premium music tier that includes high-fidelity audio (report)
How today’s artists find sustainable success in a turbulent music industry
Over the past decade, the music industry’s approach to talent discovery, marketing, and artist careers has become too data obsessed, near sighted, and damaging to the industry’s lifeblood. Artists are being sold short and, in turn, this has created a dysfunctional creative-commercial ecosystem.
Source: Stability from chaos: How today’s artists find sustainable success in a turbulent music industry
Adobe Revising Terms of Use to Clarify Content Licensing, AI, and Privacy
The confusion and anger surrounding an Adobe Terms of Use update last week caused Adobe to revisit its language and communications at large. Beyond a blog post late last week, Adobe today published another blog post, announcing plans for direct communications with customers and an updated Terms of Use.
Source: Adobe Revising Terms of Use to Clarify Content Licensing, AI, and Privacy
Human Native AI is building the marketplace for AI training licensing deals
OpenAI’s licensing deals with The Atlantic and Vox last week show that both sides of the table are interested in landing these AI-training content licensing agreements. Human Native AI is a London-based startup building a marketplace to broker such deals between the many companies building LLM projects and those willing to license data to them.
Source: Deal Dive: Human Native AI is building the marketplace for AI training licensing deals | TechCrunch