A Little Knowledge… #15

???BULLETIN NEWS:?OpenAI boss on music and AI-training: 'Creators deserve control'

Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI (the company behind ChatGPT and DALL-E) appeared this week before the US Senate Judiciary Committee's subcommittee on privacy, technology and the law. He faced some pointed questions from Senator Marsha Blackburn?on music specifically.

• Blackburn told Altman that musicians "should be able to decide if their copyrighted songs and images are going to be used to train these models" and suggested that Jukebox's ability to offer 're-renditions' of artists like Garth Brooks was a red flag suggesting the model had been trained on their music.
• "First of all, we think that creators deserve control over how their creations are used, and what happens beyond the point of them releasing it into the world," said Altman. "Second, I think we need to figure out new ways with this new technology that creators can win, succeed, have a vibrant life. And I'm optimistic that this will present it."
• Blackburn asked Altman if he'd favour an entity like SoundExchange getting involved in collecting royalties for musicians from use of their work to train AIs. "I'm not familiar with SoundExchange," was his response, which is unlikely to go down well within music circles.
• Blackburn also asked Altman to commit to not training OpenAI's models on artists' and songwriters' copyrighted works, or use their voices and likenesses without consent. Altman set out OpenAI's current stance. "We are absolutely engaged in that [protection for creators]... We think that content creators, content owners, need to benefit from this technology. Exactly what the economic model is, we're still talking to artists and content owners about what they want."

These are welcome words, but for now they remain just that: words. As one of the leaders in the generative AI space, what's important now is how OpenAI's discussions with artists and rightsholders evolve into concrete licensing and business models – because the approach it takes will influence other companies in its sector.

The relevant part of the YouTube video of the session starts here. Read our full article here.

???Music Ally archive: Articifial Intelligence

???TOOLS:?Create digital worlds with Medallion

We took a look at the platform??Medallion,?which?uses web3 technology to allow artists to create digital worlds – with the aim of fostering fan communities, driving engagement, and providing actionable insights to unlock new economic opportunities.

Medallion says its mission is to “help artists better connect with fans by allowing them to build direct and personalised experiences.” Artists the company works with include Greta Van Fleet, Jungle, ILLENIUM, Santigold, and Sigur Rós.

The idea is that artists build “tailored creative experiences” based on their fans’ values, that also reflect artists’ individual visions and engage fans in new, immersive ways. Sounds interesting? We dug into the features, pricing and how it works.

???Read Tools in full here:?Medallion

?? Music Ally’s Learn Live webinar?on Tuesday 20th June will help you understand what’s required for artists to thrive in new international markets.?Find out more and book your ticket!

???A LITTLE SOMETHING EXTRA...

And finally… our daily Bulletin newsletter is loved by subscribers for its instant industry analysis - but secretly, the part they like most is the ‘A Little Something Extra’ section at the bottom of the email. Here's a few of the best recent links and a couple of Knowledge extras:

• Eight minutes of adorableness:?Slow motion leaping baby goats
• Introduce a little more randomness to your web time-wasting with?Archive Stumbler
• Nashville musician K.S. Rhoads'?'Kids Favourite Jams By Their Dads' Favourite Bands'?series is our new TikTok fave
• We have a new favourite list of?17th and 18th century Quaker names

This is only a glimpse?into this week's newsletter –?subscribe for FREE to The Knowledge?and every Friday it’ll arrive in your inbox, with:

???Exclusive?50% discounts?on selected courses in our LEARNING HUB?????The best new platforms in TOOLS,????Excerpts from our latest COUNTRY PROFILE reports???????Some great and/or strange music in SOMETHING 4 THE WEEKEND,????A look back in TIME MACHINE,????The Music Ally Focus PODCAST, and????more links to our favourite unusual stuff in A LITTLE SOMETHING EXTRA.