A Little Knowledge... #70

Welcome to A Little Knowledge #70 – our free weekly LinkedIn newsletter.

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?? BULLETIN NEWS: A busy (and testy) legal week for Udio, Suno and the RIAA

Phew, what a week: US labels body the RIAA took legal action against AI music startups Suno and Udio, alleging that both entities are involved in massive copyright infringement. These lawsuits represent a significant escalation in the music industry’s battle against AI-generated music that leverages copyrighted material without permission.

• The litigation features all three major music labels—Sony Music Entertainment, UMG Recordings, and Warner Records—as plaintiffs, seeking statutory damages of up to $150,000 per infringed work, legal costs, and injunctions.
• The RIAA claims that Suno and Udio copied vast amounts of musical data to train their AI models and that?this process involved duplicating decades of popular sound recordings?to produce outputs that mimic genuine human-made recordings –?without obtaining proper licenses.
• Suno and Udio's defence hinges on the concept of 'fair use,' a doctrine they invoked in pre-litigation discussions with the RIAA. The RIAA dismisses this defence, arguing that 'fair use' is not applicable in this case.
• RIAA says that?these are clear-cut cases of copyright infringement, accusing Suno and Udio of attempting to obscure the extent of their unlawful use of copyrighted sound recordings.
• These lawsuits underscore the music industry's growing concern over the impact of AI technologies on copyright laws and artistic ownership. The RIAA’s actions could set a precedent for how AI-generated music is regulated and highlight the necessity for AI firms to seek proper licensing.

???There's a?lot?more to read on this, including?details on Suno and Udio’s responses,?and more in this?article ?and?this article ?on Music Ally?.

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??MUSIC ALLY ON WHATSAPP

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

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???MUSIC ALLY NEXT:?GenAI music: is the AI genie out of the AI bottle?

On the 18th June the Music Ally Next?conference opened with – what else –?discussions on AI-created music. Chief executive of UK labels body the BPI, Dr Jo Twist OBE, led a panel on protection and compliance around the use of Generative AI (genAI).

• “Not a day goes by when we don’t talk AI at the BPI,” Twist began, and explained that the organisation feels positive about the challenge AI presents. “The music industry has dealt with innovation in a positive way in the last few years, and has learnt lessons from the late 1990s,” she said.?
• She was joined on the panel by Andrew Batey, founder / CEO of anti-fraud platform Beatdapp, and Ed Newton-Rex, founder of AI certification initiative platform Fairly Trained.
• The conversation explored?legislation and regulation. Newton-Rex and Batey both agreed that the future will require technology to help monitor the use of AI-generated music, government regulation is important, and legal pressure is required.?
• But their opinions differ when it comes to the role that regulation should play.

???Read our write-up in full?here .

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?? 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!

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?? 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:

• Snoop Dogg?running the 200m against professional athletes ?is our favourite new?sporting event.
• Go north, open the door, hit the goblin with the sword... and then read?Ars Technica's oral history of text games and interactive fiction .
• There's no better way to play Super Monkey Ball than with a controller that's?a monkey (not a real one, don't worry!) in a ball .

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:

??? 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.