Welcome to Music Enterprise Worldwide’s weekly round-up – the place we make certain 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.
If there was one overarching theme in music enterprise information this week, it was… music disappearing.
Yesterday (March 14), we discovered that, amid the continuing licensing dispute between Common Music Group (UMG) and TikTok, UMG has issued over 37,000 takedown requests to TikTok, leading to 120 million movies being muted.
TikTok has already muted the audio on movies that includes UMG-licensed music, however its detection mechanism is being bypassed by ‘modified’ (sped up or in any other case modified) variations of UMG-owned tracks uploaded by customers.
Additionally this week, we discovered that streaming service Deezer has eliminated 26 million tracks from its platform in current months. “The tracks which have been eliminated embody noise, mono-track albums [albums made of copies of a single track], faux artists and tracks that haven’t been listened to up to now 12 months,” CEO Jeronimo Folgueira mentioned.
If there was one other dominant theme in music enterprise information this week? It was… TikTok.
In addition to the continuing dispute with UMG, we discovered this week that TikTok guardian ByteDance‘s efforts to develop music AI go a lot additional than what we’ve seen to this point. Amongst different issues, the corporate is creating a mannequin known as StemGen, which is “skilled to take heed to musical context and reply appropriately.”
In the meantime, a invoice to pressure ByteDance to divest TikTok within the US or face a ban of the platform within the nation handed the Home of Representatives this week. The invoice’s progress via the legislative course of has been operating at breakneck pace.
Lastly, in non-TikTok-related information, we obtained an replace on the continuing rivalry between Warner Music Group (WMG) and a consortium led by Consider CEO Denis Ladegaillerie over the acquisition of Consider. France’s securities authority has been known as in to referee one vital side of the method, whereas Consider’s board has rejected – in the interim – WMG’s request for confidential monetary data on the corporate.
Right here’s what occurred this week…
1) DOWN THE SKIBIDI TOILET: WHY UNIVERSAL MUSIC GROUP’S ‘PROJECT TIMEOUT’ IS HITTING TIKTOK WITH ENDLESS COPYRIGHT TAKEDOWN REQUESTS
MBW has obtained proof that, since February 1, Common Music Group has hit TikTok with over 37,000 separate copyright takedown requests to take away completely different ‘Sounds’ from the platform.
These 37,000+ requests have resulted in – await it – roughly 120 million movies on the ByteDance platform being muted.
Nearly all of these takedowns, sources inform me, have focused ‘modified’ variations of UMG-controlled music uploaded by TikTok customers – i.e. sped up, slowed down, pitched up, or pitched down variations of unique recordings.
As a result of the audio of those tracks is ‘modified’, they typically bypass TikTok’s copyright detection filters – the identical copyright detection filters that will mechanically block customers from importing movies that includes un-modified Common tracks…
2) DEEZER HAS DELETED 26M ‘USELESS’ TRACKS SINCE IT LAUNCHED ARTIST-CENTRIC MODEL WITH UNIVERSAL MUSIC GROUP
France-headquartered streaming service Deezer’s soon-to-be-former CEO, Jeronimo Folgueira, has been elevating the alarm for a while about low-quality content material flooding music streaming companies, degrading the person expertise and diluting the cash earned by professional artists.
“There’s a whole lot of content material now getting uploaded to our platform each week, and that quantity retains rising and rising and rising,” he mentioned on an earnings name in March 2023.
“We wish to give our prospects a high-quality expertise and related content material, so clearly getting AI to flood our catalog isn’t one thing we’re tremendous eager on, and we’re engaged on that.”
It seems Deezer was certainly “engaged on that” – the corporate has confirmed that it has eliminated over 26 million tracks within the months because it first launched its Common Music Group-approved artist-centric cost system (in September 2023)…
3) TIKTOK’S PARENT BYTEDANCE HAS LOCKED DOWN AI-MUSIC PATENTS IN THE US – AS ITS RESEARCHERS DEVELOP A MODEL TRAINED ON 257,000 HOURS OF SONGS
MBW has lined TikTok and guardian firm ByteDance‘s work within the discipline of AI music-making and machine studying extensively over the previous few years.
In August 2022, MBW broke the information that TikTok and ByteDance have been hiring a number of extremely expert specialists in machine studying and AI music creation in each the US and China. (They nonetheless are.)
That preliminary hiring spree adopted its acquisition in July 2019 of Jukedeck, a UK-based AI Music startup specializing in creating royalty-free music.
ByteDance has additionally launched a machine-learning-driven music-making app known as Mawf up to now couple of years, in addition to Ripple – an AI-powered music-making app that may flip a hummed melody right into a music.
Extra lately, TikTok has been testing an AI Track characteristic that makes use of a big language mannequin to energy lyric era.
Now, MBW has unearthed two current analysis papers that point out ByteDance’s ambitions within the realm of AI-made music go a lot additional than what we’ve seen to this point…
4) BILL FORCING BYTEDANCE TO SELL TIKTOK OR FACE BAN PASSES US HOUSE
A invoice that will pressure China-based ByteDance to promote TikTok or face a ban within the US is one massive step nearer to changing into regulation, after passing via the Home of Representatives.
The Defending People From International Adversary Managed Purposes Act handed 253 to 65 on the Home flooring on Wednesday (March 13), with one lawmaker voting “current.”
The vote got here little greater than per week after it was launched by Republican Rep. Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin and Democratic Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois, and 6 days after it sailed via the Home Vitality and Commerce Committee in a unanimous (50-0) vote.
By the requirements of the US Congress, that’s breakneck pace…
5) WARNER MUSIC GROUP AND DENIS LADEGAILLERIE’S TUSSLE OVER BUYING BELIEVE IS HOTTING UP – AS FRANCE’S SEC EQUIVALENT GETS DRAGGED INTO THE DRAMA
Proper. Earlier than we inform you the most recent within the fast-unfurling cleaning soap opera of Consider, Warner Music Group, and Denis Ladegaillerie‘s consortium, it’s in all probability useful to deliver you up to the mark.
Consider you me, MBW would love to only skip to the most recent chapter: Consider’s board* calling within the AMF – France’s equal of the USA’s Securities and Change Fee (SEC) – to rule on whether or not one essential transfer by Denis Ladegaillerie’s consortium will get the AOK, or the A-Oh-Nay.
However with out the requisite context, belief us, this story will in all probability go away you misplaced at sea.
So earlier than we get to the great things, right here’s a fast chronological recap on what’s occurred to this point, primarily based on a flurry of bulletins issued by Consider and its board (and one by WMG) in current weeks…
MBW’s Weekly Spherical-Up is supported by Centtrip, which helps over 500 of the world’s best-selling artists maximise their earnings and cut back their touring prices.
