In today's CMU Daily: Following a lawsuit brought against it by the RIAA earlier this week, music AI company Udio has denied copying copyrighted music without permission to train its model. Its tech only “listens” to the music it’s trained on, just like a human would, it insists

One Liners: Teitur, FEST Team deals; BAPAM appointments; TuneCore AI mastering; Tidal audio format switch; Heathrow Introducing stage; Quadrophenia ballet; new releases from Bloc Party, Bright Eyes, Laura Jane Grace, Tycho

Also today: Stability AI gains new investment and Sean Parker as its Chair; Anthropic legal dispute moved to California; John Fogerty legal dispute also moved to California

Udio responds to record label lawsuit insisting its AI model ‘listens’ rather than ‘copies’

Music AI company Udio has insisted that its technology is trained by “listening” to existing recordings and that its AI model would never “reproduce” any of those tracks. 

Those statements were made in a blog post published yesterday, in response to the lawsuit filed against the start-up by the record companies earlier this week - even though it doesn’t specifically mention the litigation. Commenting on the blog post, record label trade group RIAA says Udio is “attempting to construct an alternate reality”. 

“We know that many musicians - especially the next generation - are eager to use AI in their creative workflows”, Udio writes, trying to position itself as some kind of artist champion now battling the big corporations of the record industry. “The future of music will see more creative expression than ever before”, it adds. “Let us use this watershed moment in technology to expand the circle of creators, empower artists and celebrate human creativity”. 

However, in the eyes of the RIAA, Udio is no artist champion. Dubbing the blog post a “meandering response”, the trade group says that “Udio is attempting to construct an alternate reality where being pro-artist means stealing artists’ work for profit. In the reality everyone else is living in, artist advocate groups oppose what Udio is doing and strongly support these lawsuits”. 

The RIAA has coordinated the lawsuit against Udio, which accuses the AI company of copyright infringement on the basis it ingested - and therefore copied - large quantities of existing sound recordings as part of its training process. 

Udio is keen to stress that tracks generated by its AI model are not copies of any of the recordings in the training dataset. The RIAA disagrees, insisting that Udio has been shown to generate tracks that sound “strikingly similar” to existing recordings. Although in legal terms, the labels’ lawsuit isn’t claiming that the tracks outputted by Udio are infringing their copyrights. The core allegation is that the ingestion of recordings was in itself copyright infringement. 

Countering that claim, Udio likes to think that its technology ‘listens’ to the existing music rather than ‘copying’ it. “Just as students listen to music and study scores”, it writes, “our model has ‘listened’ to and learned from a large collection of recorded music”. It then adds, “The goal of model training is to develop an understanding of musical ideas - the basic building blocks of musical expression that are owned by no one”. 

For the music industry, the idea that AI models are ‘listening’ to music is misleading semantics, and the fact the AI learns by processing short segments of tracks is a mere technicality. Existing recordings are being copied, the labels will insist in court, and those copies need to be licensed. 

The RIAA notes with interest Udio’s claim that its model listened to “a large collection of recorded music”. That means, as far as the labels are concerned, Udio copied without licence a large collection of music. That, the organisation says, is a “startling admission of illegal and unethical conduct”.

The labels are also suing AI company Suno and, in its response to the litigation, it said the record labels had “reverted to their old lawyer-led playbook”, referencing the legal battles between the record industry and digital start-ups in the early days of digital music. Udio’s blog post is not quite so outspoken, but makes a similar point. 

“Virtually every new technological development in music has initially been greeted with apprehension, but has ultimately proven to be a boon for artists, record companies, music publishers, technologists, and the public at large”, the blog post states. “Synthesisers, drum machines, digital recording technology and the sound recording itself are all examples of once-controversial music creation tools that were feared in their early days”. 

“Yet each of these innovations ultimately expanded music as an art and as a business”, it goes on, “leading to entirely new genres of music and billions of dollars in the pockets of artists, songwriters, and the record labels and music publishers who profit from their creations”. 

Of course, the music industry has been very keen to stress that it is already embracing music-making AI and collaborating with music AI companies, but only those that seek licences from record labels and music publishers. 

“Supporting real creativity means getting permission before using someone’s work and developing technology that partners with and supports human artists instead of cutting them out and replacing them”, the RIAA concludes. “Music companies have already struck multiple partnerships with start-ups, entrepreneurs and others with responsible applications of AI”.

Drumsheds, Broadwick Live // Senior Operations Manager (London)

Drumsheds, Broadwick Live // Duty Operations Manager (London)

Drumsheds, Broadwick Live // Operations Coordinator (London)

terrible* // Finance Assistant/Bookkeeper (London)

SJM Concerts // Event Ticketing Manager (Manchester)

Sentric Music // Revenue Optimisation Manager (London/Liverpool)

Sentric Music // Copyright Manager (Liverpool/London)

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ONE LINERS

Tidal, The Who, Bloc Party + more

DEALS

Wise Music Group’s Edition Wilhelm Hansen has signed a new publishing deal with Teitur in partnership with Arlo & Betty Music, the publishing company run by the Faroese musician’s manager Christian Ulf-Hansen. 

Bulgarian festival organiser FEST Team has announced a deal to acquire Turkey-based promoter Charmenko. “This acquisition represents a transformative opportunity for Fest Team”,  says FEST Team CEO Stefan Elenkov. “By combining Fest Team’s expertise in organising large-scale music events with Charmenko’s robust artist booking capabilities and industry know-how, we aim to create synergy that will redefine the Eastern European music landscape”.

APPOINTMENTS 

The British Association For Performing Arts Medicine has announced that music industry consultant Remi Harris and Equity’s Assistant General Secretary Adam Adnyana have joined its board of trustees. “Our 40th anniversary has offered us a chance to look back at BAPAM’s achievements, but more importantly look to the future as we aim to help more performers and professionals in the performing arts”, says CEO Claire Cordeaux. “With their years of experience working with and representing performers, Remi and Adam understand their needs and are perfectly placed to help us in this journey, adding to the wealth of expertise on our board”.

Laura Golding has announced that she will step down as Chief Finance Officer at UK collecting society PRS For Music at the end of July. Lee Williams has been appointed as interim CFO. 

DISTRIBUTION 

Distributor TuneCore has launched a new AI-powered mastering tool to help independent artists optimise the sound quality of their recordings before release. TuneCore Mastering’s “ethically-built AI technology”, says CEO Andreea Gleeson, provides “an instant audio mastering option for artists who wouldn’t have the means to have a professional master it for them”.

DIGITAL

Tidal has announced that it is phasing out the MQA and Sony 360 Reality Audio high quality audio formats and will begin to use FLAC and Dolby Atmost instead. The switch will be completed on 24 Jul, says the company in an update to users, although it warns that there is a possibility that some tracks may become unavailable as a result of the format change. 

LIVE BUSINESS 

Heathrow Airport has partnered with Sofar Sounds to put on a series of gigs in the London airports’s Terminal 5 over the summer. “The Heathrow Introducing stage isn't just about providing entertainment, it's about propelling careers to new heights”, says Sofar Sounds’ Karoline Komolafe. “It's a game-changer for those aiming to break into the industry, especially with festival season at its peak, offering exposure to execs travelling through. I think Heathrow passengers are going to have a brilliant time at the gigs”.

ARTIST NEWS

A new ballet based on The Who’s 1973 album ‘Quadrophonia’ is set to open at Sadler’s Wells in London on 24 Jun 2025. The show is written by Pete Townshend, choreographed by Paul Roberts and uses an orchestral arrangement of the album composed by Rachel Fuller and Martin Batchelar in 2016. “When Rachel and Pete came to me with the idea of a ‘Quadrophenia’ ballet with extraordinary new arrangements, it was probably one of the easiest ‘we’re in’ moments I’ve had”, says David Joseph, CEO of Universal Music UK, which is co-promoting the show. 

RELEASES

Bloc Party have released new single ‘Flirting Again’. 

Bright Eyes will release new album ‘Five Dive, All Threes’ on 20 Sep. Out now is new single ‘Bells And Whistles’. UK shows are booked for November. 

Laura Jane Grace & The Mississippi Medicals have released their debut single ’All Fucked Out’. Grace will be on tour in the UK in November. 

Tycho will release new album ‘Infinite Health’ on 30 Aug. Out now is new single ‘Phantom’.

Stability AI raises new finance, appoints Sean Parker as Chair

Stability AI, the London-based generative AI company, has secured a reported $80 million in new funding, after a chaotic year that saw its founders fall out with one another, the company run short of cash, and its CEO quit. 

The new injection of cash comes from both venture capital companies and a number of individuals. That includes Napster co-founder Sean Parker, who went on to become Facebook’s first President and an early investor in Spotify. Parker will become the company’s executive board chairman, a particularly interesting appointment given his experience of navigating major copyright challenges. 

Stability’s music product, Stable Audio, was trained with licensed music. However, the company’s more general position on its copyright obligations - and its insistence that training AI is fair use under US copyright law, meaning copyright owner permission is not required - prompted its VP Of Audio Ed Newton-Rex to quit the business last year. 

Meanwhile Stability’s core image generation product has been hit with legal action relating to alleged copyright infringement. 

The Stability board may well be looking to Parker for insight when it comes to the copyright issues. As a Napster co-founder he knows a lot about legal battles with copyright owners that can ultimately cause a business to collapse. However, as a former Spotify advisor, he also knows a thing or two about successfully working with big copyright owning corporations as a disruptive start-up. His fellow board members would presumably prefer the latter outcome.

“Stability AI has made a global impact by creating the leading generative image foundation models and fostering the largest ecosystem of generative AI media creators and developers”, says Parker. “This investment will enable the creation of even more powerful models and allow the community to continue pushing the boundaries of human creativity”.

Stability has enjoyed a high profile in the generative AI space ever since the release of its image-generating Stable Diffusion model in 2022. However, the company's financial position started to be a cause for concern for investors last year, with founder and CEO Emad Mostaque then departing in March this year. 

As well as the new finance, Stability has also appointed a new CEO, former Weta Digital boss Prem Akkaraju. He is also personally investing in the company alongside Parker and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt. Venture capital firms involved in the new funding round include Greycroft, Sound Ventures and Lightspeed Venture Partners. 

According to The Information, the investors have also reached a deal with Stability’s cloud providers and other suppliers to forgive about $100 million owed by the company and $300 million in future obligations. 

As well as the financial problems, Stability - like many generative AI companies - also has those ongoing legal problems. It is involved in one of the big legal battles centred on the copyright obligations of AI companies, filed in both the US and the UK by Getty Images. 

That lawsuit has yet to be decided, but with a raft of high-profile, tech-savvy investors newly backing the company, some might see this as an indication that those backers don’t regard the legal issues as having a significant impact on the future of the company.

AI lawsuit filed by music publishers in Tennessee move to California

A judge in Tennessee has ruled that a lawsuit filed by a group of music publishers against AI company Anthropic should be transferred to the courts in California. 

The music companies accuse Anthropic of copyright infringement for allegedly using their lyrics without permission when it trained its AI chatbot, Claude. Anthropic denies those allegations, and criticised the publishers’ decision to file their lawsuit with the courts in Tennessee. 

Claude “was created, trained and developed in California”, noted judge Waverly D Crenshaw in his judgement. Plus, "Anthropic’s offices in the US are all located in California, with the vast majority of Anthropic’s 261 employees” living and working there.  

While the AI company does have a presence in other parts of the US, it doesn’t in Tennessee. “The computers and data used to train Claude are hosted in Virginia, the servers that host Claude are based in Iowa, and Claude’s source code is located remotely with a Delaware company, Github, whose headquarters are in California”. 

The music publishers behind the litigation all have bases in Nashville, Tennessee, although - with the exception of Concord - their main US offices are in either California or New York. 

This is why Anthropic argued that the case in Tennessee should be dismissed on jurisdiction grounds, the argument being that California - where many of the other AI copyright lawsuits have been filed - would be a much better place to fight this legal battle. 

The publishers disagreed, insisting that “Anthropic claims that it is subject to jurisdiction only in its Silicon Valley backyard”, and that that claim “is plainly wrong". 

In his judgement, Crenshaw explained what would be required for his court to have jurisdiction over the dispute. Despite Concord having its main base in Nashville, the publishers would need to be able to demonstrate that Anthropic had “expressly aimed” its business activities in Tennesee. 

In an attempt to justify their request for the case to be heard in the state, the publishers presented four arguments: that Anthropic has employees in Tennessee; that it has business users in Tennessee; that it reaches Tennessee consumers via its websites; and - possibly most importantly in this case - that it infringes the music companies’ copyrights within the state. 

However, the judge highlighted issues with all four arguments. There are only three Anthropic employees in the state, they each work from home and none of them were hired on the basis of their location. Also, although Anthropic has three business clients in the state, it didn’t target those clients because of their location either. 

Anthropic’s website being available in Tennessee would only mean the company had “expressly aimed” its business at the state if there were interactions on the site “specifically intended” for people living there. The publishers argued that Claude can generate responses including information specific to Tennessee, but Crenshaw said that wasn’t specific enough. 

Finally, Crenshaw said that the claim that Anthropic infringes the music publishers’ copyrights in Tennessee was just another way of saying consumers use the website there - which was an argument that he’d already rejected.

With all that in mind, concluded the judge, “this case will be transferred to the United States District Court for the Northern District of California”.

John Fogerty dispute in Australia should shift to California, judge rules

A legal battle between John Fogerty and festival promoter SFP Events should be resolved through an arbitrator in California, an Australian court has said. SFP is demanding the return of a $700,000 deposit paid to the musician for a planned headline performance at this year’s Country Fest Queensland that the company ultimately cancelled. 

The former Creedence Clearwater Revival frontman had been booked to play his first show in Australia for more than a decade at the event. However, in February - a month before the festival - SFP withdrew its offer and cancelled Fogerty’s performance. It then sued Fogerty’s Little Swamp II company and his agent CAA for the return of the deposit.

Following requests by CAA to move the dispute to arbitration in the US, SFP had asked the Queensland Supreme Court to confirm that it had “validly withdrawn” its offer to Fogerty - maintaining that there was never any binding agreement in place. 

However, at a hearing this week, judge Rebecca Treston said that the case should instead be considered by CAA’s chosen arbitrator, as it was not clear if a deal that included an arbitration clause had been finalised when the cancellation happened.

Fogerty was approached to headline Country Fest in September last year. After rejecting an initial offer in December 2023, a deal was tentatively reached in January. This saw Fogerty promised $1.4 million, accommodations for up to 28 people, transfers to and from the venue, and a trip to the Great Barrier Reef. 

SFP seemingly signed a contract and sent the $700,000 deposit to CAA. However, Little Swamp II did not immediately sign the deal, requesting more information. As a February deadline for the remainder of the fee to be paid passed, and with Fogerty’s company still having not signed a contract, SFP cancelled the musician’s appearance.

At the time, Fogerty said in a statement that he had been “blindsided” by this move.

“I was ready to celebrate with you all for my one and only show this year in Australia when the Country Fest Queensland blindsided me yesterday by cancelling my appearance”, he wrote on Instagram. “It was posted that I would not be appearing due to unforeseen circumstances. Well, I can tell you, my friends, I was not the reason for the ‘unforeseen circumstances’”.

The festival eventually went ahead in March with Australian musician Morgan Evans headlining.