Amazon Music Unlimited is adding Audible audiobooks under its individual subscription plan — though unlike Spotify, it’s working with publishers. Spotify angered songwriters and publishers by arguing it didn’t need to pay the full mechanical royalty rate since it offered multiple royalty-earning services in one, it appears that Amazon Music will work with publishers to determine new rates privately.
Source: Amazon Music Now Has Audible’s Audiobook Catalog — And the NMPA Is ‘Optimistic’ About It
GEMA alleges that OpenAI, via its ChatGPT chatbot, “reproduce[es] protected song lyrics by German authors without having acquired licenses or paid the authors in question.” According to the organization, the lawsuit aims “to prove that OpenAI systematically uses GEMA’s repertoire to train its systems.” GEMA represents the copyrights of around 95,000 members in Germany (composers, lyricists, music publishers) as well as over two million rightsholders worldwide.
Source: ChatGPT maker OpenAI, valued at $157bn, sued by GEMA in Germany over unlicensed use of song lyrics
Major French newspapers, including Le Monde, Le Figaro and Le Parisien, said on Tuesday that they were taking legal action against social media platform X for allegedly using their content without paying. Representatives for X did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The newspapers said they were due payment under their ancillary rights, which allow payment to news outlets by digital platforms for the distribution of their content.Source: French newspapers seek legal action against social media platform X
Dow Jones-owned business intelligence search engine Factiva is adding generative AI summaries to its search results. The news database has deployed Google’s Gemini technology as part of News Corp’s ongoing business partnership with the tech giant. Factiva approached every one of its almost 4,000 sources for new generative AI permissions and received the go-ahead from a “significant subset” of them according to general manager Traci Mabrey.
Source: News Corp adds Google-powered AI summaries to Factiva search results
AI-powered search engine Perplexity says it’ll begin experimenting with ads on its platform starting this week. The site will start showing ads in the U.S. to start, and they’ll be formatted as “sponsored follow-up questions.” (E.g., “How can I use LinkedIn to enhance my job search?”) “Ad programs like this help us generate revenue to share with our publisher partners,” Perplexity wrote in a post on its blog.
As Google continues to navigate its relationship with publishers, regulators, and news readers, the company is starting a pretty drastic test: it will remove news articles from European Union-based publishers from Search. Google says it’s running the “time-limited” test because EU regulators and publishers “have asked for additional data about the effect of news content in Search.” The company says it will continue to show results from websites and news publishers located outside the EU.
Source: Google is testing the ‘impact’ of removing EU news from search results
Spotify cranked up the volume with another strong quarter, packing on 6 million paying subscribers globally in Q3 and issuing an upbeat forecast for the year-end quarter. Spotify gained 14 million total monthly active users (free and paid) to stand at 640 million at the end of Q3. Premium subs stood at 252 million, with growth in the quarter across all regions and “outperformance” led by Europe and Latin America, the company said.
Source: Spotify Tops Q3 Forecasts, Reaches 252 Million Premium Subscribers as Revenue Climbs 19%
Musical.AI, which bills itself as the company that built the world’s first secure platform for rights management in AI training, has partnered with China-headquartered license management firm Kanjian to bring what it says is a fully licensed, ready-to-use music catalog to AI developers.
Source: Musical.AI teams up with China’s Kanjian to deliver licensed music to AI developers
Particle’s plan is to use AI to do two particularly useful things. First, it organizes lots of articles and coverage into collections the platform calls “Stories,” so you can get lots of information and perspective on whatever you’re reading about. Some stories in Particle include more than 100 news articles, plus X posts, a section of salient quotes on the subject, and more.
Source: Particle is a new app using AI to organize and summarize the news
Researchers in Japan have used artificial intelligence to recreate a stunningly accurate 3D model of a centuries-old stone relief based on a single, faded photograph taken 134 years ago. This technique could prove a game-changer for digital preservation, especially for artifacts that are hidden, too fragile to be excavated, or too delicate for conventional 3D modeling.
Source: Breakthrough A.I. Model Reveals Lost Ancient Relief from 134-Year-Old Photo