Artificial Intelligence Is Changing Our Industry
AI’s got bars, but who’s getting paid? Inside the battle for fair credit and coin.
Let’s be real. AI isn’t coming for the music industry, it already showed up, skipped the line, and started sampling everyone’s work without so much as a “may I?” From ChatGPT spitting out lyrics to platforms like Suno pumping out AI-generated tracks, the tech is getting flashier—but the credit (and the coin) isn’t always flowing where it should. As artists, publishers, and creatives, we’re standing at a crossroads: will we shape this tech-powered future or get steamrolled by it? This piece dives into the rise of AI, the fight for fair use, and why protecting our rights isn’t optional—it’s essential.
AI is Good
Let us start by stating the obvious, which is that the advancement of technology to improve the lives of people around the world is good. And with regards to what it can do for music, composers have already begun to make use of Artificial Intelligence or AI as a “tool” to enhance the quality and output of their work. And while such innovations are always welcome, they cannot come at the expense of all composers’ previously released work not being paid for to train the AI models, that are taking over the world.
The Right Way
There is a way in which both owners of copyright and those wanting to use that copyright can all be happy. The simple solution is to have those tech companies pay to use the hard work of the many talented artists and composers. Payment for the work may come in many different ways. It can be licensed or bought outright, but it must be negotiated with the original owner for them to grant permission for the work to be used.
Preparing for the future
Having laws in place to protect the owners of musical copyright is the foundation of the profitability of the music business. Currently, there are few countries with laws in place to protect copyright owners from having their work used to train AI models.
This is a problem which the global music industry is tackling head on in many different ways:
- The EU has introduced a new copyright legislation which outlines guidelines that developers of AI have to adhere to when using copyright.
- A Silent Album was released protesting clauses in the UK’s AI Act which were seen by harmful to music rightsholders in favour of allowing AI developers work arounds to paying for the use of copyright, so that they can continue to develop their technology at competitive speed compared to other developers around the world.
- In the United States, there are several copyright battles that are currently ensuing, whereby organisations like the NMPA and a large amount of music publishers are currently suing the likes businesses like ChatGPT, Suno and Anthropic, that allows users of its platform to generate “new” music through the use of its AI. Original authors however are not compensated for their work, which was used to train the AI model that these business use. The key reason these businesses stated that they copyright owners were not entitled to compensation was that the American Copyright Act has “fair use”.
- Read here to check out an important article by Nick Matzukis (co-founder and head of music law at the Academy of Sound Engineering) on the definition of “fair use” and why its inclusion in the South African Copyright Amendment Bill would negatively impact the South African industry.
- Don’t miss this valuable read! Check out the full article here.
- To impact global change, organisations like the International Confederation of Music Publishers (ICMP) and the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC) have commenced several initiatives to further advocate for and support the inclusion more copyright protections in global musical copyright law for all copyrights holders in the music industry.
- One such initiative is that of Rights & AI which states that the music publishers and composers included on the list of people and organisations publicly state that they do not consent to the use of their music to develop AI. This is to ensure that developers have to engage rightsholders for permission before using their work.
Growth and innovation rarely has a smooth start, and while industrial disruption for the sake of progress with our ever-evolving world can be a good thing, we need these AI developers to take accountability for the negative impact they are inflicting on the creative industry by developing a way to compensate copyright holders for their work.