The CEO of Spotify, Daniel Ek, recently stated that the music industry has “legitimate concerns” regarding the production of AI-generated songs. With the rise of AI-generated music that mimics the voices of artists, such as Drake and Rihanna, being uploaded on various platforms such as Spotify, it has brought up concerns concerning issues like copyright infringement and royalty payments.
Ek added in the first quarter earnings call of Tuesday that Spotify is now working together with its partners to identify possible solutions regarding the said issues and concerns. The Universal Music Group, which is considered to be the world’s largest record company, has demanded that Apple and Spotify ban specific AI companies from implementing lyrics and melodies which are under copyright, and by training generative models off of Universal’s libraries.
The development of AI has allowed the barriers around content creation to be lowered, according to MIDia Research’s recent report. The issue that needs to be addressed still concerns the ownership of rights and larger aspects of creative attribution. There is a mixed response from artists regarding the creation of AI-generated music, with some artists like Drake condemning it for its impact on copyright, and others like Grimes supporting it and even offering to share royalties from any AI-generated music with her own voice.
The Spotify platform has been making strides in the music industry for quite some time due to their innovative tactics, and the steps taken in resolving the issue of AI-generated music further emphasize their commitment to creating a platform that upholds the copyrights and royalties of the artists. As AI-generated music is a relatively new development in the industry, more clarification is needed before concrete steps are taken to resolve the conflict between copyright infringement and creations that possess wide potential.
