After months of rumors, Katy Perry has sold her music rights to Litmus Music, the Carlyle-backed company co-founded by former Capitol Records president Dan McCarroll, for $225 million, the company announced Monday. The deal includes Perry’s stakes in master recordings and publishing rights for the five albums she released between 2008 and 2020.
Source: Katy Perry Sells Catalog Rights to Litmus Music for $225 Million
UK management body the MMF’s series of ‘Dissecting the Digital Dollar’ reports have gone down well with managers looking for accessible industry explainers. The guide explains AI technologies relevant to music; looks at the rights and legal issues around them; and the industry campaigns and policy positions. However, we’re most interested in the inclusion of a template letter, provided by the Council of Music Makers, for managers to send to labels, distributors and publishers.
Source: MMF gives managers a template letter on AI-training rights – Music Ally
Metaphysic, which made its name via convincing deepfake videos of celebrities, is launching a tool Thursday that aims to help individual performers secure their rights to their own images. The new platform allows creators to “create, store and protect their personal biometric data and manage how it is used by third parties and generative AI to build photorealistic performances, digital identities and AI avatars.”
Source: Startup gives stars new way to lock down their AI likenesses
As with previous DiMA reports, there are plenty of interesting stats, albeit tuned towards the positive impact of these DSPs. 78% of hip-hop streamers listen to music daily; they’re 25% more likely to use new features on streaming services than the average listener; and 75% are ‘lean-in’ listeners who like to pick their songs and create playlists.
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Source: Latest DiMA report explores streaming habits of hip-hop fans – Music Ally
IMPALA members have flagged that some of the language used in the press in reaction to Deezer’s proposal is “clearly unfortunate.” Impala’s letter reads. “It’s a common thread through the history of recorded music that the great artistic advances and changes have come from, and through, the independent sector. I don’t expect Goldman Sachs to know that, but Deezer and UMG certainly do.”
Source: IMPALA Responds to Deezer & UMG’s Proposal for Streaming
Wiedenfels said that the media company had been “hopeful” the strikes would be over by early September. They weren’t — so WBD issued the warning to investors that the strikes would lower its total earnings given that content releases would be “subdued” in Q3 and Q4.
UK-listed Hipgnosis Songs Fund (HSF) has today (September 14) issued its shareholders a proposal to sell 29 catalogs from its portfolio for USD $440 million to another Hipgnosis fund – the private, Blackstone-backed Hipgnosis Songs Capital (HSC). In an announcement to its investors this morning, Hipgnosis Songs Fund makes no bones about one of its primary motivations for selling the 29 catalogs to HSC: That it will act “as a catalyst for a re-rating of [HSF’s] share price”.
New York-based Round Hill Music LP has acquired Austin-based Rident Royalties, expanding its neighboring rights platform, Sound Hill, with the addition of 1,000 new clients. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed in a press release announcing the acquisition on Wednesday (September 13). Round Hill Music said its acquisition of Rident Royalties brings additional expertise, industry networks, technology and territorial reach to Sound Hill.
As Hollywood actors and writers continue to strike for better pay and benefits, California lawmakers are hoping to protect workers from being replaced by their digital clones. On Wednesday, Assemblymember Ash Kalra (D-San José) is expected to introduce a bill that would give actors and artists a way to nullify provisions in vague contracts that allow studios and other companies to use artificial intelligence to digitally clone their voices, faces and bodies.
Source: California lawmakers want to protect actors from being replaced by artificial intelligence
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et another group of authors has filed class action copyright infringement lawsuits against artificial intelligence pioneers Open AI and Meta, claiming the companies’ AI services used unauthorized copies of their books to train their AI models, including copies that were allegedly scraped from notorious pirate sites.
Source: More Authors, Including Michael Chabon, Sue AI Developers Over Copyright