AI and Music's Future: Legal Battles, Tech Titans, and the Rise of Prompt Artists

10-second Headline Catch up

• Andreessen Horowitz views AI's use of copyrighted content as fair use, crucial for maintaining US technological dominance.

• EU AI Act: Balances AI innovation with rights protection, impacting music industry's copyright and transparency.

• US AI Foundation Model Transparency Act demands clarity in AI models' impacts.

• The New York Times sues OpenAI and Microsoft, alleging copyright violations.

What do you think?

Book Publishing Policies Beget Music Streaming Policies

A few months ago, Amazon began restricting self-publishers from publishing more than 3 books per day “after an influx of suspected AI-generated material was listed for sale…” If that isn’t a preview of what’s to come for music, I don’t know what is. (Guardian article)

The question is, how will Streaming platforms handle the same problem when it inevitably arrives?

Spotify CEO, Daniel Ek, has said they’re not going to ban AI-made music (BBC), but will that change when the floodgates open and a majority of music being uploaded to the platform is AI-generated?

Amazon took an indirect approach to the problem by simply limiting the number of books someone could publish per day, regardless of whether they were AI-generated or not. This policy might not work for streaming, especially on Spotify who has encouraged artists to release music as frequently as possible.

If streamers allow unlimited AI-generated content, they could give rise to a new kind of music superstar, the “prompt artist” — individuals who may or may not have any traditional music ability but are masters at using natural language to prompt their way to great music.

I’ve seen some discussion about labelling AI-Generated music as such, but I think it is highly unlikely that streaming platforms will bother adding “AI-Generated” disclosures on it’s music. Will streaming platforms ultimately even care if it’s AI generated or not as long as users aren’t complaining about the music being served to them? In this case, music is different from books because music can be a background medium where books require focused attention.

I’ve raised more questions than answers in this piece, but I do think that paying attention to AI in book publishing will show us what challenges we’ll eventually see AI cause in the music industry, particularly on streaming platforms. Still, while this may be a great way to foresee problems before they happen, it will probably fall short at providing the solutions.

🔶 Random Links Other Important Things Happening in AI and Music

• AI Threats Emerge In Music Publishers’ Battle With Big Tech (The HollyWood Reporter)

• Andreessen Horowitz’s Thoughts on AI Shows What the Music Industry Will Be Up Against in 2024 (Music Business Worldwide)

• The Take: Is artificial intelligence the future of music? (The Take Podcast)

• Artificial Intelligence and the music industry in 2023 (Complete Music Update Article)

• The EU’s AI Act is a Vital Piece of Legislation for the Music Industry - But What Does It Actually Say? (Music Business Worldwide)

• 3 Music AI Breakthroughs to Expect in 2024 - 2024 could be the tipping point of Music AI (Towards Data Science Article)

• AI update: US transparency bill, NYT lawsuit, OpenAI and more (Music Ally Article)

• Exclusive: Gen AI music app Suno comes out of stealth (Axios Article)

• How AI-Driven Deal Making Is Democratizing Music (Forbes Article)

• There’s ‘no way’ AI will completely replace human musicians, says award-winning composer—here’s why (CNBC Article)

🔶 Something to make you think

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