Spotify now has half a million video podcasts, which nearly 400M users have watched

In its third-quarter earnings report, the company shared that its video podcast catalog has expanded to nearly half a million shows, and more than 390 million users have now streamed a video podcast on the platform. That figure is up 54% year-over-year, and it also reflects Spotify’s increased investment in the format. In June 2024, the company said it had some 250,000 video podcasts as it rolled out tools that let non-hosted podcasters upload their videos to the platform.

Source: Spotify now has half a million video podcasts, which nearly 400M users have watched | TechCrunch

People Inc. forges AI licensing deal with Microsoft as Google traffic drops 

People Inc., one of the largest media publishers in the U.S., has signed an AI licensing deal with Microsoft. The media giant (formerly known as Dotdash Meredith) made the announcement Tuesday as a part of parent company IAC’s third-quarter earnings. People Inc. CEO Neil Vogel described the new marketplace as “essentially a pay-per-use market where AI players directly can compensate publishers for use of their content on, sort of like an ‘a la carte’ basis.”

Source: People Inc. forges AI licensing deal with Microsoft as Google traffic drops | TechCrunch

How Can Creators Navigate Fragmented Copyright Laws in a Global World? 

The rapid proliferation of artificial intelligence across creative industries has sparked a cascade of legislative and judicial activity worldwide, reshaping how intellectual property is defined, created, and protected. For media and entertainment companies, content creators, and IP rightsholders, these evolving—and often conflicting—international approaches to AI and copyright present new challenges and can raise more questions than answers.

Source: AI’s Passport Problem: How Can Media and Content Creators Navigate Fragmented Copyright Laws in a Global World? | Davis Wright Tremaine

Studio Ghibli and other Japanese publishers want OpenAI to stop training on their work

When ChatGPT’s native image generator was released in March, it became a popular trend for users to prompt for re-creations of their selfies or pet pictures in the style of the studio’s films. Now, as more people get access to OpenAI’s Sora app and video generator, Japan’s Content Overseas Distribution Association (CODA) has requested that OpenAI refrain from using its members’ content for machine learning without permission.

Source: Studio Ghibli and other Japanese publishers want OpenAI to stop training on their work | TechCrunch

Getty vs Stability AI ruling is ‘damp squib’ that fails to create precedent

Getty withdrew a key part of its case against Stability AI during the trial as it admitted there was no evidence the training and development of AI text-to-image product Stable Diffusion took place in the UK. In addition a claim of secondary infringement of copyright was dismissed because, the judge said, “an AI model such as Stable Diffusion which does not store or reproduce any Copyright Works (and has never done so) is not an ‘infringing copy’” under UK law.

Source: Getty vs Stability AI ruling is ‘damp squib’ that fails to create precedent

Australia Moves Ahead With Streamer Quotas to Boost Local Storytelling

Australia has finally pulled the trigger on long-mooted streaming quotas, confirming a landmark bill that will compel streaming platforms to invest a fixed share of their Australian revenue or expenditure into homegrown programming. The bill, to be introduced this week, will require major streamers to allocate roughly 10% of their Australian expenditure or 7.5% of local revenue to Australian drama, documentary, children’s and cultural programming.

Source: Australia Moves Ahead With Streamer Quotas to Boost Local Storytelling

AI against the arts

Already, we are seeing the use of AI, with all its negative ramifications for writers, painters, photographers, and musicians, being endorsed because it means that ‘everyone can be an artist’, or, as ACE would have it, a ‘creative practitioner’. This is likely to converge in future with another recent intellectual position, which contends that meritocracy – hitherto regarded as the only way of championing fairness – is itself unfair.

Source: AI against the arts

Cinq Music parent company rebrands, raises $230m in fresh funding via GoDigital

GoDigital has confirmed that the funding was led by Bank of America, with participation from Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, East West Bank, First Horizon, Fifth Third, and Flag Star. The company said on Monday (November 3) that the funding brings its total capital raised to date to over USD $1 billion. The funding news arrives alongside a revamp of the GoDigital brand.

Source: Cinq Music parent company rebrands, raises $230m in fresh funding via new GoDigital Music division

Irving Azoff, MAC Demand ‘Creative Control, Fair Compensation’

The Music Artists Coalition responds to Universal Music Group’s partnership with AI platform Udio, demanding clarity and compensation. “Every technological advance offers opportunity, but we have to make sure it doesn’t come at the expense of the people who actually create the music—artists and songwriters,” said Irving Azoff, board member and founder of MAC. “We’ve seen this before—everyone talks about ‘partnership,’ but artists end up on the sidelines with scraps.”

Source: Irving Azoff, MAC Demand ‘Creative Control, Fair Compensation’

How AI browsers sneak past blockers and paywalls.

AI browsers present new problems for media outlets, because agentic systems are making it even more difficult for publishers to know and control how their articles are being used. For instance, when we asked Atlas and Comet to retrieve the full text of a nine-thousand-word subscriber-exclusive article in the MIT Technology Review, the browsers were able to do it.

Source: How AI browsers sneak past blockers and paywalls.

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