Every Saturday CMU sends a summary of five key music business stories from the past week. | This week: Who will blink first in the UMG x TikTok standoff; Women & Equalities Committee report says music industry is "boys club" and misogyny is "endemic"; the UK's Transparency Code was finally published; the House Of Lords published a surprisingly insightful report on AI; deepfake images of Taylor Swift surfaced on X resulting in calls for new legislation
ICYMI: 3tone, Hipgnosis, Spotify vs Apple, Coldplay, StubHub, Utopia, Taylor Swift world record
| | | Get an expert overview of the topics that will define the music business in 2024, including copyright, streaming and AI, as well as economics of streaming developments with our latest CMU Masterclass sessions.
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Book now to get access to Music Streaming In 2024 which takes place live on Tuesday 5 February 2.30pm UK / 3.30pm CET / 9.30am Eastern Time
Music Streaming In 2024 gives an overview of the key streaming services, how and why the streaming model is changing, and which digital services are generating the most revenue and growth in music markets around the world.
Delivered live on Zoom and available on-demand afterwards, sessions include guides to the current music business landscape including streaming, copyright and AI, as well as taking an in-depth look at the economics of streaming, including money + allocation, data + transparency, and rights + innovation.
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📱 TikTok began removing Universal Music released tracks from its audio library after licensing talks collapsed | |
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In an open letter to artists, Universal said TikTok wanted to “intimidate” it into a bad deal, offering “a fraction of the rate that similarly situated major social platforms pay”, while also failing to address AI and online safety concerns. TikTok said it was "sad and disappointed" that Universal had "put their own greed above the interests of their artists and songwriters".
Many artists have long argued that platforms like TikTok undervalue music, so would likely back Universal. Although not so much the more TikTok-centric artists, like Universal-signed Noah Kahan, who said that the big bust up will impact on his ability to engage with fans.
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| | 😡 A new report said that the music industry remains a “boys’ club” where misogyny is “endemic” | |
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Published by the UK Parliament’s Women And Equalities Committee, the report said that women working in music face numerous barriers to career progression and are often subjected to harassment and abuse. It made recommendations for both government and industry, including a new law to stop the use of non-disclosure agreements to silence victims, more legal protections for freelancers, and more efforts to increase diversity within the music business.
Responding to the report in an article for CMU, The F-List’s Vick Bain said, “I call on the music industry to work with us in helping to make positive changes for the benefit of us all".
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| | 🔎 The UK government published a transparency code as part of its economics of music streaming work | |
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The code sees streaming platforms and music companies commit to provide more information to artists and songwriters about streaming deals and digital royalties, the lack of transparency in the digital music business having been criticised by MPs in their 2021 report on streaming.
Record label trade body BPI said the code was a "landmark agreement", while the Association Of Independent Music said it had worked to ensure "the code should be achievable for all, no matter their scale”. The Council Of Music Makers said the commitments in the code were “modest” but provide a "framework" for bringing about positive change.
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| | 🤖 A committee in the House Of Lords said that AI companies should get permission before using existing content to train generative AI models | |
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It also called on the UK government to clarify the copyright obligations of AI companies, rather than relying on test court cases between copyright owners and tech firms, which will drag on for years. Otherwise “contested business practices will become normalised".
The music industry will welcome those demands. Earlier in the week collecting societies GEMA and SACEM published a report which estimated that the market for AI music tools will increase tenfold in the next five years, generating $3 billion in revenues by 2028. That could result in 27% of music creators losing revenue unless AI companies respect copyright as they grow.
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| | 🫥 Sexually explicit AI-generated images of Taylor Swift on X led to new calls for laws against deepfakes |
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| Although X said it was removing the images, they prompted performer union SAG-AFTRA to state that "the development and dissemination of fake images - especially those of a lewd nature - without someone’s consent must be made illegal". There are already proposals in US Congress to stop AI-generated content that imitates a person’s voice or image without consent.
The record industry has also added websites that can be used to generate unofficial voice clones to its piracy target list, noting such sites infringe both copyright and publicity rights. Although it failed to get them included in the US government's new Notorious Markets Report, which lists online platforms which prolifically infringe the copyrights of American businesses.
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