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Universal Music Group (UMG) and other music companies are suing an artificial intelligence platform called Anthropic PBC for using copyrighted song lyrics to “train” its software — marking the first major lawsuit in what is expected to be a key legal battle over the future of AI music.
In a complaint filed Wednesday morning (Oct. 18) in Nashville federal court, lawyers for UMG, Concord Music Group, ABKCO and other music publishers accused Anthropic of violating the companies’ copyrights en masse by using vast numbers of songs to help its AI models learn how to spit out new lyrics.
“In the process of building and operating AI models, Anthropic unlawfully copies and disseminates vast amounts of copyrighted works,” lawyers for the music companies wrote. “Publishers embrace innovation and recognize the great promise of AI when used ethically and responsibly. But Anthropic violates these principles on a systematic and widespread basis.”
A spokesperson for Anthropic did not immediately return a request for comment.
The new lawsuit is similar to cases filed by visual artists over the unauthorized use of their works to train AI image generators, as well as cases filed by authors like Game of Thrones writer George R.R. Martin and novelist John Grisham over the use of their books. But it’s the first to squarely target music.
AI models like the popular ChatGPT are “trained” to produce new content by feeding them vast quantities of existing works known as “inputs.” In the case of AI music, that process involves huge numbers of songs. Whether doing so infringes the copyrights to that underlying material is something of an existential question for the booming sector, since depriving AI models of new inputs could limit their abilities.
Major music companies and other industry players have already argued that such training is illegal. Last year, the RIAA said that any use of copyrighted songs to build AI platforms “infringes our members’ rights.” In April, when UMG asked Spotify and other streamers in April to stop allowing AI companies to use their platforms to ingest music, it said it “will not hesitate to take steps to protect our rights.”
On Wednesday, the company took those steps. In the lawsuit, it said Anthropic “profits richly” from the “vast troves of copyrighted material that Anthropic scrapes from the internet.”
“Unlike songwriters, who are creative by nature, Anthropic’s AI models are not creative — they depend entirely on the creativity of others,” lawyers for the publishers wrote. “Yet, Anthropic pays nothing to publishers, their songwriters, or the countless other copyright owners whose copyrighted works Anthropic uses to train its AI models. Anthropic has never even attempted to license the use of Publishers’ lyrics.”
In the case ahead, the key battle line will be over whether the unauthorized use of proprietary music to train an AI platform is nonetheless legal under copyright’s fair use doctrine — an important rule that allows people to reuse protected works without breaking the law.
Historically, fair use enabled critics to quote from the works they were dissecting, or parodists to use existing materials to mock them. But more recently, it’s also empowered new technologies: In 1984, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the VCR was protected by fair use; in 2007, a federal appeals court ruled that Google Image search was fair use.
In Wednesday’s complaint, UMG and the other publishers seemed intent on heading off any kind of fair use defense. They argued that Anthropic’s behavior would harm the market for licensing lyrics to AI services that actually pay for licenses — a key consideration in any fair use analysis.
“Anthropic is depriving Publishers and their songwriters of control over their copyrighted works and the hard-earned benefits of their creative endeavors, it is competing unfairly against those website developers that respect the copyright law and pay for licenses, and it is undermining existing and future licensing markets in untold ways,” the publishers wrote.
In addition to targeting Anthropic’s use of songs as inputs, the publishers claim that the material produced by the company’s AI model also infringes their lyrics: “Anthropic’s AI models generate identical or nearly identical copies of those lyrics, in clear violation of publishers’ copyrights.”
Such litigation might only be the first step in setting national policy on how AI platforms can use copyrighted music, with legislative efforts close behind. At a hearing in May, Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) repeatedly grilled the CEO of the company behind ChatGPT about how he and others planned to “compensate the artist.”
“If I can go in and say ‘write me a song that sounds like Garth Brooks,’ and it takes part of an existing song, there has to be compensation to that artist for that utilization and that use,” Blackburn said. “If it was radio play, it would be there. If it was streaming, it would be there.”
In the wake of the deadliest terrorist attack in Israel’s history, as well as the prospect of a deadly, drawn-out war against Hamas in Gaza, the country’s fast-growing concert business has hardly been at the top of anyone’s mind.
So far, the only big show to be cancelled was the sold-out Bruno Mars concert scheduled for Oct. 7 in Tel Aviv. But concerts and festivals now face a pause as Israel mourns its dead, including the more than 250 people who died at the Supernova Sukkot festival in the Oct. 7 attack. For however long the war in Gaza takes, it is unlikely that many major international acts will play Tel Aviv out of security concerns, worries about the optics of taking a side on a controversial issue, and the fact that so many potential concertgoers will be fighting or working in the military. However, the country’s entertainment market is expected to make a quick recovery once hostilities end thanks to companies like Bluestone Entertainment, which has made considerable progress modernizing Israel’s concert industry over the past six years.
Up until the Oct. 7 attack, security issues didn’t even make the top five challenges facing the Israeli concert business, sources tell Billboard. Bigger issues include a lack of touring infrastructure, geographic isolation, routing difficulties, limits on potential artist earnings and the Boycott Divest, Sanction (BDS) movement that pushes artists not to play in the Jewish state.
Until 2017, the only modern ticketing platform in Israel was the German company CTS Eventim, which dominates Europe but isn’t as well known to U.S. touring artists and managers. Israel also lacks a major venue for large acts, meaning most touring artists have to rely on 5,000-7,000 capacity amphitheaters — which can make it difficult to make money due to the high travel costs required to visit the country. Travel also complicates logistics, since it’s easy to fly into Israel but, until 2020, it was hard to fly on from there. Since then, flights have been added to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the next major concert market, as well as an international flight hub.
The 2014 formation of Bluestone Entertainment, as well as its 2017 purchase by Live Nation, modernized the country’s touring infrastructure and earned it a stamp of approval from the concert giant as one of 29 markets where Live Nation maintains offices and on-the-ground staff. Leading the company today is CEO Guy Besar, a 46-year-old native of Israel’s Rishon Lezion who got his start working at student events for the city’s College of Management Academic Studies, along with co-founders Shay Mor Yosef and Gadi Veinrib. Music manager Guy Oseary, whose clients include Madonna and, until recently, U2, is the fourth co-founder of Bluestone.
Bluestone has been successful in pushing back against BDS activist groups like the Palestinian Campaign for Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) and artists like Roger Waters, who convinced Elvis Costello, Devendra Banhart and Gorillaz to cancel planned visits to the country in 2010. Oseary has worked with artist managers to develop a communications and messaging strategy before announcing shows in the country.
Bluestone also played a key role in bringing Ticketmaster to Israel as part of its 2017 joint venture with Live Nation and has focused its efforts on modernizing and bringing shows to HaYarkon Park in Tel Aviv, an urban park and summer concert destination that can host concerts for up to 70,000 attendees per night. That led to a $6.7 million gross for Guns N’ Roses‘ June 5 concert at HaYarkon, $6.6 million for Imagine Dragons on Aug. 29 and a whopping $11.7 million for two Maroon 5 concerts in May 2022.
Those seven-and-eight-figure grosses have helped offset the expenses associated with performing in Israel, while a 2020 agreement with the UAE and Bahrain known as the Abraham Accords has led to the normalization of relations between the three countries. The treaty, negotiated by the Trump administration, also allows air travel between the three countries via Saudi Arabian airspace. That means that once in the UAE, touring shows can easily fly to markets like Malaysia, Singapore and much of Southeast Asia.
Bluestone was reportedly on track to generate $75 million in 2023, a number that will likely drop following the cancellation of Mars’ Oct. 7 concert. But it will likely still be up nearly 50% percent from 2022 when the company brought in $46 million. As for the security threat that caused the cancellation, sources say that despite the surprising nature of the Oct. 7 attacks, Israel deploys significant resources to securing events and large crowds and note that concert promoters in the country feel extremely confident in their ability to secure A-list artists and visitors for concerts.
One of the key themes to emerge from Billboard Latin Music Week in Miami earlier this month was the undeniable and unstoppable rise of Mexican music — a trend that’s being powered by the TikTok generation.
In an era marked by a global surge in music consumption, the revival of Latin music in the United States is nothing short of spectacular. Data from the RIAA paints a compelling picture, showing U.S.-based Latin music revenues have increased by 15% year on year to reach a record high of $627 million in the first half of 2023, accounting for 7.5% of market share. When we reflect on numbers from the first half of 2021, the leap of 52% over these two years is particularly striking. The primary impetus for this is the growing audience tuning in to Latin music on ad-supported on-demand music streaming services. This is remarkable growth in a genre characterized by non-English language songs.
The rise of reggaeton in particular has been nothing short of meteoric. The commercial success of the likes of Bad Bunny, J Balvin and Karol G has left an indelible mark on the Latin music landscape. However, it’s important to note that Latin music’s appeal isn’t confined to a single genre.
TikTok has evolved into a hub for music discovery for millions of fans worldwide, with many trending songs on the platform often ending up on the Billboard Hot 100 or Spotify Viral 50. According to Luminate, 67% of the app’s users are more likely to seek out songs on music streaming services after hearing them on TikTok.
So what trends are we now seeing in Latin music? The short answer: Mexican music is leading the charge.
Over the past 12 months alone, Mexican music has experienced more than 83 billion views on TikTok worldwide, with a third of these coming from the United States, according to hashtag research the team and I have conducted in-house at Round. In that time, Mexican music has emerged as the fastest-growing genre on the platform with an astounding 322% surge in popularity, compared to electronic music (122%), rock/indie (96%), reggaeton (90%) and rap/hip-hop (87%). Mexican music stands as the third-largest genre on TikTok in terms of viewership in the U.S., with more than 27 billion views over the past 12 months, behind only rap/hip-hop and K-pop.
Artist after artist has emerged from the Mexican music scene to take TikTok by storm — from Natanael Cano and Yng Lvcas to Fuerza Regida and Grupo Frontera. However, one in particular is paving the way: Peso Pluma.
Thanks to Eslabon Armado’s viral TikTok hit “Ella Baila Sola,” on which Pluma is featured, the rising star has emerged as one of Mexico’s most exciting breakthrough artists. The track not only hit No. 1 on the Billboard Global 200 chart, where it held for six weeks, but it also secured a No. 4 spot on the all-genre Hot 100 — an unprecedented feat for a regional Mexican song. Plus, it dominated Hot Latin Songs for 19 consecutive weeks, the longest run at No. 1 for a regional Mexican track since the tally’s inception in 1986. The song has generated 525.5 million on-demand official streams in the United States to date, according to Luminate. Moreover, “Ella Baila Sola” reached No. 1 on the overall Streaming Songs chart, becoming the first regional Mexican song to lead the list and the first No. 1 on the chart for both acts.
The undeniable catalyst in this success story has been TikTok, where Pluma has gained over 30 billion views in just 12 months and inspired over 5 million creations on the platform. In April, four of Pluma’s tracks dominated the list of top trending Latin songs on the platform in the United States.
The appeal of regional Mexican music is further broadening as tastemakers continue to upload educational videos about the genre to TikTok and Instagram Reels. That trend is helping to nurture a deeper connection to the genre, fostering long-term engagement and powering it to new heights.
So what lies on the horizon?
Round’s analysis of TikTok hashtags reveals a treasure trove of uncharted music cultures and sub-genres waiting to be discovered. For example, views of #sertanejo, a Brazilian sub-genre of traditional music, have doubled from 15 billion to 30 billion over the last 12 months globally. That nearly rivals #reggaeton, which received 33 billion views globally across TikTok over the same period.
As new trends arise, one thing remains certain: TikTok is a powerful force for promoting diversity in music and opening up international markets for local sounds. Its global reach has ushered in an era where artists can easily have their music heard by millions. Now, it’s no longer a question of if artists, record labels, brands and influencers are on the app — it’s about how they maximize its power to the fullest. The stage is set, and the world is listening.
Ray Uscata is managing director of Round, North and South America. Round is a tech-enabled digital agency using content, creators and communities to place the world’s leading brands and artists at the center of culture.
Dr. Luke and the estate of the late Juice WRLD are facing a copyright lawsuit that claims they unfairly cut out one of the co-writers of the rapper’s 2021 track “Not Enough.”
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The case, filed in California federal court Tuesday, claims that an artist named PD Beats (Pierre Orpheus DeJournette) is a credited co-writer of the song, but that Dr. Luke (Lukasz Sebastian Gottwald) and the estate of Juice WRLD (Jarad Anthony Higgins) have refused to treat him as co-owner of the copyright.
“Defendants have released, marketed, distributed, and monetized the subject song without accrediting or providing PD Beats his proportional share of the revenue,” his lawyers wrote in their complaint. “Defendants have failed to meaningfully respond, necessitating this action.”
DeJournette claims that he contributed “original guitar, performance, and production” to “Not Enough,” in addition to “writing the beats and programming the 808s” – a reference to the Roland TR-808 drum machine. Without the material he added, DeJournette says the song would be “missing key elements that form the basis of the subject song’s audience appeal.”
The lawsuit claims that DeJournette was listed as a co-writer in certain credits – although he doesn’t specify where – and that he and the other writers should “equally own the copyrights.” His lawsuit asks for a judicial declaration that he is indeed a co-owner, and a court-ordered accounting of the song’s revenue.
Reps for Dr. Luke and Juice WRLD’s estate did not immediately return requests for comment on Wednesday.
Juice WRLD, a pioneering voice in emo rap and SoundCloud rap, died of a drug overdose in December 2019 while onboard a private jet flying from Los Angeles to Chicago. Citing law enforcement sources, TMZ reported days later that the rapper swallowed a large number of pills to hide them from federal agents who were waiting for the plane to land.
Released on his posthumous 2021 album Fighting Demons, “Not Enough” spent a week at No. 80 on the Hot 100. The album itself was a bigger hit, spending 72 weeks on the Billboard 200 and peaking at No. 2.
Tuesday’s lawsuit named Juice WRLD’s mother, Carmella Wallace, as a defendant because she serves as the executor of his estate, as well as a company called Juice WRLD Music LLC. Other defendants included co-writers CB Mix (Chris Barnett) and KBeaZy (Keegan Christopher Bach); Universal Music Group, which released the song under its Interscope Records imprint; and Opus Music Group, which acquired a majority stake in Juice WRLD’s catalog in 2022.
Round Hill Music Royalty Fund’s shareholders voted on Wednesday to sell the fund’s assets to U.S.-based music company Concord in a deal that values the company at $469 million. Of the 69% of Round Hill Music shareholders who were eligible to vote, 99% voted to approve the sale, which fund chairman Robert Naylor called a […]
BMG has acquired the recorded music catalog of French DJ and artist Martin Solveig in what the company calls its biggest such deal in France to date. The sale includes the rights to around 130 tracks, including hits like “Intoxicated” and “+1,” and Solveig’s studio albums from 2002’s Sur la Terre to 2011’s Smash.
Solveig’s work joins a BMG France roster that includes Jean-Michel Jarre (recordings and publishing), Yuksek (recordings and publishing) and Thylacine (publishing). The previous largest recorded music acquisition by BMG in France was more than a decade ago when it purchased Francis Dreyfus Music (Dreyfus), the label which owned Jarre’s first albums.
BMG declined to offer financial details of the Solveig sale, which was brokered by Maximilien Jazani of Catalogue Associates.
Solveig has topped the Dance Club Songs chart twice in his career, first with 2011’s Dragonette-assisted “Hello” and then a year later with “The Night Out.” He’s also placed five tracks on the Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart, including “All Day and Night,” “Hey Now” and “Juliet & Romeo.” His biggest mainstream hit, “Hello,” topped out at No. 46 on the Hot 100.
The success of “Hello” led to Solveig’s work on Madonna’s MDNA album — he co-wrote and co-produced three songs, including “Give Me All Your Luvin’” and “Turn Up the Radio.”
“Martin Solveig has created some of the most potent and successful electronic music of the past decade with a career which straddles the end of the download era and the emergence of streaming,” said Maximilian Kolb, BMG’s evp of repertoire & marketing across continental Europe. “We see significant potential to bring his music to a wider streaming audience.”
Solveig added, “In the process of selecting a partner to host and preserve my recordings, it was imperative for me to associate myself with a company that understands the intrinsic value of this music and is just as passionate about its future potential as I was in creating it. BMG has demonstrated exceptional motivation, and a genuine desire to perpetuate the exploitation of the tracks that are dear to me.”
News of the deal arrives amid a busy 2023 for BMG. So far this year, the company has struck catalog and/or rights deals with Jet, Paul Simon, The Pointer Sisters and George Harrison. In 2022, BMG acquired rights and royalties for Tina Turner, John Legend, Mötley Crüe, ZZ Top, Peter Frampton, Harry Nilsson, John Lee Hooker, Simple Minds, Primal Scream, and The Hollies, among others.
SINGAPORE — BandLab Technologies has pledged to engage responsibly and ethically with AI, part of a “strategic collaboration” with Universal Music Group.
Announced today (Oct. 18), Singapore-based BandLab becomes the first music creation platform to throw its support behind the Human Artistry Campaign (HAC), a global coalition devoted to ensuring fair and safe play with AI technologies.
“As the digital landscape of music continues to evolve,” reads a joint statement, “this collaboration is designed to be a beacon of innovation and ethical practice in the industry and heralds a new era where artists are supported and celebrated at every stage of their creative journey.”
Led by CEO Meng Ru Kuok, BandLab Technologies operates the largest social music creation platform, BandLab. Among the service’s breakouts is Houston artist d4vd (pronounced “David”), who, in July 2022 as a 17-year-old, released “Romantic Homicide,” a track he had made using BandLab. After going viral on TikTok, the song entered the Billboard Hot 100 (peaking at No. 45) as d4vd signed to Darkroom/Interscope. He’s one of a growing number of BandLab users who’ve developed deeper ties with UMG.
“We welcome BandLab’s commitment to an ethical approach to AI through their accessible technology, tools and platform,” comments Lucian Grainge, chairman & CEO, Universal Music Group, in a statement. “We are excited to add BandLab Technologies to a growing list of UMG partners whose responsible and innovative AI will benefit the creative community.”
Further to Grainge’s comments, Michael Nash, executive VP and chief digital officer at UMG, points to an expanding relationship with BandLab, noting “they are an excellent partner that is compelling for us on multiple fronts.”
BandLab Technologies’ assets are grouped under the holding company of Caldecott Music Group, for which Meng serves as CEO and founder. ““BandLab Technologies and our wider Caldecott Music Group network is steadfast in its respect for artists’ rights,” he comments in a statement, “and the infinite potential of AI in music creation and we believe our millions of users around the world share in this commitment and excitement.”
Meng showed his support in August at Ai4, an AI conference in Las Vegas, by way of the presentation “Augmenting the Artist: How AI is Redefining Music Creation and Innovation.” During that session, he discussed the importance of ethical AI training and development and showcased the company’s AI music idea generator tool SongStarter.
New technologies promise “unbelievable possibilities to break down more barriers for creators,” he notes, but “it’s essential that artists’ and songwriters’ rights be fully respected and protected to give these future generations a chance of success.”
The Human Artistry Campaign was announced during South by Southwest in March along with a series of seven key principles for protecting artists in the age of AI. More than 150 industry organizations and businesses have signed up.
UMG’s AI collaboration with BandLab follows separate arrangements forged with Endel and YouTube.
This “first of its kind” strategic partnership with BandLab Technologies, say reps for UMG, align the “two organizations to promote responsible AI practices and pro-creator standards, as well as enabling new opportunities for artists.”
Reservoir Media has signed Joe Walsh to a global publishing agreement. The deal encompasses both hits from his catalog — including those he wrote for his solo project as well as the Eagles and James Gang — and future works. It does not include the administration of his back catalog aside from select songs, including […]
Round Table Management has hired Steve Ford as artist manager/head of artist development, the company announced on Tuesday (Oct. 17). Round Table represents We The Kingdom, Cody Carnes, Kari Jobe and more. With the hiring of Ford, artists Britt Nicole, Ivan Theva, One Common and Jillian Warman will join the firm’s roster of clients. In […]
Six months after ex-Fugees rapper Prakazrel “Pras” Michel was convicted on foreign lobbying charges, he’s now demanding a new trial — making the extraordinary claim that his ex-lawyer used an unproven artificial intelligence (AI) tool to craft closing arguments because he owned a stake in the tech platform.
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In a Monday (Oct. 16) filing in D.C. federal court, Michel claimed attorney David Kenner “utterly failed” him during the April trial, denying him his constitutional right to effective counsel. Among other shortcomings, the rapper said Kenner outsourced prep work to “inexperienced contract attorneys” and “failed to object to damaging and inadmissible testimony” during the trial.
Most unusual of all, Michel accused Kenner of using “an experimental artificial intelligence program” to draft his closing arguments for the trial, resulting in a deeply flawed presentation. And he claimed Kenner did so because he had an “undisclosed financial stake” in the company and wanted to use Michel’s trial to promote it.
“Michel never had a chance,” the rapper’s new lawyers wrote Monday. “Michel’s counsel was deficient throughout, likely more focused on promoting his AI program … than zealously defending Michel. The net effect was an unreliable verdict.”
Kenner did not immediately return a request for comment on Tuesday.
Michel was charged in 2019 with funneling money from a now-fugitive Malaysian financier through straw donors to Barack Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign. He was also accused of trying to squelch a Justice Department investigation and influence an extradition case on behalf of China under the Trump administration.
In April, following a trial that included testimony from actor Leonardo DiCaprio and former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Michel was convicted on 10 counts including conspiracy, witness tampering and failing to register as an agent of China.
During that trial, Michel was represented by Kenner, a well-known Los Angeles criminal defense attorney who has previously repped hip-hop luminaries like Snoop Dogg, Suge Knight and, most recently, Tory Lanez. But earlier this summer, Michel asked for permission to replace Kenner with a new team of lawyers; in August, Kenner and his firm were swapped out for lawyers from the national firm ArentFox Schiff.
Now, it’s clear why. In Monday’s filing, Michel’s new lawyers accused Kenner of wide-ranging failures — including many that have nothing to do with AI tools or secret motives. They claim he “outsourced trial preparations” to other lawyers and “failed to familiarize himself with the charged statutes or required elements.” They also say he “overlooked nearly every colorable defense” and “failed to object to damaging and inadmissible testimony, betraying a failure to understand the rules of evidence.”
But the most unusual allegations concerned an alleged scheme to promote EyeLevel.AI, a computer program designed to help attorneys win cases by digesting trial transcripts and other data. Days after the trial concluded, the company put out a press release highlighting its use in the Michel trial, calling it the “first use of generative AI in a federal trial” and quoting Kenner.
“This is an absolute game changer for complex litigation,” Kenner said in the press release. “The system turned hours or days of legal work into seconds. This is a look into the future of how cases will be conducted.”
But according to Michel’s new lawyers, Kenner’s use of the program was harmful, not helpful, to his client’s case. They say it may have led to some smaller mistakes, like Kenner misattributing a Puff Daddy song to the Fugees, but also to massive legal errors, like conflating separate allegations against Michel — an error that Michel’s new lawyers say caused Kenner to make “frivolous” arguments before the jury.
“At bottom, the AI program failed Kenner, and Kenner failed Michel,” Michel’s attorneys at ArentFox Schiff wrote. “The closing argument was deficient, unhelpful, and a missed opportunity that prejudiced the defense.”
According to Michel’s new lawyers, the mistake of using the AI tools was compounded by Kenner’s alleged motive: an undisclosed ownership stake in the startup that sells it. By using a criminal trial as a means to promote a product, Monday’s filing says Kenner created “an extraordinary conflict of interest.”
“Kenner and [his partner]’s decision to elevate their financial interest in the AI program over Michel’s interest in a competent and vigorous defense adversely affected Kenner’s trial performance, as the closing argument was frivolous, missed nearly every colorable argument, and damaged the defense,” they wrote.