Under the pro-rata streaming model, where scale is the only thing that matters, labels are incentivised to grow their market share by any means possible. The reality is that labels can see more upside by signing a viral hit to a singles deal, than spending years developing an artist who may or may not be successful.
Source: Misaligned incentives make the music business a zero-sum game
The Writers Guild of America issued a report on Thursday calling Netflix, Amazon and Disney the “new gatekeepers” of the media business, and calling for antitrust regulators to prevent consolidation in the streaming marketplace. The report argues that Netflix, Amazon and Disney have amassed collective market power that has driven down wages and limited viewer choice.
Source: WGA Report: Disney, Amazon, and Netflix Are the ‘New Gatekeepers’ of Media
A new report suggests that white noise podcast creation has exploded so much that Spotify has considered banning the content. White noise and ambient podcasts accounted for three million daily consumption hours as of January, according to one leaked document — all boosted by Spotify’s push for what it considers ‘talk’ content vs. music. Essentially, ‘talk content’ with no words has been raking in millions of listens.
While various industry estimates are all over the place with some even reaching another $400 million, by Billboard estimates, the just announced determined rates — finalized eight months after the 2017-2022 term expired — could yield up to another $250 million in underpaid mechanical royalties flowing from digital services to publishers and songwriters.
Source: Songwriters & Publishers Have a $250M Payday Coming After Streaming Royalty Determination
The New York Times updated its Terms of Service on August 3rd to prohibit its content — inclusive of text, photographs, images, audio/video clips, “look and feel,” metadata, or compilations — from being used in the development of “any software program, including, but not limited to, training a machine learning or artificial intelligence (AI) system.”
Source: The New York Times says you can’t use its content to train AI models
SoundExchange says that it estimates that SiriusXM has “wrongfully withheld more than $150 million in unpaid royalties over the past several years.” In a complaint filed with the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia on Wednesday (August 16), SoundExchange alleged that SiriusXM “has exploited the creative efforts of recording artists without paying legally mandated compensation.”
Source: SoundExchange sues SiriusXM over alleged $150m in unpaid royalties owed to artists and rightsholders
Something creepy this way comes — and its name is digital narration. Having invaded practically every other sphere of our lives, artificial intelligence (AI) has come for literary listeners. You can now listen to audiobooks voiced by computer-generated versions of professional narrators’ voices. You’re right to feel repulsed.
Source: Perspective | AI is coming for your audiobooks. You’re right to be worried.
Technically speaking, AI-powered tools can enhance productivity by automating tasks such as grammar checks and proofreading, allowing writers to focus more on creativity and storytelling. However, when writers use AI tools and insert their writing into it, whilst it’s analyzing the data it is also learning from it.
In an environment of uncertainty and ambiguity around rights, the transparent, decentralized, and immutable nature of blockchain can counterbalance the introduction of AI-generated content by creating equitable monetary systems which protect musicians’ intellectual property. Tokenization provides a path to defining digital ownership and transparent rights distribution for musicians.
Source: How Blockchain Can Solve the Music Industry’s AI Problem (Guest Column)
If the world’s largest (Universal) and third-largest (Warner) recorded music companies are both in talks on the issue, it’s a clear sign that this is where things are headed in the industry. However, there are potentially large issues that will need to be ironed out if these types of deals are to prove successful in the long run.