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 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
The duo, whose music has been featured by major brands like Apple and in shows like “CSI: Miami,” claims that the resulting flood of AI content has acted as a major market disruptor, decimating their primary livelihood by slashing their licensing revenue by nearly 80% since Suno’s public launch. Their complaint was filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York on Tuesday, May 12.
Source: After Watching 80% of Their Earnings Evaporate, Successful Music Production Duo Sues Suno
Music creation platform Splice has announced an AI deal with ElevenLabs, integrating ElevenLabs’ music models into its ecosystem and music production workflows. Splice CEO Kakul Srivastava emphasized that the partnership focuses on a “second wave of AI” where the human creator comes first, ensuring that any AI products developed will responsibly compensate the original sample creators with every use.
Spotify is aiming to boost the trust of podcast listeners — by extending its verification program to podcasts and affirming that using AI to “impersonate” another podcaster is not allowed. According to the company, Spotify’s policies have always prohibited unauthorized impersonation. Now it is reaffirming the policy in the context of AI to “help ensure creators remain in control of their identity and listeners can engage with content they know is real,” a company rep said.
Source: Spotify Officially Bans AI-Generated Podcasts That Impersonate Someone Else
The platform has developed technology that locates AI-generated copies of human faces at scale. The people who employ that tool can hunt down deepfakes and manage those unauthorized videos. Essentially, YouTube’s take on likeness detection operates similarly to Content ID hub. It’s a matching service that puts more power in the hands of rights holders.
Source: YouTube’s war on deepfakes goes global: Likeness detection is now open to all
The Coca-Cola Company (TCCC) pushed back against a lawsuit filed by the estate of Johnny Cash, denying that a singer used in a college football-themed commercial infringed on the late country icon’s voice rights. Cash’s estate filed the lawsuit in US District Court in Nashville in November 2025, alleging Coca-Cola hired a tribute singer to record vocals for a commercial that started airing in August 2025.