Universal, Warner push for landmark AI licensing deals with tech firms

Record labels such as Universal Music and Warner Music are looking to avoid past internet-era pitfalls by demanding attribution and fair payouts as they strike AI licensing agreements

Universal Music and Warner Music are on the verge of landmark agreements with artificial intelligence (AI) firms as record labels seek to shape how technology companies pay for music, The Financial Times reported.

 

The discussions have focused on licensing the labels’ songs for creating AI-generated tracks and for training large language models, according to people familiar with the negotiations.

 

Universal, Warner near landmark AI licensing deals 

Universal and Warner, whose catalogues include stars such as Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, and Charli XCX, could each finalise deals with AI companies within weeks. Startups involved in the talks include ElevenLabs, Stability AI, Suno, Udio, and Klay Vision. The music giants are also negotiating with major technology platforms, including Google and Spotify.

 

Label executives view the talks as a proactive step to address disruption caused by AI and to avoid the missteps of the internet era. This period nearly crippled the music industry at the turn of the millennium.

 

Payment model similar to streaming 

The labels are pushing for a payment structure resembling that used by streaming services, where every play of a song triggers a micropayment. To calculate these payments, they want AI companies to develop attribution technology similar to YouTube’s content identification system, capable of detecting when their music is used. It remains unclear which companies are closest to clinching deals, the report added.

 

Spotify is still in the early stages of exploring how to integrate generative AI tools into its platform and has not reached any agreement. Label executives hope these landmark deals will set a precedent for how AI platforms compensate artists, though payment models may vary across services.

 

Spotify removes 75 million tracks in AI crackdown 

AI-generated tracks are already infiltrating streaming platforms. Spotify revealed last week that it had removed 75 million "spammy” AI-generated tracks over the past year. Spotify said it is targeting misuse, such as cloned voices of real artists without permission, fake profiles, and mass-uploaded spam designed to siphon royalties.

 

‘AI actor’ Tilly Norwood sparks Hollywood backlash 

An 'AI actor' named Tilly Norwood has triggered a controversy after its Dutch creators said the synthetic performer is in discussions with talent agencies. Norwood “is not an actor, it’s a character generated by a computer program that was trained on the work of countless professional performers,” the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (Sag-Aftra) said in a statement.

 

“It has no life experience to draw from, no emotion, and, from what we’ve seen, audiences aren’t interested in watching computer-generated content untethered from the human experience,” the union said.

 

In 2023, Hollywood actors staged a lengthy strike that resulted in barring the use of their work by AI systems without their consent.