Universal Music and Warner Music, two of the world’s largest record labels, are nearing landmark AI licensing deals with multiple companies, including start-ups like ElevenLabs, Stability AI, Suno, and Udio, as well as tech giants Google and Spotify, according to a Financial Times report. These agreements could be finalized within weeks and represent a significant shift toward formal partnerships between major record labels and AI companies amid ongoing copyright disputes in the creative industry.
Why this matters: The music industry has been embroiled in legal battles over AI companies using copyrighted material without permission to train their models, making these potential licensing deals a crucial step toward establishing legitimate frameworks for AI-generated music.
Key details: The negotiations focus on two primary areas of AI music licensing.
- Record labels are seeking to license their songs for creating AI-generated tracks and for training large language models used in music creation.
- The companies are pursuing a payment structure similar to music streaming services, where each AI-generated song would trigger a micropayment to rights holders.
Who’s involved: The talks include a mix of AI start-ups and established technology companies.
- Start-ups in discussions include ElevenLabs (an AI voice platform), Stability AI (creator of image generation tools), Suno, Udio, and Klay Vision.
- Major tech companies Alphabet’s Google and Spotify, the music streaming giant, are also participating in the licensing negotiations.
The bigger picture: These licensing deals could establish a precedent for how the creative industries handle AI-generated content while ensuring artists and rights holders receive compensation for their work used in AI training and generation processes.
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