2025-09 – How can Generative AI and the music business co-exist?

15 September 2025 – Wits University

New paper presents a brand new authorized and business framework for AI-generated music.

Generative AI fashions create music by the large-scale ingestion of copyrighted works to supply new audio, melodies, lyrics and vocal likeness. They additionally distribute music by licensed, data-driven personalised listening experiences. New AI-systems are evolving quicker than present authorized and technical infrastructures can adapt, backed by highly effective buyers and built-in into international shopper platforms. How, then, can AI platforms and the music business co-exist with out ending up within the courtrooms?

A new paper by Charles Goldstuck, revealed on the Social Science Research Network takes the place that if copyright legislation, case legislation evolution and public coverage don’t evolve to accommodate the structural modifications posed by AI music, the artistic financial system can be absorbed into an opaque, unregulated system wherein human authorship is considerably devalued.

DOWNLOAD THE PAPER: PAST PRECEDENT, FUTURE PROOF: TOWARD A NEW LEGAL AND COMMERCIAL FRAMEWORK FOR AI-GENERATED MUSIC

“The task ahead is not to resist AI, but to ensure that it evolves within a multi-stakeholder governance framework that protects creative labour, enables innovation and scales with the velocity of the disruption. AI services and human content creators must coexist and both be allowed to thrive,” says the creator of the paper, Charles Goldstuck, a trailblazer within the international music business, and a PhD candidate on the University of the Witwatersrand, in Johannesburg. “This paper explains why we must find a mutually beneficial path forward in which the music industry and AI platforms resort to negotiated settlements and collaboratively develop new licensing agreements.”

This paper is a must-read for anybody all in favour of Generative AI in Music; Music Copyright Law; AI Copyright Litigation; Creative Economy Governance; Copyright Settlements and Licensing Frameworks.

A Wits alumnus, Goldstuck provides: “It is important for the African music industry, artists and academics to take their seat at the global AI table so that the cultures and diversity of 1 billion people on the continent are aptly represented and remain at the forefront of this global discussion. This is just one way in which we are driving involvement from Africa in the global music industry.”

Another mission supported by Goldstuck is the AI & African Music mission which goals to construct new futures for AI in music, formed by African sounds, language and innovation. The mission is hosted by the Wits Innovation Centre (WIC) in partnership with the Machine Intelligence and Neural Discovery (MIND) Institute at Wits University.