Music Tectonics Is the Music Supply Chain Ready for the AI Boom?
Mar 16, 2026
Bjorn Lindvall, CEO and co-founder of Music Infra and former Hipgnosis COO, builds infrastructure to get rights holders paid accurately and on time. He discusses why AI licensing will explode royalty attribution complexity. He explores tricky attribution when AI blends multiple works, the need to upgrade legacy systems for higher-velocity settlements, and how new payment models could unlock revenue.
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Leaving Hipgnosis Sparked Music Infra
- Bjorn Lindvall left Hipgnosis because persistent backend royalty problems kept nagging him after building the catalog business.
- After leaving in 2022 he founded Music Infra to tackle work-to-recording matching and the music supply chain inefficiencies he witnessed firsthand.
Gross Versus Net Revealed Waste In Catalog Deals
- At Hipgnosis Bjorn observed a big gap between gross revenue and the net that ends up on royalty statements.
- He argues shrinking that delta by improving back-end efficiency would increase payouts for writers, labels, and platforms.
AI Licensing Will Multiply Royalty Complexity
- Generative AI licensing will dramatically increase royalty math complexity and data volume across the supply chain.
- Bjorn warns mixes of lyrics, guitar stems, and tokens will require far more granular attribution than current streaming-minute cutoffs allow.