From Sony Music’s deepfake takedowns to iHeartMedia’s $100m BMI sale proceeds… it’s MBW’s Weekly Round-Up

Welcome to Music Business Worldwide’s weekly round-up – the place we be sure that you caught the 5 greatest tales to hit our headlines over the previous seven days. MBW’s round-up is supported by Centtrip, which helps over 500 of the world’s best-selling artists maximize their earnings and cut back their touring prices.

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Following final week’s affirmation of BMI‘s sale to non-public fairness agency New Mountain Capital (together with Alphabet-owned CapitalG), we discovered this week that US radio large iHeartMedia is about to get $100 million from the sale.

Since its inception, efficiency rights group BMI has been owned by a consortium of radio and TV broadcasters, and within the weeks and months to come back, we’ll probably discover out simply how a lot different broadcasters stand to make from the sale.

BMI didn’t put a particular worth on NMC’s takeover in its affirmation final week, however sources have beforehand put the acquisition worth in NMC’s provide at round $1.7 billion.

Elsewhere on this planet of music, Warner Music Group-owned ADA Worldwide struck up a world distribution take care of generative AI music startup Boomy, in what’s being known as a “first-of-its-kind” partnership that can see choose Boomy artists distributed throughout quite a few DSPs and social media platforms.

Talking of AI-generated music, MBW reviewed the Nationwide Music Publishers Affiliation (NMPA)‘s submission to the US Copyright Workplace’s inquiry into AI and copyright, and located the commerce group pulled no punches, asserting that “hindsight could properly show that there is no such thing as a hyperbole in saying that generative AI is the best threat to the human artistic class that has ever existed”.

MBW additionally interviewed JT Myers and Nat Pastor about their plans for Virgin Music Group, and analyzed a speech delivered in Washington D.C. by Sony Music Entertainment‘s Dennis Kooker about AI and copyright legislation.

Right here’s what occurred this week…

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1) IHEARTMEDIA TO RECEIVE $100M FROM SALE OF BMI

US radio large iHeartMedia is lined up for a USD $100 million windfall from the sale of BMI to a shareholder group led by New Mountain Capital (NMC).

On Monday (November 27), iHeart stated that it expects, following the sale, to obtain “roughly” $100 million of proceeds “associated to its fairness curiosity in BMI, topic to approval of the transaction by BMI shareholders and customary regulatory approvals”.

The US broadcaster added that it plans to make use of the proceeds for “normal company functions, which can embody the reimbursement of debt”.

Final week we discovered that non-public fairness agency NMC will “lead a shareholder group” to accumulate a majority stake in BMI.

We’d identified for a while that the personal fairness agency –  which has over $45 billion in property beneath administration – had been in talks to accumulate BMI, however the information was confirmed final Tuesday (November 21)…

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2) WARNER’S ADA TO DISTRIBUTE SELECT ARTISTS’ MUSIC FROM GENERATIVE AI PLATFORM BOOMY IN ‘FIRST-OF-ITS-KIND DEAL’

Generative AI music startup Boomy has inked a world distribution take care of Warner Music Group-owned indie label distributor ADA Worldwide, in what it calls a “first-of-its-kind” partnership.

ADA, Warner’s impartial distribution and label providers arm, distributes music for various indie labels, and now it is going to additionally distribute music from Boomy, a platform that allows artists to create music with the help of AI. The platform additionally capabilities as a label and music distributor.

In line with California-headquartered Boomy’s web site, artists on the platform – which launched in 2019 – have created greater than 18.1 million tracks up to now.

Beneath the take care of ADA, Boomy’s A&R group “will carry high artists and solely curated music from the Boomy roster to ADA,” the businesses stated in a press release on Wednesday (November 29)…

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3) PLEASE, DON’T CALL IT DISTRIBUTION.

Why make the leap?

It’s a query that springs up every now and then on this enterprise, every time profitable and/or famend entrepreneurs leap right into a job at a significant music firm.

Universal Music Group, in fact, has a wealthy historical past on this subject and over the previous 12 months, this story arc has performed out but once more at UMG, however with a twist.

In mid-2022, JT Myers and Nat Pastor had been properly established because the forward-thinking minds behind mtheory – a multi-pronged providers and advisory engine for fellow indie music entrepreneurs. Their success up to now had included work with artists resembling Tove Lo and Tom Odell, in addition to Main Lazer’s Lean On, the primary totally impartial observe to succeed in No.1 on the US Prime 40 radio chart.

Then Sir Lucian Grainge known as. The Common boss pitched to Myers and Pastor the idea of working a united UMG impartial label/artist providers division with international may – arguably the primary actually worldwide swing Common has taken to problem Sony’s The Orchard.

“At first we had been type of confused by the entire dialog, to be sincere,” laughs Myers. “However as we acquired extra into it, Lucian defined that he noticed the entire [record] enterprise altering – and our ears actually pricked up”…

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4) NMPA: GENERATIVE AI IS ‘THE GREATEST RISK TO THE HUMAN CREATIVE CLASS THAT HAS EVER EXISTED’

Legislators and regulators world wide are grappling with the best way to tackle the numerous points which have emerged since AI know-how “went mainstream” a few 12 months in the past.

Quite a few companies concerned in AI, and people with substantial copyright holdings, have submitted their ideas on the difficulty to the US Copyright Workplace, and to get the clearest view of the course the music business want to see issues head, it would assist to learn the submission from the Nationwide Music Publishers Affiliation (NMPA).

The NMPA’s submission, dated October 30, 2023, pulls no punches. It begins off by stressing that its membership – US music publishers main and impartial – are “not opposed” to AI.

However then it goes for the jugular: “Nonetheless, the event of the generative AI market is marked by breathtaking pace, dimension and complexity. Hindsight could properly show that there is no such thing as a hyperbole in saying that generative AI is the best threat to the human artistic class that has ever existed”…

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5) SONY MUSIC HAS ISSUED NEARLY 10,000 DEEPFAKE TAKEDOWNS… AND OTHER THINGS WE LEARNED FROM DENNIS KOOKER’S SPEECH ABOUT AI

Senior political figures in Washington have gotten more and more within the influence of AI on the legislation.

On Wednesday (November 29), US Senate Majority Chief Chuck Schumer held an Synthetic Intelligence (AI) Perception Discussion board to debate the significance and position of artistic copyright and mental property within the growth of AI.

Dennis Kooker, Sony Music Leisure‘s President of World Digital Enterprise & US Gross sales, delivered a speech on the Discussion board, outlining the main music firm’s place on AI and copyright legislation.

In his speech, Kooker commented instantly on the flurry of submissions to the USCO from the tech business on the finish of October.

In what could have been a nod to Google‘s submitting and “truthful use” place, Kooker informed Senators that “based mostly on current Copyright Workplace filings it’s clear that the know-how business and speculative monetary buyers would love governments to consider in a really distorted view of copyright”…

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MBW’s Weekly Round-Up is supported by Centtrip, which helps over 500 of the world’s best-selling artists maximise their income and reduce their touring costs.
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