artists

UMG Expands Spotify Alliance: New Inclusion of Music Videos and Other Content Following Dispute with TikTok

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The addition of music videos is included among these new features in the U.S.Spotify recently announced its plans to support music videos, saying in March it would test the option in beta in 11 select markets — which, at the time, didn’t include the U.S. With the UMG deal, U.S. users will also have the option of watching music videos instead of just streaming audio. To watch videos, Spotify users can access a new “Switch to Video” option from the app’s Now Playing Screen. For instance, UMG artists will be able to share teasers of upcoming songs and users will be able to pre-save music before a new release. By partnering with Spotify, UMG still has a way to promote its music to fans, even if its artists lose the ability to market themselves on TikTok.

“Compensating Creators: Exploring the Payment of Training Data by OpenAI’s Vice President”

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Should artists whose work was used to train generative AI like ChatGPT be compensated for their contributions? OpenAI is in a delicate legal position where it concerns the ways in which it uses data to train generative AI systems like the art-creating tool DALL-E 3, which is incorporated into ChatGPT. “Training AI models using publicly available internet materials is fair use, as supported by long-standing and widely accepted precedents,” writes the company in a January blog post. OpenAI has licensing agreements in place with some content providers, like Shutterstock, and allows webmasters to block its web crawler from scraping their site for training data. In addition, like some of its rivals, OpenAI lets artists “opt out” of and remove their work from the data sets that the company uses to train its image-generating models.

Universal Music Group’s Dispute with TikTok Claims More Songs

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TikTok is losing even more songs over its quarrel with Universal Music Group (UMG), as the social media network is starting to remove songs published by UMG, the company confirmed to TechCrunch on Tuesday. As a result, TikTok had to remove songs owned or distributed by UMG by January 31. Now, the company has to remove songs that contain compositions controlled by Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG). The company says UMG and UMPG’s catalogue represents anywhere from 20-30% of popular songs on TikTok. Artists and songwriters will also be losing out on royalties earned from their music on TikTok.

AUX: Spotify’s Latest Service to Connect Brands and Creators – Following in the Footsteps of Meta, YouTube, and More

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Facebook, Instagram, Snap, YouTube, and other social networking companies offer programs to connect creators with brands, and now Spotify is doing the same. The company announced the launch of AUX, its new in-house “music advisory agency” for brands. While not necessarily a creator marketplace, the program has a similar aim — it will facilitate connections between brands and emerging artists for various campaigns benefitting both parties. For Spotify, AUX represents another source of income, as well, as the company says brands can pay Spotify to leverage the new service. “Spotify is always looking for ways to leverage our music ecosystem to deepen the connections between artists, brands, and fans,” said Jeremy Erlich, VP, Head of Music Content at Spotify, in a statement.

Bridging the Gap: Groover’s Solution for Promoting Independent Artists

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The 3,000 and growing music curators on Groover set their own price, and each transaction gets split with half of the money going to the curator and half to Groover. While I like the concept of artists getting to have these more direct relationships with these different curators, it bums me out that pay-to-play has become the best option for these independent artists. I also get that music journalism is shrinking as the number of independent musicians continues to rapidly scale. Palmieri added that the majority of independent artists just do not have better or more cost-effective options. Both of these startups help the artists but they also help the folks in the industry needed to get those artists off the ground.

Free Tool Launched by Kin.art to Stop Training of GenAI Models on Artwork

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The trouble is, many of these models — if not most — were trained on artwork without artists’ knowledge or permission. And while some vendors have begun compensating artists or offering ways to “opt out” of model training, many haven’t. Another, Kin.art, uses image segmentation (i.e., concealing parts of artwork) and tag randomization (swapping an art piece’s image metatags) to interfere with the model training process. “We prevent your artwork from being inserted in the first place.”Now, Kin.art has a product to sell. While the tool is free, artists have to upload their artwork to Kin.art’s portfolio platform in order to use it.

Apple Music to Increase Compensation for Artists Featuring Spatial Audio

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Apple will pay artists more to have a spatial audio version on Apple MusicApple will pay additional royalties starting this month to artists if they have a spatial audio version on Apple Music, according to multiple reports. The company will pay up to 10% additional royalty if an artist has all their songs in spatial audio, per a report by 9to5Mac. The extra money doesn’t depend on users playing the spatial audio version, though. In December, Bloomberg reported that Apple was planning to introduce incentives for artists to add songs to Apple Music that are mixed on Dolby Atmos technology. Apple Music rivals including Amazon Prime Music, Tidal, and Deezer offer spatial offers.

“Defending the Use of AI: Selkie Founder’s Bold Stance on Cutting-Edge Dress Collection Sparks Controversy”

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An extra toe is like a representation of where we are beginning.”But when the brand announced that the collection was designed using generative AI, backlash was immediate. In the year since she finalized designs for this drop, public opinion of AI art has shifted significantly. As generative AI tools become more sophisticated, the use of AI in art has also become increasingly polarizing. Of course, not all generative AI is exploitative; as a VFX tool, it’s immensely useful to enhance animations, from creating more realistic flames in Pixar’s “Elemental” to visualizing complex scenes in HBO’s “The Last Of Us.” There are plenty of examples of morally bankrupt applications of generative AI. But most of the generative AI debate settles into a morally gray area, where the parameters of exploitation are less defined.

“Call for Algorithmic Transparency: EU Urges Stricter Regulations for Music-Streaming Services”

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The European Parliament is calling for new rules to bring more fairness and transparency to music-streaming across the bloc, including proposals for a new bill to force streaming platforms to open up their recommendation algorithms. The bill would also require Spotify et al to make it clear where a song has been generated by artificial intelligence (AI). While final details are far from set in stone, this might eventually include setting quotas to showcase a certain amount of work from European artists. However, the company performed a 180-degree turn when the government gave assurances that music-streaming platforms wouldn’t be expected to cover extra costs resulting from the law. In response, Spotify vowed to cut back its investment in the French market, starting with pulling support for two music festivals.

“Revolutionizing the Artist-Fan Connection: Medallion’s $13.7M Funding Boost”

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From a fan perspective, although there are plenty of ways to follow and connect with artists, these online interactions can be minimal. Artists will soon also be able to sell new exclusive and limited-edition digital collectibles/NFTs like poster bundles and trading cards. Medallion is free for artists to use but takes a percentage of all sales on the platform, yet didn’t disclose how much. Additionally, Medallion is a white-label platform, meaning artists can customize their digital space with their own color theme, background and more. Artists communicate with fans through social media posts, while fans can reply in the comments.