A Little Knowledge... #64

Welcome to A Little Knowledge #64 – our free weekly LinkedIn newsletter.

???BULLETIN NEWS:?Sony Music warns AI firms over training: 'Permission is required'

News broke late last week that Sony Music Group has sent formal letters to more than 700 companies in the AI sector including a 'declaration of AI training opt out' for its recordings and publishing catalogues:

• That "expressly prohibits and opts out of any text or data mining, web scraping or similar reproductions, extractions or uses" of any Sony music content including "musical compositions, lyrics, audio recordings, audiovisual recordings, artwork, images, data etc" for "training, developing or commercializing any AI system".
• The letter also includes an "invitation to engage in discussion of transparent, ethical and responsible AI development"?– setting a deadline of later this month for those responses.
• Sony Music is telling AI companies that it's open to discussing licensing agreements, and while it may not be spelled out explicitly in its letter, it's setting things up for lawsuits against companies who it believes have trained their models on its content, but who refuse to provide the requested data or enter into those licensing talks.
• The letter sketches out the likely focus for any such lawsuits, too: "Unauthorized use of SMG Content in the training, development or commercialization of AI systems deprives SMG Companies and SMG Talent of control over and appropriate compensation for the uses of SMG Content, conflicts with the normal exploitation of those works, unreasonably prejudices our legitimate interests, and infringes our intellectual property and other rights."

???Read our?full analysis of today's news in our 'Beat Check' column?here

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??MUSIC ALLY: NOW ON WHATSAPP

?The Music Ally WhatsApp Channel is a simple way to stay on top of music business news: every afternoon (UK time), we’ll post the lead story, and also links to the rest of the day’s news. Click here to sign up.

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?????India Insight: Amit Gurbaxani explores superfandom: merch, meet’n’greets and more

Every month, music business journalist?Amit Gurbaxani?shares his expertise, insight, and analysis on key stories from the exciting, exploding market of India.

At last year’s edition of?All About Music, India’s largest music industry conference, the word dropped the most was “superfan”.?Speakers and panelists talked at length about how the time was ripe to harvest the fruits of the massive listener bases artists have garnered domestically, numbers that rank among the largest in the world.?

• While several Indian and international acts can boast billions of streams in the country, historically, the territory has been substantially under-monetised.?
• This is slowly but surely changing, according to industry execs.?
• Fans are increasingly willing to pay more to watch their favourite artists live.?
• The most successful way for Indian acts to upsell to superfans remains the meet-and-greet, although these remain unexplored by international acts.

??? Read the piece in full?here?and?browse all music industry news relating to India?here.

??? MUSIC ALLY JOBS

The latest and best jobs for the global music business, trusted by both top music industry companies and experienced professionals on top of their game.

Are you looking for a job? Click here to see the full list of vacancies!

?? 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:

• We have a new favourite?evolutionary nerd with a peculiar bird on TikTok.
• Wes Anderson has not just?made a short film about Montblanc pens: he's designed a new one called 'The Schreiberling' (The Scribbler).
• Fancy flying into a Black Hole??NASA's latest 360 video lets you do just that?–?we never knew these space phenomena came with their own dramatic orchestras...

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

?? Exclusive access to selected courses in our LEARNING HUB; ??? The best new platforms in TOOLS; ??Highlights 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.