New licensing deal highlights the rising development of media giants embracing AI : NPR

SCOTT DETROW, HOST:

The world’s largest music firm is getting cozy with a significant AI music creation platform. The licensing deal is between Universal Music Group and an organization known as Udio. It’s a part of a rising development amongst media giants to embrace the business and artistic potential of synthetic intelligence. NPR’s Chloe Veltman is right here to clarify. Hey, Chloe.

CHLOE VELTMAN, BYLINE: Hey there, Scott.

DETROW: So how’d this deal come about?

VELTMAN: Well, it began in battle. Universal alleged in a lawsuit final 12 months that Udio dedicated piracy by coaching its tech on Universal’s huge holdings of copyrighted songs. The two entities just lately settled, and now they plan to collaborate.

DETROW: There we’re. What’s it going to seem like?

VELTMAN: Universal and Udio say they’ll launch a subscription service in 2026. And the thought is to create these new income streams for artists and songwriters. It’s going to make use of AI fashions which might be educated solely on licensed and licensed music from Universal’s catalog to permit customers to do issues like customise, stream and share music on Udio’s platform. Also, Universal informed NPR, this service is strictly an opt-in for expertise. In different phrases, artists can decline to have their works included on this.

And there are related offers, Scott, rising elsewhere within the music area. It’s a little bit of a development. Spotify has reduce AI licensing offers with Sony, Universal and Warner, amongst others. And Universal has related collaborations within the works with a bunch of firms, together with the AI music analysis lab SoundPatrol.

DETROW: How is the inventive trade reacting to this?

VELTMAN: Well, I spoke with Keith Kupferschmid. He’s the CEO of the Copyright Alliance, they usually’re an necessary trade group representing the pursuits of copyright house owners, like authors and songwriters. He tells me there are not less than 50 copyright infringement lawsuits happening proper now between AI firms and leisure trade gamers, together with Universal, Sony and Warner’s litigation towards Udio’s competitor, Suno. And towards this backdrop, Kupferschmid known as the Universal-Udio deal, specifically, a sport changer.

KEITH KUPFERSCHMID: It exhibits that the AI firms can work with the inventive neighborhood to provide you with fashions that work for each of them, the place they each become profitable, they usually’re each profitable.

VELTMAN: But not all components of the inventive neighborhood, Scott, are as gung-ho about this growth.

DETROW: Right, I imply, a number of inventive individuals see this as an existential menace. We had a whole lot of musicians signing on letters opposing the unauthorized coaching of AI fashions on their work. Recently, how are artists responding?

VELTMAN: Well, the Music Artists Coalition – that is a nonprofit representing music creators – cautiously welcomed the Universal-Udio deal, nevertheless it additionally raised questions on artists’ capability to regulate how the AI might be used and the way the income might be shared.

DETROW: What do you suppose is prompting this shift towards partnerships?

VELTMAN: Well, we have seen fairly a couple of licensing offers emerge within the media area lately, Scott – for instance, OpenAI’s licensing partnerships with the Financial Times, the Associated Press and different information entities. The more moderen surge of offers within the leisure area is going on not simply because there’s cash to be made. I spoke with Cris Valenzuela, the co-founder and CEO of Runway, which produces an annual AI movie competition, amongst different issues.

CRIS VALENZUELA: The fashions are working very well, and, like, they’ll do that stuff. Maybe two years in the past, it felt extra like, that is, like, a protracted mattress, like, a moonshot, like, we will take our time.

VELTMAN: Yeah, so in brief, Valenzuela is saying the tech is getting to a degree the place it could actually make issues that followers really really need – yeah, like, for instance, having the ability to make mashups of or create new lyrics to their favourite songs.

DETROW: NPR’s Chloe Veltman. Chloe, at all times good to speak to you. Thanks a lot.

VELTMAN: Thanks a lot, Scott.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

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