Broadcast news production company ITN has become the first UK news organization to announce a deal seeking to safeguard its archive from the threat of AI. The deal with tech company Open Origins will see every one of ITN‘s more than a million video clips of news footage validated and secured using blockchain technology.
Source: ITN signs deal to protect video archive from AI and license content
In the publicly released elements of the Audio Publishers Association‘s proprietary annual consumer survey, the organization today (June 3) has reported that audiobook revenue in the United States grew 9 percent in 2023 to US$2 billion. While this represents a dollar valuation above the $1.8 billion figure of last year’s report issued on June 1, 2023, the growth rate appears to have slowed a bit from the previous survey’s 10 percent.
Source: Audio Publishers Association Survey: 9-Percent Growth
HSF confirmed the slightly increased bid via a formal release today, a little over two weeks after Concord officially bowed out of the acquisition battle. This high-stakes competition for the entirety of Hipgnosis Songs Fund – encompassing the rights to the work of Shakira, Barry Manilow, Timbaland, and a number of others – seemingly marks the final chapter in the entity’s turbulent story.
Source: Blackstone Ups Hipgnosis Songs Fund Offer to $1.31 Per Share
For Mestel, buying up rights wholesale is a mistake. He says Primary Wave typically buys 50% or 60% of a catalogue because they want to collaborate on their plans with the actual artist (or their estate). “We want the artists as a partner,” he says. “So it’s easier for us to buy than, let’s say, somebody like Hipgnosis or Blackstone who have to overpay because they don’t have an infrastructure.”
The Spotify Premium Individual plan is increasing by $1, from $10.99 to $11.99 per month, according to the company’s updated price listings. The Premium Family plan, which provides access for up to six members a household, is going up by $3, from $16.99 to $19.99 per month.
Source: Spotify Raises U.S. Prices of Premium Streaming Plans for Second Time in One Year
The recent surge in popularity of AI tools such as ChatGPT is forcing the science community to reckon with its place in scientific literature. Prestigious journals such as Science and Nature have attempted to restrict or prohibit AI use in submissions, but are finding it difficult to enforce because of how challenging it is becoming to detect machine-generated language.
Source: Detecting machine-written content in scientific articles
On Wednesday, Axios broke the news that OpenAI had signed deals with The Atlantic and Vox Media that will allow the ChatGPT maker to license their editorial content to further train its language models. But some of the publications’ writers—and the unions that represent them—were surprised by the announcements and aren’t happy about it. Already, two unions have released statements expressing “alarm” and “concern.”
Source: Journalists “deeply troubled” by OpenAI’s content deals with Vox, The Atlantic
The Federal Court has issued a landmark decision (Blacklock’s Reports v. Attorney General of Canada) on copyright’s anti-circumvention rules which concludes that digital locks should not trump fair dealing. Rather, the two must co-exist in harmony, leading to an interpretation that users can still rely on fair dealing even in cases involving those digital locks.
Google’s new AI-generated search results will lead to a traffic drop but it won’t be a “dramatic downward dive” for news-focused publishers, SEO expert Barry Adams has predicted. Adams reassured publishing leaders at the WAN-IFRA World News Media Congress in Copenhagen on Wednesday that if they primarily produce news content, he believes they are “going to be okay”.
Source: Early signs show Google AI Overviews won’t mean ‘dramatic downward dive’ for news traffic
Exactly.ai says it uses generative AI to help artists retain legal ownership of their art and gives them the ability to reproduce their designs much faster and at scale. It’s now raised $4.3 million in a seed funding round led by Speedinvest, with InReach Ventures, Cornerstone VC, GuruDev Capital and a few angel investors also participating. The startup claims to have 40,000 registered users.
Source: Exactly.ai secures $4M to help artists use AI to scale up their output | TechCrunch