A collaborative track featuring AI-generated facsimiles of Drake and the Weeknd’s voices titled “Heart on My Sleeve” has been submitted for Grammy consideration. And according to Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. in an interview with The New York Times, “it’s absolutely eligible because it was written by a human.”
Spotify Is Now Removing White Noise Creators From Ads Program
Spotify has finally made the move to cut off white noise podcasters from its lucrative ads program, according to a new report. These ambient sounds account for 3 million daily consumption hours on the platform, after being boosted by Spotify’s algorithmic push for content with ‘talk’ vs. music. Although Spotify had originally incentivized these curators and podcasters to join the platform, white noise took listeners’ time away from major artists.
Source: Spotify Is Now Removing White Noise Creators From Ads Program
PRS for Music expands ‘Nexus’ metadata program to link songwriter info to recordings prior to release
London-headquartered collection society PRS for Music has extended its Nexus program with an aim to link songwriter and composer information to music recordings before they are released. This ensures that royalties are quickly paid to rightsholders, the company said in a press release on Wednesday (September 6).
Deezer readies ‘artist-centric’ model with Universal Music Group
Deezer and UMG have announced the launch of what they call the “first comprehensive artist-centric streaming model”, designed, according to the companies “to better reward the artists, and the music that fans value the most”. According to the Financial Times the model is expected by UMG and Deezer to “lift payouts to professional artists by 10 per cent”.
The Battle Over Books3 Could Change AI Forever
Books3 started as a passion project by a Midwestern guy going through a weird time. “I poured my soul into the work,” he says. He saw it as aligned with the open source movement, a way to democratize access to the kind of data sets OpenAI was already using. Copyright activists are on a mission to wipe the popular generative AI training set from the internet. Success could alter the industry—and who controls it.
Radio broadcasters sound off on artificial intelligence
A radio station made history this summer by becoming the first in the country to use an AI DJ for an entire shift. “AI Ashley” first appeared in June on Live 95.5 in Oregon, and used an artificially generated version of the voice of Ashley Elzinga, a human host based in Michigan, with her consent. At a recent radio conference in Dallas, Texas, many expressed skepticism about the presence of AI in their industry.
Source: Radio broadcasters sound off on artificial intelligence
Hollywood honchos to join tech moguls at Chuck Schumer’s AI summit
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s upcoming summit on artificial Intelligence could have implications for Hollywood – and the ongoing strikes that have shuttered the industry. Both Writers Guild President Meredith Stiehm and the Motion Picture Association Chairman and CEO Charles Rivkin will attend the Sept. 13 event in D.C., which aims to establish a framework for regulating AI, a source confirmed.
Source: Hollywood honchos to join tech moguls at Chuck Schumer’s AI summit…
ASCAP Rips BMI Over For-Profit Model, Reported Sales Talks
ASCAP took aim at BMI’s business model and rumored sales ambitions in a series of recently published social media posts. Though the relevant social posts don’t seem to mention BMI by name, the messages at hand are rather conspicuously directed towards the organization – and songwriters who may be considering jumping ship.
Source: ASCAP Rips BMI Over For-Profit Model, Reported Sales Talks
Pressure mounts in the UK over potential AI-training exemption
Debate is heating up again in the UK over whether AI developers should be given an ‘exemption’ to train their models on copyrighted material. Now the House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Committee – the same group of politicians that held inquiries into music-streaming economics and misogyny in the music – has published a report focusing on AI’s implications for the creative industries.
Source: Pressure mounts in the UK over potential AI-training exemption – Music Ally
UK publishers urge Sunak to protect works ingested by AI models
The letter from the Publishers Association, which represents publishers of digital and print books as well as research journals and educational content, asks Rishi Sunak to make clear at the November summit that intellectual property law must be respected when AI systems absorb content produced by the UK’s creative industries.
Source: UK publishers urge Sunak to protect works ingested by AI models