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Warner Music Group

Warner Music Group Starts Joint AI Music Venture After Settling Lawsuit 

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Warner Music Group (WMG) will be starting an artificial intelligence music venture with Suno, a technology startup, one year after the group sued the firm in a landmark case. 

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The settlement agreement made between Suno and WMG gives Warner the ability to let users create AI-generated music on Suno using the voices, names, and likeness of artists who opt-in to the program. 

The record label itself represents artists like Dua Lipa, Coldplay, and Ed Sheeran. They were among several music giants like Sony Music that sued Suno over a similar platform called Udio, according to reports from the BBC. 

This settlement has added to the overall controversy surrounding AI and copyright laws in the entertainment sphere. Many singers, actors, writers, etc. have voiced their concerns over the use of AI and how it undermines real artists and the work that they do. 

In a statement, Warner said that starting next year Suno will be rolling out new advanced and licensed models to its generative-AI music platform which will allow users to create music based on simple descriptions. 

Suno has around 100 million users and was initially launched two years ago out of Massachusetts. The company’s model for 2026 will actually be replacing their existing version to require users to pay for audio downloads. 

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Warner said that songs on the service’s free tier can still be played and shared. They also said that this is a “first-of-its-kind partnership [that will open] new frontiers” in creating music while making sure creative individuals will be compensated. 

“Artists and songwriters will have full control over whether and how their names, images, likenesses, voices and compositions are used in new AI-generated music. The deal also settles previous litigation between the companies,” said Warner. 

The group didn’t say which artists had opted-in to the program. 

Suno was sued by music groups Warner, Sony Music Entertainment, and Universal Music Croup. The lawsuit was initially announced in 2024 by the Recording Industry Association of America. 

The labels accused both Suno and Udio, another AI company offering a similar service, of profiting from copying existing songs. They made claims that both platforms produced tracks that were “indistinguishable” from the works created by real artists, according to BBC. 

The company said that their use of AI was “wholesale theft” which is threatening the “music ecosystem.” 

The legal battle also came months after around 200 artists signed a letter calling for the “predatory use of AI” in the music industry to be stopped.

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Music Industry Figures Accuse BBC Of ‘Arbitrary And Disproportionate’ Changes Following Bob Vylan Glastonbury Set 

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Major figures in the music industry are accusing the BBC of making “arbitrary and disproportionate” changes to how it covers live music after the controversy regarding Bob Vylan’s recent Glastonbury festival performance. 

Following this year’s Glastonbury festival, the BBC found itself under a heap of pressure from the government for live streaming Bob Vylan’s set in which they led chants of “death, death to the IDF,” in reference to the Israel Defense Forces and the conflict in Palestine. 

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The concern from the industry relates to artists being worried that the BBC can simply cut any musical performance that they deem to be high risk. 

The performance itself wasn’t shown on television, but was instead available via on-demand livestream on iPlayer where it was available for five hours. Tim Davie, the BBC’s director general, and Samir Shah, the chair, have apologized and stated that disciplinary action will be expected to occur. 

Many insiders to the music industry are claiming that the BBC is overreacting, and Glastonbury coverage has been running for years without any serious incidents. The biggest concern from artists, however, is concerns over free speech. 

Head of the Featured Artists Coalition (FAC), which is the UK body representing musical artists, David Martin, stated that the network should rethink their decisions. 

“The BBC is absolutely fundamental to the continued success of British music, and particularly vital to supporting our new and emerging artists’ development,” he said.

“The FAC wholeheartedly supports the network’s remit for public service broadcasting, something which is encapsulated by their Glastonbury coverage. That remit also comes with responsibilities. The BBC is rightly held to the highest regulatory, legal and editorial standards. If those standards have been breached, then there should be appropriate guidelines to follow.”

“But the idea of preemptively grading artists according to their ’risk’ factor feels arbitrary and disproportionate – and a dangerous step towards censorship. That kind of approach could potentially curtail artistic freedom around certain genres and inadvertently punish those who are simply expressing their views. It’s a road I think we should resist going down.

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“Live music is incredibly important to the UK. It provides entertainment and cultural capital. But it’s also an art form, and our performers should be free to challenge, provoke and take risks.”

According to the Guardian, A BBC spokesperson said: 

“We will continue to bring audiences a range of music performances, both live and on-demand, and we respect artists’ freedom of expression. However, Bob Vylan’s offensive and deplorable behaviour on one of our Glastonbury live streams was completely unacceptable and we are sorry it appeared on the BBC.

“This is why we have made immediate changes to livestreaming music events, and these alongside our editorial guidelines will shape our plans going forward.”

The general secretary of the Musicians’ Union, Naomi Pohl, stated that she’s concerned over the BBC’s decision to be more cautious and hesitant about what music performances they decide to broadcast. 

“We really don’t want to see the BBC broadcasting fewer live events,” she said.

 “It’s such a shame there has been this shadow cast over this year’s Glastonbury coverage, because it has had fantastic viewing figures. It’s been all over iPlayer and people have been tuning in live.

“We need to talk to the BBC about it directly. But I don’t want to see any broadcasters now broadcasting fewer live events because they don’t want to take the risk. The whole of the music industry will be feeling that, because it’s so crucial to us to have the BBC,” she said.

Thousands Of Artists Sign Letter Calling To Cancel AI Art Auction 

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Thousands of artists have signed a letter calling for the auction house Christie’s to cancel an auction in which many of the works have been created using artificial intelligence, calling the artwork and the selling of it “mass theft.”

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Billie Eilish And Stevie Wonder Among 200+ Artists Demanding Protection Against Predatory Use Of AI 

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A group of more than 200 high-profile musicians and estates have signed an official open letter demanding protections against the predatory use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) which mimics human artists’ voices, songs, and overall likeness, according to new reports. 

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AI

Man Wins Art Fair With AI Generated Art

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A video game designer in Pueblo, Colorado, won an art fair with artwork generated by artificial intelligence software. Jason M. Allen entered his work titled “Théâtre D’opéra Spatial” into a state fair and received first place, winning a prize of $300. He had spent 80 hours tinkering with an AI art generator named Midjourney to create his final piece.

The two competition judges, Cal Duran and Dagny McKinley told The Pueblo Chieftain that while they did not know an AI created the work, they still would have awarded Allen the prize. In Duran’s mind, the chief purpose of any artwork is to tell a story.

“Even as this controversy is coming out, it’s still invoking that. It’s still causing an uproar. That in itself is kind of remarkable.”

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In order to generate art using an AI like Midjourney, a user must input keywords that the AI uses to make associations between prompts and images on the internet. It recognizes shapes, colors, and patterns within existing art and photos. The resulting piece of art is an amalgamation of those elements.

The recent development of AI-generated art engines such as DALL-E has started a debate on the ethics of art and the implications of automating creativity. While automation is becoming increasingly more common in other sectors of society, people previously considered the automation of art, music and writing beyond technological capability.

Even iPhone users can download AI art generators from Apple’s app store, albeit much weaker ones. Nonetheless, these apps can craft a piece of art within 15 seconds based on as little as one keyword. Even an online poetry generator titled “Verse by Verse” exists. Google programmed the software to compose poetry in the voice of historically famous poets.

Allen told The Pueblo Chieftain that Midjourney had also aided his team in creating concept art for their game designs. While inputting keywords may seem easy, Allen claims it is difficult to put in a prompt that is just right to generate the desired image.

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Judge McKinley is optimistic about the replicability of the quote-on-quote “artist” if AI art becomes commonplace. “Yes, it will likely take away some jobs from artists, but the technology exists and we can’t go backwards,” McKinley said.

“For me, nothing can replicate human work because human work is flawed and it is those flaws that bring humanity to art. How does an artist create their own style and voice? That is what makes art interesting.”

Understandably, many artists are unhappy with the potential automation of the creative process.

RJ Palmer, a concept artist, wrote on Twitter, “what makes this AI different is that it’s explicitly trained on current working artists.” Artists are not paid for their work but instead used to generate digital art pulled from their original ideas. Palmer writes that it is “actively anti-artist.”

Outdoor Music Festival

Why Younger Musicians Are Getting Their Estates In Order Early

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Artists like Anderson .Paak and Taylor Swift are already planning out their legacies as a means of keeping control of their music catalogues as their careers continue to develop.

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Man Listening to Music at Home

Paul McCartney Joins Call From Musicians To Change Music Streaming Payments

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Over 150 musicians signed an open letter to change the 1988 Copyright Act which prevents many musicians from receiving proper payments for their work on streaming services.

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Industry’s Top Songwriters Call For An End To ‘Artist Bullying’ Over Royalties

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Songwriters for some of music’s biggest artist’s have penned an open letter to everyone within the industry calling on them to stop pressuring these writers to give up their publishing royalties. Writers for artists like Dua Lipa, Lady Gaga, and Ariana Grande have all signed the letter in a new collective known as the Pact.

The songwriters themselves don’t name any specific artists within the letter, however, they do claim that pop stars and their teams can “abuse leverage, use bully tactics and threats to prey upon writers who may choose to give up some of their assets rather than lose the opportunity completely.”

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The Pact claims that as a group they “will not give publishing or songwriting credit to anyone who did not create or change the lyric or melody or otherwise contribute to the composition without a reasonably equivalent/meaningful exchange for all the writers on the song.”

Besides the performance royalties, artists generally receive an income for ticket sales, advertising deals, and numerous other revenue streams that have to do with the artist’s image itself. Songwriters, on the other hand, need the publishing royalties as that’s their main source of income when it comes to producing music.

“Over time, the practice of artists taking publishing from songwriters have become normalised.”

Victoria Monét was one of the signatories of the letter. She’s written many of Ariana Grande’s songs, as well as Emily Warren, who wrote the Grammy-nominated track Don’t Start Now. Savan Kotecha has written numerous songs for Ellie Goulding and Grande as well, and Justin Tranter, writer for artists like Britney Spears, also signed the letter.

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“My hope is that new songwriters can operate with a little less fear and [a] little more money.”

These writer statements come after a long debate regarding streaming services and the revenue they provide artists. In the US, streaming services like Spotify had to increase the royalties they gave to songwriters from 11% to 15%.

Crispin Hunt, chair of the Ivors Academy whose yearly Ivor Novello awards reward songwriters, argued in March that “record labels were taking too great a cut of revenues. Record labels are still taking a manufacturing and distributing cut when all they’re doing is a marketing job.”

At the end of the day, songwriters are finally taking a moment to credit themselves for their contributions to the industry, and are demanding that they be treated with the same respect and admiration as the artists that bring their words to life, and wouldn’t have a career without them.

Comedian

Comedian Alice Fraser Offers Some Positivity During A Worldwide Pandemic

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Fraser typically lives in London and was preparing for a huge festival tour that was meant to begin in Australia this past March and end at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August, however, due to public health concerns the events/tour has been cancelled.

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Gold Stars

Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame Nominee’s Announced

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“The nominations for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s class of 2020 are in, and the list features the Notorious B.I.G., Whitney Houston, Pat Benatar, Dave Matthews Band, Depeche Mode, the Doobie Brothers, Judas Priest, Kraftwerk, MC5, Motörhead, Nine Inch Nails, Rufus featuring Chaka Khan, Todd Rundgren, Soundgarden, T. Rex, and Thin Lizzy. The top vote-getters will be announced in January and inducted May 2nd, 2020, at a ceremony at Cleveland’s Public Hall.” Rolling Stone Magazine. 

It’s that time of year again, Rolling Stone Magazine covered and announced this years nominations for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and fans are overjoyed with the choices. This year the Hall Of Fame decided in order to be eligible for a nomination, an artist’s first album or single must have been released during 1994 or earlier, according to Rolling Stone. This is a lot of artists first years making it onto the nomination ballot, which is seen as a high honor in itself, and many artists have made it in the past and are back this year to hopefully snag an actual spot in the class of 2020 for the Hall of Fame. 

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The decision making process for who actually gets inducted is a lot more inclusive and expansive than a standard Academy Award type of process. Over 1,000 individuals vote on who is deserving of a spot. According to Rolling Stone these individuals are made up of other artists, music journalists, historians, and other members in the music industry who have enough experience to gage an artists qualifications. To make the process even more democratic, fans can vote as well for their choices on  rockhall.com or at an interactive kiosk at the Rock and Roll museum in Cleveland. This way, part of the vote is determined by the everyday actual listeners of these artists. Whether it’s people who grew up with these artists, or the younger generation who discovered the music through their parents and streaming services, fans are able to put in their two cents and actually be a part of this annual musical honor. 

“Nothing stays the same in music, therefore, really, the institution that honors it has to evolve with all the music. Just like hip-hop is very much a part of the Hall of Fame now, everything we do — the board members we have, the events we build on — has to reflect a changing culture without ever disregarding or turning our backs on the ideals and fundamentals of the Rock Hall,”  John Sykes, new Rock Hall chairman told Rolling Stone.

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33rd Annual Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony

This is John Sykes first year as acting chairman for the Hall of Fame induction. Previously Jann Wenner, the founder of Rolling Stone Magazine was the chairman for Rock Hall as well. The decision behind Wenner stepping down after years of controversy surrounding the Hall of Fame is actually about making sure the process remains 100% legitimate, a claim Wenner has stuck to throughout his whole career. Wenner’s controversy is rooted in the fact that fans everywhere would often blame their distaste in the yearly inductions by calling out Wenner for favoritism of some artists over the other. Regardless of his rebuttal, it never seemed to matter since Wenner inducted himself into the Hall Of Fame at the first ever ceremony in the 80’s, and ever since then people just automatically associated Wenner with favoritism. 

Either way, Sykes is now stepping in, all in a greater hope that his more modern and refreshed understanding and love for current music will help lead to the best inductions every year. Regardless, all parties involved in the process still stick to Wenner’s general philosophy on the importance of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame;

“To honor and celebrate and archive the great music of our time, the music that changed our own lives, and so many other people in and out of the industry, that was the magic that set us free … something that moved us and still does.”