| We've covered the music business each day since 21 Jun 2002 Today's email is edition #5243 |
|
| | In today's CMU Daily: The RIAA is suing generative AI companies Suno and Udio, claiming that they are training their models using copyrighted music without permission. The âspeed and scaleâ at which Suno and Udio can output knock off copies of real artists could have âdevastating impactsâ on human creativity, says the trade body
One Liners: Gary Grainger deal; Dim Mak promotion; Spotify launches music-only subscription in the US; Bauer Media launches new radio streaming app; St Vincent UK shows; new single from Kali Uchis Also today: DoJ action against Live Nation will âseverely damageâ company, says shareholder in a new lawsuit; KKR acquires Superstruct; Apple Intelligence may be delayed in Europe due to EU regulations
| |
|
| Suno and Udioâs âlawlessâ behaviour cheapens human creativity with sound-a-likes and knock-offs says watershed RIAA lawsuit | The RIAA is suing AI music platforms Suno and Udio, alleging that both have trained their generative AI models with existing music and, in doing so, have infringed an awful lot of copyright.
The litigation has been coordinated by the Recording Industry Association Of America on behalf of its members, which include the three major record companies. RIAA CEO Mitch Glazier says that the music community has already âembraced AIâ and forged partnerships with various âresponsible developersâ, adding âthere is both promise and peril in AIâ.
âDevastating impactsâ on human creativity
Suno and Udio, say the lawsuits, have been âdeliberately evasiveâ about how they trained their AI models. The RIAA alleges that both services have stolen copyright protected recordings âon an almost unimaginable scaleâ to develop technologies that generate âsynthetic musical outputsâ.
As a result, the outputs of the two platforms will have ârapid and devastating impactsâ, because the âspeed and scaleâ at which music can be generated âcould saturate the market with machine-generated sound-a-likes and knockoffsâ, which will âdirectly compete with, cheapen, and ultimately drown out the genuine sound recordings on which they were builtâ.
âThere is nothing that exempts AI technology from copyright law or that excuses AI companies from playing by the rulesâ, the lawsuits adds. âAI companies, like all other enterprises, must abide by the laws that protect human creativity and ingenuityâ.
The first big test of music industryâs instance that âfair useâ does not apply to AI training
These are the first big record industry lawsuits filed against AI companies that are generating music. The other big music case - against Anthropic - was filed by a group of music publishers and relates to the alleged infringement of the copyright in lyrics.
In the early days of digital music, the RIAA coordinated many of the key lawsuits that were filed against file-sharing platforms, starting with the Napster litigation in 2000.
Although the record industry was usually successful in court during the file-sharing days, the lawsuits did little to stop online music piracy in the short term. However, the cases did clarify the legal obligations of the digital platforms and the RIAA might argue that that helped provide an environment where legit digital music services could prosper.
It is certainly seeking to position these lawsuits as having that objective, arguing that going after the unlicensed AI platforms will help the AI companies that are collaborating with the industry. The RIAA states that âunlicensed services like Suno and Udio that claim itâs âfairâ to copy an artistâs lifeâs work and exploit it for their own profit without consent or pay set back the promise of genuinely innovative AI for us allâ.
The RIAA âbelieves strongly in the human-to-human, artist-to-fan connection that comes from lived experienceâ, it adds. âThat is worth fighting for. We embrace artificial intelligence tools that are responsible, pro-artist, and keep humans at the centre of creativity. That is what these cases are aboutâ. | đ Read the full story online | |
|
| LATEST JOBS | CMU's job ads are a great way to reach a broad audience across the industry and offer targeted exposure to people at all levels of seniority who are looking for new jobs. Our job ads reach tens of thousands of people each week, through our email, and our dedicated jobs pages.
| CMU's job ads are a great way to reach a broad audience across the industry and offer targeted exposure to people at all levels of seniority who are looking for new jobs. Our job ads reach tens of thousands of people each week, through our email, and our dedicated jobs pages.
Book now: |
|
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Horizon is CMU's new weekly newsletter - published each Friday - that brings you a hand-picked selection of early-stage career opportunities from across the music industry.
Whether you're looking for your first job in music or you're ready to take a step up, Horizon is here to help you find your dream job faster.
đ Click through to see the current selection. | |
|
|
|
| Kali Uchis, Spotify, Sim Mak + more | DEALS
New Songs Administration has acquired a 50% share of the songwriting catalogue of Gary Grainger, best known for his work with Rod Stewart. âItâs a privilege to have these works alongside songs that we already have by Elvis Presley, Cliff Richard and The Beatlesâ, says Managing Director John Fogarty. âLong live rock and roll!â
APPOINTMENTS
Steve Aokiâs Dim Mak record label has promoted Lorne Padman to President. âThroughout Lorneâs ten years as Vice President, he has been an integral part of the labelâs success storyâ, Aoki tells Billboard. âHis ability to cultivate strong relationships within the industry has been critical in elevating the reputation of Dim Makâs brand. Iâm confident that Lorneâs leadership and hard work will continue to steer the label toward further growth and excellenceâ.
DIGITAL
Spotify has launched a music-only subscription in the US, as it recently did in the UK, so basically music and podcasts without audiobooks at a slightly cheaper price. The streaming service also recently reclassified its main premium tier as a music and audiobooks bundle, saying that this allows it to pay lower royalties to music publishers and songwriters in the US by exploiting a bundling clause in the compulsory licence that operates in that market.
MEDIA
Bauer Media has launched a new audio platform called Rayo offering access to more than 50 radio stations as well as curated playlists and on-demand content. The broadcasterâs Planet Radio website, that previously aggregated its radio stations, is also relaunching under that brand. âThis is a pivotal moment in Bauer Media Audio UKâs journeyâ, says CEO Simon Myciunka. âWe have an incredibly strong portfolio of brands and millions of engaged listeners â many of whom are increasingly listening to stations on connected devices. Rayo will bring them into the audioverse and offer a much-improved listening experience, with a daily soundtrack that is simplified, personalised and hand-picked by our team of DJs, presenters and special guestsâ.
GIGS & FESTIVALS
St Vincent has announced that she will play Dublinâs Olympia Theatre on 13 Oct and Manchesterâs Albert Hall on 14 Oct. Tickets go on general sale on Friday.
RELEASES
Kali Uchi has released new single âNever Be Yoursâ.
| Read online | | Live Nation boss Michael Rapino sued by shareholder over DoJ action | A Live Nation investor has sued members of the live giantâs board - including CEO Michael Rapino and CFO Joe Berchtold - in response to the recent filing of legal action against the company by the US Department Of Justice. The boss of Oak View Group, Tim Leiweke, is also named as a defendant over allegations of collusion between the two live music companies.
The government department accuses Live Nation and its Ticketmaster subsidiary of anticompetitive conduct, and has asked the court to force Live Nation to sell off the Ticketmaster business it acquired back in 2010.
At the time of the Live Nation/Ticketmaster merger, the company agreed a consent decree with the DoJ which regulated how the different strands of the business would work together to allay competition concerns. The DoJ reckons the company breached that decree.
The government's legal action, shareholder John Williams claims, will âseverely damage and injureâ Live Nation and its shareholders. Indeed, just responding to and fighting the action is costly for the live music company, Williamsâ lawsuit notes, adding, âLive Nation has expended and will continue to expend significant sums of moneyâ.
This is the fault of the board members, Williams alleges, because following the Live Nation/Ticketmaster merger they âcontinued to cause Live Nation to engage in anticompetitive conduct in defiance of the consent decreeâ. In doing so, he says, they âbreached their fiduciary dutiesâ to the company's shareholders.
When it emerged that the DoJ was investigating the company, Williams adds, the board âmisrepresented to the companyâs shareholders and the investing publicâ that they were âcooperating with federal investigators, when in fact the opposite was true: Live Nation was actively attempting to thwart the federal investigations and was not cooperating with themâ.
The lawsuit also explains how the DoJâs litigation âdetails many internal emails and correspondence between Live Nation and others demonstrating the brazen antitrust violationsâ. That includes correspondence between Live Nation and Oak View, the venue operator co-founded in 2015 by Leiweke and former Live Nation Chair Irving Azoff.
âLive Nation initially viewed Oak View Group as one of its biggest competitor threatsâ, Williamsâ lawsuit states. âBut instead of competing, the companies colluded with each other to avoid competitionâ, agreeing a âmutually beneficial schemeâ to violate competition law and âincrease profits at the expense of consumersâ.
Williams alleges that Oak View and Leiweke âaided and abettedâ the Live Nation board members, with the Oakview CEO even âcalling his company a âpimpâ and a âhammerâ for Live Nationâ and âsometimes delivering threats on behalf of Live Nation to venues that were considering dropping Ticketmaster for another ticket providerâ.
The defendants are yet to respond to the new lawsuit, although Live Nation has strongly denied all the allegations of anticompetitive conduct made by the DoJ. And, if the company can prove there has been no anticompetitive conduct, it would be impossible to hold the board members liable for any breach of duty.
| Read online | | KKR acquires Superstruct | Festival operator Superstruct has been acquired by investment firm KKR. Financial terms of the deal are not known, but the business was estimated to be valued at ÂŁ1.5 billion earlier this year.
Founded by equity firm Providence and Cream founder and former Live Nation exec James Barton in 2017, Superstruct runs festivals including Sonar, BenicĂ ssim, Sziget, Bluedot and Boardmasters. Providence reportedly began making plans for a sale last year - before formally putting it up for sale in April - in a bid to capitalise on the post-COVID bounce back of live music.
Those gains have mainly been made at the top end of the live music market, with independent events facing significant challenges. However, those that are part of a group, such as Superstruct, are well placed to take advantage of economies of scale.
In a joint statement, KKR partners Philipp Freise and Franziska Kayser said Superstruct has established itself as âa leader in delivering unparalleled live music experiences globallyâ.
âWith a robust foundation as a top-tier live entertainment platform, we see significant growth opportunities ahead for Superstructâ, they went on. KKR, they said, will âsupport the company and its entrepreneurial team to bring their compelling portfolio of live event formats to a wider audience and drive further growthâ.
Superstructâs portfolio of events now consists of 80 music festivals across nine European countries and Australia, giving them a potential reach of nearly seven million attendees. That reach allows Superstruct to operate a successful brand partnerships business which further allows its festivals to successfully operate in a challenging marketplace.
There are fears from some quarters that brands might reduce their sponsorship activity around music and other cultural events following the recent controversies involving Barclaysâ sponsorship of Live Nationâs festivals and investment firm Baillie Giffordâs involvement in various literary festivals. Brands fearful of a possible backlash might look to involve themselves in sectors where there tends to be less scrutiny - such as sport.
Superstructâs events have been able to successfully navigate some of the financial challenges faced by independent festivals, thanks in part to their festivals being within a well-funded corporate group. However, if those fears about brands leaving music come to pass, that will inevitably affect the bigger players in the market too.
Nevertheless, the team at Superstruct remain positive. Barton - now Chair of Superstruct - and CEO Roderik Schlösser added that they are âproud to have secured the backing of KKR, whose expertise and network will strengthen our ability to scale and innovate in the vibrant experiential economyâ.
As part of the deal, Providence retains an option to invest $250 million into Superstruct.
| Read online | | Apple says EU rules will delay launch of Apple Intelligence in Europe | Apple has announced that it will delay launching a number of its new features in the European Union - including its generative AI tool Apple Intelligence - because complying with interoperability requirements in the EUâs Digital Markets Act would require it to âcompromise the integrityâ of the products and ârisk user privacy and data securityâ.
The DMA went into effect earlier this year and aims to ensure that the major technology companies cannot abuse their market power, with interoperability requirements being a key mechanism to ensure an open and level playing field. Apple could be the first company to be fined under the regulations in relation to its rules around in-app payments, which have already been deemed anticompetitive by EU regulators following complaints from Spotify.
Apple now says that the EU rules will also negatively impact some of the âhundreds of new featuresâ it unveiled earlier this month.
âWe are highly motivated to make these technologies accessible to all usersâ, it says in a statement. âHowever, due to the regulatory uncertainties brought about by the DMA, we do not believe that we will be able to roll out three of these features - iPhone Mirroring, SharePlay Screen Sharing enhancements, and Apple Intelligence - to our EU users this yearâ.
Complying with âinteroperability requirementsâ in the DMA, Appleâs statement continues, would âforce us to compromise the integrity of our products in ways that risk user privacy and data securityâ. Nevertheless, it adds, âwe are committed to collaborating with the European Commission in an attempt to find a solution that would enable us to deliver these features to our EU customers without compromising their safetyâ.
Responding to Appleâs statement, EU spokesperson Thomas Regnier told The Verge, âThe EU is an attractive market of 450 million potential users, and has always been open for business for any company that wants to provide services in the European internal market. Gatekeepers are welcome to offer their services in Europe, provided that they comply with our rules aimed at ensuring fair competitionâ.
Despite the commitment to collaborate with EU officials, Appleâs statement last week could be part of a move to put pressure on the European Commission to be more flexible when enforcing the DMA, by warning consumers in Europe that they will miss out on these new features because of the EUâs draconian rules. That could result in something of a backlash against the DMA by consumer groups or even EU member states.
Itâs not just Apple that is telling Europeans that EU law is delaying the roll out of AI tools. Earlier this month Meta said that it was delaying the launch of its new AI products in Europe because of EU regulations, although in Metaâs case it was data protection law that was the cause for concern. Meta issued a statement after the Irish privacy regulator told it to delay its plan to harness data from Facebook and Instagram users.
| Read online | |
|
|
|
|