A.I. has made it easier to quickly create audiobooks using synthetic narration. Because most antipiracy technology is designed to catch identical files, not altered ones, many of them avoid detection by programs used to identify copyright infringement. A.I. versions of highly anticipated titles often appear on YouTube hours after they are released.
Source: YouTube Is Crawling with Pirated Audiobooks Made Using A.I.
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission announced the increase on Thursday (May 21), as part of its implementation of the Online Streaming Act – legislation enacted in 2023 that expanded the regulator’s authority to include online content. The music DSPs are already battling the CRTC‘s original 5% levy – first imposed in 2024 – which required non-Canadian streaming services to contribute 5% of their domestic revenues to funds supporting Canadian content creators.
Source: Spotify and major music DSPs on alert as Canada triples streaming tax to 15%
A revised version of the NO FAKES Act (Nurture Originals, Foster Art, and Keep Entertainment Safe Act), a bill originally introduced in 2024 and designed to regulate the use of AI to replicate a person’s likeness and voice, was introduced this week hoping to gain momentum. The original version enjoyed bipartisan support from a laundry list of lawmakers, studios, and even tech giants like Amazon, YouTube, and OpenAI.
Source: The ‘No Fakes’ Act is Back; Can a 2026 Version Pass in Congress?
Stability AI has announced the launch of Stable Audio 3.0, a family of four new AI music models that the company promises are trained entirely on licensed data. These new models can generate tracks of more than six minutes in length. Three of the four models are “open-weight,” meaning they are free to download and build upon.
Source: Stability AI Releases ‘Stable Audio 3.0,’ Trained on Authorized Sources
Spotify on Thursday announced it has partnered with Universal Music Group (UMG) to allow fans to use generative AI technology to create covers and remixes of their favorite songs. The tool will launch as a paid add-on available only to Spotify’s Premium subscribers and will offer a revenue share with participating artists for the AI-generated music based on their work.
Source: Spotify and Universal Music strike deal allowing fan-made AI covers and remixes
Anxiety about the exodus of production to other states and countries is part of a broader upheaval clouding the entertainment ecosystem, with media consolidation and the disruptive force of artificial intelligence among the other pressures galvanizing the industry. And that is giving it a new kind of leverage in the governor’s race, the Los Angeles mayor’s race and other down-ballot contests.
source: ‘The crisis is here and now’: Hollywood’s anxiety reshapes California politics
The owner of music used in “Peanuts” animated specials, including the memorable holiday classic “O Tannenbaum” and the unmistakable “Linus and Lucy” tunes, sued three companies and the U.S. Department of the Interior on Wednesday. It accused them of using its captivating bops in social media posts and a video game without permission.
The pontiff’s encyclical letter—a text that is poised to define Leo’s papacy—reads like a sharp warning to Silicon Valley executives and humanity more broadly about the future of civilization as new technologies rapidly advance. The risk, he said, is that humans will be reduced “to mere cogs in a system driven toward ever greater efficiency.” Leo used two biblical images to describe the choice humanity faces.
Source: Pope Leo Compares AI Threat to Biblical ‘Tower of Babel’
The Los Angeles-based investment firm focused on media, entertainment and communications has had no trouble lining up takers for its fourth fund for content acquisitions since 2015. That’s the year Shamrock first took aim at acquiring and managing content-related cash flows for discrete rightsholders. Shamrock disclosed Tuesday that its plan to raise $700 million for Shamrock Capital Content Fund IV, L.P. was oversubscribed to the tune of $813 million.
Source: Shamrock Capital Launches Fourth Content Strategy Fund Since 2015
A coalition of thirteen major publishers has won a massive $19.5 million default judgment against shadow library Anna’s Archive. A New York federal judge fully approved the publishers’ requests, issuing a broad permanent injunction that orders more than twenty specific global registries, hosts, and service providers to immediately disable the site’s remaining domains.
Source: Anna’s Archive Hit With $19.5m Default Judgment and Global Domain Takedown Order