Authors Guild Looks at Why Author Incomes Are in Decline

A new study sponsored by the Authors Guild examining the causes of the decline in authors’ earnings found that only 25% of print books and e-books read in the past month were bought new or through a paid subscription. The study, conducted by the Codex Group, notes that while books are available in more formats and channels than ever before, average author earnings, now pegged at about $10,000 annually, have declined about 42% since 2009, the year Kindles first entered the market.

Source: Authors Guild Looks at Why Author Incomes Are in Decline

Merck Mercuariadis on Hipgnosis, vindication, and his next move

Last month, Sony Music Publishing agreed to buy a collection of songs from Blackstone reported to be worth up to $4 billion. They included catalogs by Neil Young, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Shakira, Leonard Cohen, and Nile Rodgers. This was the same portfolio of songs that Merck Mercuriadis assembled for around $3 billion ($2.2 billion in Hipgnosis Songs Fund; $700M+ in Hipgnosis Songs Capital) – and for which he was, for a while, near-universally flamed for “overpaying” to obtain.

Source: Merck Mercuariadis on Hipgnosis, vindication, and his next move

Deezer’s new tool can identify AI music from Spotify, Apple Music, and others

In the ongoing effort to tackle this issue, Deezer introduced a tool that scans playlists from various streaming platforms to identify AI-generated tracks. Announced on Thursday, this free online AI music detector supports 27 languages and gives users from 20 of the most popular platforms the chance to see if their playlists include any AI-generated songs.

Source: Deezer’s new tool can identify AI music from Spotify, Apple Music, and others

Music publishers strike AI licensing deals with Udio and KLAY in ‘landmark’ industry-wide pacts

The National Music Publishers’ Association has agreed an industry-wide AI licensing deal with the AI music platform Udio. NMPA President and CEO David Israelite announced the deal on Wednesday (June 10). He also unveiled an agreement in principle with a second AI music platform, KLAY. Israelite said the Udio agreement is the first industry-wide licensing deal struck with a major AI music company, and the first to “value songs and sound recordings equally” when it comes to AI training.

Source: Music publishers strike AI licensing deals with Udio and KLAY in ‘landmark’ industry-wide pacts

Warner Music acquires AI attribution startup Sureel AI

Warner Music Music (WMG) announced on Wednesday that it’s acquiring AI attribution startup Sureel AI. Sureel’s patented technology creates “AI DNA” for songs and breaks them down into component parts to trace how AI models use those elements. Through the acquisition, WMG aims to better track when its artists’ and songwriters’ work is used in AI-generated content or for training AI models.

Source: Warner Music acquires AI attribution startup Sureel AI

YouTube Terms of Service Allow AI Music Training, Google Says in Copyright Lawsuit

Google says in a new court filing that YouTube’s terms of service grant a “broad license” for artificial intelligence models to be trained on music uploaded directly to the platform. This argument came in Google’s Monday (June 8) motion to dismiss copyright infringement litigation filed earlier this year by a group of independent artists, songwriters and producers.

Source: YouTube Terms of Service Allow AI Music Training, Google Says in Copyright Lawsuit

MVT and Audoo Challenge PRS Proxies With Real-Time Tracking In Over 120 UK Venues

On Tuesday, the Music Venue Trust (MVT) and Audoo announced a new partnership aimed at uncovering how music played in grassroots music venues is represented within performance royalty distribution administered by PRS for Music and related licensing systems. As part of the collaboration, Audoo’s proprietary “Audio Meter” technology will be deployed across “a statistically significant selection” of 12 grassroots music venues across the UK to capture exactly what music is being played in real time.

Source: MVT and Audoo Challenge PRS Proxies With Real-Time Tracking In Over 120 UK Venues

ASCAP sues four radio groups for ‘prolonged unauthorized use of its members’ music

ASCAP has filed copyright infringement lawsuits against four US radio groups that it says have broadcast its members’ music without a valid license. The performing rights organization said on Tuesday (June 9) that the four groups operate a total of 15 radio stations. The defendants are Haugo Broadcasting Inc. in South Dakota, Spoon River Media, LLC in Indiana, Taylor Communications in Mississippi, and Barry Lunderville Radio in New Hampshire.

Source: ASCAP sues four radio groups for ‘prolonged unauthorized use of its members’ music

EU publishes code of practice for labelling AI-generated content

The European Commission on Wednesday published the Code of Practice on marking and labelling artificial intelligence (AI)-generated content, setting out voluntary measures to help providers and deployers comply with transparency requirements under the EU AI Act. The transparency obligations will become applicable on Aug. 2, requiring clear labelling of AI-generated or AI-manipulated content in specific cases, according to a statement.

Source: EU publishes code of practice for labelling AI-generated content

US publishers tell Common Crawl to stop scraping and delete archive

Trade body Digital Content Next (DCN), which represents many major US publishers, has sent a cease and desist letter via its lawyer to the web archive creator. They called on Common Crawl to immediately stop “scraping, retaining, or sharing copyrighted, paywalled, subscriber-only, or otherwise protected content from DCN member companies in its datasets.” They also requested that publisher content already in the Common Crawl datasets is removed.

Source: US publishers tell Common Crawl to stop scraping and delete archive

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