Proposals to regulate artificial intelligence have been delayed by at least a year as UK ministers plan a bumper bill to regulate the technology and its use of copyrighted material. Peter Kyle, the technology secretary, intends to introduce a “comprehensive” AI bill in the next parliamentary session to address concerns about issues including safety and copyright.
Source: UK ministers delay AI regulation amid plans for more ‘comprehensive’ bill
NMPA General Counsel Danielle Aguirre said Spotify’s bundling practice has already resulted in $230 million in lost revenue during its first year. Aguirre added that “these losses will continue if we can’t reverse or correct Spotify’s actions. In fact, if we don’t stop them, we are projected to lose over $3.1 billion through the next CRB period,” which will be Phonorecords V, which determines mechanical royalty rates for 2028 through 2032.
Source: NMPA says Spotify ‘bundling’ move could cost music publishers $3.1bn through 2032
The major and the Silver Lake-backed investment firm unveiled that JV today, with plans in place to spearhead growth “outside traditional recorded music and music publishing.” Though time will tell exactly what this entails, the companies intend to zero in on film, TV, fashion, consumer products, brands, and more.
Source: Universal Music, Patrick Whitesell Debut Diversification-Geared JV
According to research by MarketsandMarkets, the global market for AI training datasets is projected to grow from $2.68 billion in 2024 to $11.16 billion by 2030, a compound annual growth rate of over 22%. Yet the size of the market tells only part of the story. Much of this activity happens under NDA, without pricing transparency, and often with questionable sourcing. The line between what is licensed and what is scraped remains blurred, and, increasingly, contested.
Source: The Hidden Economy Behind AI: Data Licensing Takes Center Stage – Kaptur
To offer users a tidy AI summary instead of Google’s “10 blue links,” companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic have started sending out bots to retrieve and recap content in real time. According to data shared exclusively with The Washington Post, traffic from retrieval bots grew 49 percent in the first quarter of 2025 from the fourth quarter of 2024.
Source: ‘This is coming for everyone’: A new kind of AI bot takes over the web
Everything ever said on the internet was just the start of teaching artificial intelligence about humanity. Tech companies are now tapping into an older repository of knowledge: the library stacks. Nearly one million books published as early as the 15th century — and in 254 languages — are part of a Harvard University collection being released to AI researchers Thursday. Also coming soon are troves of old newspapers and government documents held by Boston’s public library.
Source: AI chatbots need more books to learn from. These libraries are opening their stacks
Disney and Universal sued a prominent artificial intelligence start-up for copyright infringement on Wednesday, bringing Hollywood belatedly into the increasingly intense legal battle over generative A.I. The movie companies sued Midjourney, an A.I. image generator that has millions of registered users. The 110-page lawsuit contends that Midjourney “helped itself to countless” copyrighted works to train its software.
Source: Disney and Universal Sue A.I. Firm Midjourney for Copyright Infringement
The ranks of media owners and entertainment companies are poised for their biggest makeover in a generation. Media titans such as Comcast and Warner Bros. Discovery are cleaving off their cable-television channels, while television-station operators such as Allen Media and Apollo Global Management are exploring selling dozens of stations. Cox and Charter, two of the biggest cable and broadband companies, have agreed to merge.
Source: The Media and Entertainment Deal Machine Is Revving Up
Academic publishers are rushing to sign licensing deals with artificial intelligence companies, carving out a new revenue stream as US research funding cuts dim their outlook. Taylor & Francis signed a $10 million deal with Microsoft Corp. last year. Bloomsbury Publishing Plc is looking to “monetize academic content through AI deals,” it said in its latest set of results, and John Wiley & Sons Inc. announced partnerships with Amazon Web Services and Perplexity earlier this year.
Source: Academic Publishers Sign AI Deals as Trump Cuts Research Funding
NYC Mayor’s office will soon conduct a census of music recording studios to quantify their economic impact. Shira Gans says the recording studio network in NYC is rapidly evolving, with many established studios closing and some new ones holding grand openings. To track the changing landscape, the Mayor’s office has created a survey that will be distributed to studio heads and other industry professionals.
Source: NYC Mayor’s Office Announces Music Recording Studio Census