| We've covered the music business each day since 21 Jun 2002 Today's email is edition #5358 |
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| | | In today’s CMU Daily: CISAC has published a new report looking at the impact generative AI will have on music creators’ earnings. It estimates that 24% of those earnings could be at risk, resulting in annual losses of €4 billion by 2028, while the value of AI-generated music will surge to €16 billion a year
Also today: Despite previously complaining about Donald Trump’s regular use of ‘YMCA’ at his rallies, Village People’s Victor Willis says he’s now happy for the President Elect to use his song. However, he wants everyone who reports on that usage to stop calling his track a ‘gay anthem’
Plus: Last year Lizzo was sued by a clothing designer who previously worked on the musician’s tour, and who claims she was the victim of sexual and racial harassment. Both Lizzo and her company Big Grrrl Big Touring were named as defendants. A judge has now ruled that Lizzo herself can’t be sued
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| | | AI generated music will suck €4 billion a year away from music creators by 2028 says CISAC | | Music generated by AI could put 24% of music creators’ revenues at risk by 2028, resulting in an annual loss of earnings of €4 billion. Meanwhile, the market value of AI-generated music in 2028 could top €16 billion, with the music AI platforms also bringing in about €4 billion in fees and subscriptions.
This is all according to a new study by CISAC, the global grouping for songwriter collecting societies. Because it’s a CISAC study, ‘music creators’ means songwriters. Additional losses would be made by artists on the recordings side.
The losses incurred by the music creator community at large could be mitigated, to an extent, if artists and songwriters also shared in the revenue streams of AI music.
That music is usually generated by AI models that were trained by being exposed to existing music. If the AI companies had to get permission from the music industry to use existing music in their training, that would provide an opportunity for creators and rightsholders to demand a share of future income.
As far as the music industry is concerned, when copyright protected works are used, that permission is already required, but many AI companies disagree. To that end, the music industry wants lawmakers to clarify the copyright obligations of AI companies and this report from CISAC will be used to argue that that clarity is now needed urgently
Indeed, responding to the report, Roberto Neri, CEO of The Ivors Academy, the organisation representing UK songwriters, says, it’s now “urgent that legislators act”.
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| | Village People founder loves Trump using YMCA, but hates people calling it a gay anthem | | Village People’s Victor Willis - the founder member and songwriter who performed as the group’s cop - has decided that no publicity is bad publicity and officially declared that he’s now totally OK with incoming US President Donald Trump playing ‘YMCA’ at his political rallies.
What he’s not OK with is people mocking Trump for embracing a ‘gay anthem’ as his signature song, because he wants to make it entirely clear that ‘YMCA’ is definitely not a ‘gay anthem’.
Indeed, while other artists have sued Trump over his use of their songs, if there is going to be any legal action in relation to ‘YMCA’, it will, says Willis, be against any pesky journalists who continue to insist that gay anthem ‘YMCA’ is, in fact, a ‘gay anthem’.
In a new social media post, Willis insists that he doesn’t mind if the gay community “thinks of the song as their anthem”, but adds that journalists suggesting that that was his intent when writing the lyrics could be on the receiving end of a lawsuit filed by his wife. Yes, you heard him. His wife.
In fact, according to Willis, one of the main reasons that his song definitely isn’t a gay anthem is that he was blissfully unaware that buildings operated by the YMCA youth organisation were anything more than a place to hang out with the boys, play sport, and maybe shower together.
The fact that they were “a hang out for gays” in the 1970s, he says, was news to him, and he “therefore wrote ‘YMCA’ about the things I knew about ‘the Y’ in the urban areas of San Francisco such as swimming, basketball, track, and cheap food and cheap rooms”.
As for the line “you can hang out with all the boys”, that, he goes on, “is simply 1970s black slang for black guys hanging-out together for sports, gambling or whatever - there’s nothing gay about that”.
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| | | Lizzo can’t be sued by former employee, but the company Lizzo runs can | | Lizzo has got herself removed from a lawsuit that was filed by an aggrieved former employee. Clothing designer Asha Daniels claims she was the victim of sexual and racial harassment, disability discrimination and other misconduct when working on Lizzo’s tour. However, a judge has ruled that those claims can be made against Lizzo’s company but not the musician personally.
Attorney Marty D Singer, representing Lizzo, told Law360 he’s “very pleased” with that ruling, adding that Lizzo herself should never have been named as a defendant. Writing off the whole lawsuit as a “publicity ploy” on the part of Daniel's attorney Ronald L Zambrano, Singer added, "We're confident that we’ll have the remaining claims dismissed or resolved to our satisfaction".
In his own statement, Zambrano said he now looked forward to proceeding with the case against Lizzo’s company, Big Grrrl Big Touring, adding that he will still look to force the musician to sit for a deposition and answer questions under oath as the case proceeds.
Daniels went legal in September last year, following the lead of three former members of Lizzo's dance team, who filed a similar lawsuit the previous month.
The clothing designer claims that, while working on Lizzo’s 2023 tour, she was forced to hear wardrobe manager Amanda Nomura make “racist and fatphobic comments”, and was unfairly treated after a heavy rack of clothing was rolled over her foot causing considerable pain.
She also claims that people working on the tour were pressured to attend social gatherings where nudity and sexuality were a focal point and, on one occasion, images of male genitalia were inappropriately shared on a group text sent to the tour crew.
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