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In this newsletter:

Beatdapp, which recently raised $17 million in funding and analyzed over 2 trillion streams in 2023, will support The MLC’s efforts to ensure accurate payouts to artists and rights holders.

UK creator groups have sent a letter to various tech firms urging them to respect copyright when developing generative AI models. It also says that, when AI companies negotiate licensing deals with corporate rightsholders, they should seek assurances that those companies have secured creator consent.

AI-powered music platforms Suno and Udio are defending themselves against copyright infringement lawsuits from major record labels. The lawsuits center on whether these companies can legally use copyrighted material to train generative AI models without the rightsholders’ permission.

Now, the details...

Exploration Weekly - August 9, 2024
Compiled by Ana Berberana

The MLC Partners With Beatdapp for Streaming Fraud Detection Services

The Mechanical Licensing Collective (The MLC) has announced a new collaboration with Beatdapp to “complement and enhance” The MLC’s existing streaming fraud detection capabilities. Beatdapp, a music streaming fraud detection company, announced a USD $17 million funding round in January. Beatdapp has previously said that its technology analyzes massive datasets to identify fraudulent streams, ensuring rightful payouts for artists and rights holders. The company has also previously said it analyzed more than 2 trillion streams and 20 trillion data points in 2023. The services offered by Beatdapp will now supplement The MLC’s existing internal processes. To date, The MLC has achieved total royalties distributed of more than $2 billion since the first royalty distribution in April 2021. “The MLC is uniquely positioned within the music industry to contribute significantly to addressing streaming fraud,” says Andrew Mitchell, Chief Analytics and Automation Officer at The MLC.

Creator Groups Call Out Copyright Infringement in AI Sector, Demand That Creator Consent is Secured

The Creators Rights Alliance, which brings together creator groups from across the creative industries in the UK, has sent letters to a number of technology companies urging them to respect copyright and other creators rights when developing generative AI technologies. Recipients of the letter include Microsoft, Google, Apple, Meta and OpenAI. “We know that artificial intelligence, including generative Al programmes, can be useful tools”, the letter states. “However, to safeguard human creativity, truthful content and the rights of authors, creators and performers, it is vital that AI models are developed and used in a legal, sustainable and ethical manner”. UK copyright law, it stresses, “does not allow copying” of existing works for AI training, “without the explicit consent of the creator or their licensee/appointed representatives”. And, for the avoidance of doubt, creators represented by the organizations that make up the CRA, “do not authorize or otherwise grant permission for the use of any of their works protected by copyright and/or related rights (including performers rights) in relation to the training, development or operation of Al models”.

Suno, Udio Fire Back Against RIAA Copyright Suits, Doubling Down on Fair Use and Soundalike Output Arguments

AI-powered music-creation platforms Suno and Udio have officially fired back against the high-stakes copyright infringement lawsuits they’re facing from the major labels. Both defendants just recently took aim at the suits; Udio is being sued in a New York federal court, while Suno is facing a separate-but-similar action in Massachusetts. We’ve covered the cases – and a public war of words between the defendants and the RIAA – in detail. At the top level, though, they revolve around the all-important question of whether companies have the legal authority to copy and train generative AIs on protected materials (which are then incorporated into outputs) without the authorization of rightsholders. Predictably, Suno and Udio are adamant that they do possess the authority, with the training process at hand purportedly drawing from the basic “building blocks of music” and constituting fair use, per their filings. Putting everything out in the open, the AI companies in their answers directly acknowledged that both models utilized the majors’ recordings to train. “The many recordings that Udio’s model was trained on presumably included recordings whose rights are owned by the Plaintiffs in this case,” reads one relevant line. But doing so is lawful under copyright law, the responses claim in more words, including not only when recordings are copied behind the scenes but, more than that, when the AI outputs share characteristics with protected works.

Spotify Faces Major Patent Lawsuit Over ‘Remote Group Session’ and ‘Jam’ Features

Bluejay Technologies, a London-based startup which developed an app in 2015 for users to create a playlist and then invite friends to join in and listen simultaneously, is suing Spotify for copyright infringement. The lawsuit focuses on the streaming giant’s “Jam” and “Remote Group Sessions” collaborative listening features, which Bluejay asserts the company copied from its patent without permission. According to the filing, Bluejay shared detailed information about its patented technology with Spotify during discussions in 2018, but in 2020, Spotify subsequently launched their own collaborative listening features without authorization. The complaint was filed on August 2nd in the US District Court for the Central District of California and subsequently shared with Digital Music News. Bluejay says that while in “B2B discussions with streaming companies and music labels” during its fundraising phase, the company provided “detailed PowerPoint presentations” of how its app worked on a technical level. The complaint also details how Spotify discussed an NDA with Bluejay at the time, aware that the technologies being discussed were proprietary. In 2020, Spotify launched its “Remote Group Sessions” feature, and then its “Jam” DJ feature in 2023. In April 2023, Bluejay was awarded a patent for its “System for Streaming,” which it asserts Spotify is utilizing in the aforementioned features.

Random Ramblings

  • How Little Big Town built 25 years of harmony on an unconventional foundation.
  • K-pop has achieved a historic milestone by claiming the top two spots on the Billboard 200 for the first time. Here's a look at when other music genres have reached this achievement.
  • The partnership using music to connect with patients.
  • Songwriters study criticizes ‘lack of meaningful streaming income’.
  • Iconic music performances at the Olympics over the years.

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