Music Ally Focus

Ep 131: We have been puzzling over the impact of AI-generated music and how it will align with the laws that have made the music business, well, the music business. Eliane Ellbogen is an intellectual property lawyer at Fasken law firm in Montreal, and has spoken at a number of conferences about the legal implications that accompany AI Music. She joined Music Ally's Editor Joe Sparrow, who lobbed some (depending on your point of view) tricky and/or stupid legal questions at Eliane – who answered them with patience and clarity. For instance: can an AI author music? Can humans claim ownership of AI-generated music? What happens if an AI-created piece of music sounds very similar to your own human music? What laws might be used to regulate it all? Eliane gamely got to grips with them all. Eliane and Fasken: https://www.fasken.com/en/eliane-ellbogen Eliane at MUTEK:  https://forum.mutek.org/en/shows/2023/workshop-art-ai-and-the-law---ip-for-digital-artists Bach’s Goldberg Variations: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4yAB37wG5s Oneohtrix Point Never - Again: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcCWAqoiSXI Smashing watermelons: https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/most-watermelons-smashed-with-a-punch-in-one-minute ------ 👉 FREE Amazon Music for Artists courses & certification: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://learn.musically.com/courses/amazon-music-for-artists/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 👋 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Knowledge⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, Music Ally’s free weekly newsletter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠musically.lnk.to/knowledgepo⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 🎉 You may be eligible for a FREE Music Ally subscription, worth £399/year, via our ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠corporate and sponsored subscriptions⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. If you work for a DSP, a major label, an indie label, or if you’re an artist manager, an employee of a CMO or a publisher, check here to see if you’re eligible: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠musically.com/subscription-options⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Ⓜ️ Subscribe to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Music Ally⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠'s industry-leading analysis, reporting and news: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠musically.com/subscribe⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/musicallybiz⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://twitter.com/musically⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Facebook: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/musicallyfb

Andrew Batey and Morgan Hayduk, co-CEOs of Beatdapp, discuss alarming statistics on streaming fraud, revealing that 40%-60% of streams from well-known distributors are fraudulent. They explore the rise of bot attacks and credential stuffing, the vulnerability of streaming platforms to fraud, and the recent changes to payment thresholds.

Ep. 129: Dan Stein, AKA DJ Fresh, and Declan McGlynn are co-founders of Voice-Swap, the AI-powered service that, as the name suggests, allows you to swap your singing voice for that of one of their chart-topping singers’ voices. They chat to Music Ally’s Editor Joe Sparrow about why they think producers, artists and writers will want to use AI to transform their own voice to sound like one of their featured artists. One of the difficulties that songwriters and songwriting producers face is using their own voice to sing lyrics on a track that is designed for someone else: perhaps their own voice is not very good, or perhaps it’s too hard to picture another artist performing the demo. This was a problem that Dan Stein, as DJ Fresh, faced – and he and his founders are addressing this issue with the help of AI. Voice Swap allows people to sing something into their platform, and the resulting output will sound like one of the singers whose voices the AI has been trained on. Dan and Declan talk about their technology, and who will be interested in using it, and they also dig into some of the more complex concepts: like whether particular AI voices might become ubiquitous across pop music, and whether this will diminish or boost human creativity. Voice Swap https://www.voice-swap.ai Prince – Sign O’ The Times https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nysBR93vc_I48usiCFTnMe6nKTB6YETjo&si=PCmbJ5wVyd2zvjSv DJ Fresh – Gold Dust https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNuUgbUzM8U Sliced grapes: https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/575085-most-grapes-sliced-in-the-air-with-a-sword-whilst-standing-on-a-swiss-ball-in-one ------ 👉 FREE Amazon Music for Artists courses & certification: ⁠⁠⁠https://learn.musically.com/courses/amazon-music-for-artists/⁠⁠⁠ 👋 ⁠⁠⁠The Knowledge⁠⁠⁠, Music Ally’s free weekly newsletter: ⁠⁠⁠musically.lnk.to/knowledgepo⁠⁠⁠ 🎉 You may be eligible for a FREE Music Ally subscription, worth £399/year, via our ⁠⁠⁠corporate and sponsored subscriptions⁠⁠⁠. If you work for a DSP, a major label, an indie label, or if you’re an artist manager, an employee of a CMO or a publisher, check here to see if you’re eligible: ⁠⁠⁠musically.com/subscription-options⁠⁠⁠ Ⓜ️ Subscribe to ⁠⁠⁠Music Ally⁠⁠⁠'s industry-leading analysis, reporting and news: ⁠⁠⁠musically.com/subscribe⁠⁠⁠ Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/musicallybiz⁠⁠⁠ Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠https://twitter.com/musically⁠⁠⁠ Facebook: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/musicallyfb

Kris Ahrend, CEO of the Mechanical Licensing Collective, discusses the state of mechanical licensing in 2023, data transparency, and the future of streaming royalties. He emphasizes the importance of understanding the business side of the music industry, data transparency, and the need for all rights holders to actively connect data gaps for proper payment entitlement.

Stuart Dredge, Head of Insight at Music Ally, discusses the ambitions, possibilities, ethical and legal issues of AI music in the music business. They explore the human element behind AI music, the battle for control within the industry, and the direction of AI music towards collaboration with human musicians. The podcast also touches on the ethical and legal implications, regulations, and the impact of AI in music making.

Ep 126: in this episode Editor Joe Sparrow is joined by musician and music education facilitator Elizabeth J. Birch, and the CEO of UK charity Youth Music Matt Griffiths. They join us to talk about the experiences of disabled musicians in the UK music industry – and the work done by Elizabeth and Youth Music to improve it. Elizabeth is a champion of accessible music-making, and shares her knowledge with aspiring young disabled musicians. She hopes for a day when the disabled community are not so overlooked in the music industry – and Elizabeth has now been nominated for the Inspirational Music Leader award at this year’s Youth Music Awards for her work at Midlands Art Centre as a result of her work. She and Matt talk about their work, explain how the disabled community is still quite invisible in the UK music scene, and what can be done to improve things in the music industry – including platforming more disabled people on and off the stage. Youth Music Awards https://youthmusic.org.uk/awards Youth Music https://youthmusic.org.uk Elizabeth J Birch https://elizabethjbirch.bandcamp.com/ Lock picking https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/97409-most-locks-picked-in-one-minute ------ 👉 FREE Amazon Music for Artists courses & certification: https://learn.musically.com/courses/amazon-music-for-artists/ 👋 The Knowledge, Music Ally’s free weekly newsletter: musically.lnk.to/knowledgepo 🎉 You may be eligible for a FREE Music Ally subscription, worth £399/year, via our corporate and sponsored subscriptions. If you work for a DSP, a major label, an indie label, or if you’re an artist manager, an employee of a CMO or a publisher, check here to see if you’re eligible: musically.com/subscription-options Ⓜ️ Subscribe to Music Ally's industry-leading analysis, reporting and news: musically.com/subscribe Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/musicallybiz Twitter: https://twitter.com/musically Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/musicallyfb

Ep 125: In this episode Stationhead co-founders, Murray Levison and Ryan Star speak to Editor Joe Sparrow about the platform’s role as a gathering place for superfans, and what fans are seeking in a platform that mixes music, community and commerce. Superfans are well know for their all-encompassing support of an artist, and their desire to form a community to celebrate them. Stationhead started out as a kind of live radio platform that would allow users to play music and talk around the songs, and has changed its path a little to become even more oriented around fandoms. Now, fans gather around stations to geek out about an artist’s music and chat about. them – with some artists joining in on the broadcasts for things like release parties. Joe talked to Murray and Ryan – who is also a successful artist in his own right – about what fans want and what Stationhead is doing to give it to them. Stationhead:  https://www.stationhead.com Stationhead – Nicki Minaj fandom: https://www.stationhead.com/p/fandom/nicki-minaj-fans-stationhead Ryan Star: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKeFzpawPad05pLIP1NGFhA God Only Knows https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NADx3-qRxek Scratch Your Back: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8US2vvG4niA Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtXl8xAPAtA&list=PL3PhWT10BW3VDM5IcVodrdUpVIhU8f7Z- Drumsticks https://youtu.be/4lJMjBU8fBM ------ 👉 FREE Amazon Music for Artists courses & certification: https://learn.musically.com/courses/amazon-music-for-artists/ 👋 The Knowledge, Music Ally’s free weekly newsletter: musically.lnk.to/knowledgepo 🎉 You may be eligible for a FREE Music Ally subscription, worth £399/year, via our corporate and sponsored subscriptions. If you work for a DSP, a major label, an indie label, or if you’re an artist manager, an employee of a CMO or a publisher, check here to see if you’re eligible: musically.com/subscription-options Ⓜ️ Subscribe to Music Ally's industry-leading analysis, reporting and news: musically.com/subscribe Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/musicallybiz Twitter: https://twitter.com/musically Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/musicallyfb

Christine Barnum, CD Baby's Chief Revenue Officer, discusses the challenges of detecting streaming fraud. They explore the definition of fraud, techniques used by fraudsters, and the collaboration between distributors and rights holders. They also share personal experiences with impactful music.

Ep. 123: Music Ally’s Editor Joe Sparrow chats to Cat Henry, executive director of the US-based nonprofit philanthropic organisation Live Music Society. Cat talks about the society’s mission, which it describes as “to recognise and protect small venues and listening rooms across the United States so that live music can remain accessible to all.” Small venues can be one of the most enjoyable and valuable things that any local community possesses; a place where people can gather, enjoy music and grow their community. Small venues have been under the cosh in recent years: not only did the covid-19 lockdown punish them particularly hard, but a changing gigging environment, and large increases in costs has meant that, in 2023, running a small venue is hard work. Cat tells us about the state of the small venue community in the USA, the threats they and challenges they face, and why they are so important to the people who love them. Live Music Society https://www.livemusicsociety.org/ Cat Henry: https://www.livemusicsociety.org/news/live-music-society-announces-appointment-ofcat-henry-as-executive-director Toolbox grant https://www.livemusicsociety.org/toolboxgrant John Coltrane – A Love Supreme ⁠youtube.com/playlist?list=PLGUJd_6WZDWv_YGv6b4kd1IJbaH_Z7bGP⁠ Cobbler Most fruit cobbler eaten in 30 seconds ------ 👉 FREE Amazon Music for Artists courses & certification: https://learn.musically.com/courses/amazon-music-for-artists/ 👋 The Knowledge, Music Ally’s free weekly newsletter: musically.lnk.to/knowledgepo 🎉 You may be eligible for a FREE Music Ally subscription, worth £399/year, via our corporate and sponsored subscriptions. If you work for a DSP, a major label, an indie label, or if you’re an artist manager, an employee of a CMO or a publisher, check here to see if you’re eligible: musically.com/subscription-options Ⓜ️ Subscribe to Music Ally's industry-leading analysis, reporting and news: musically.com/subscribe Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/musicallybiz Twitter: https://twitter.com/musically Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/musicallyfb

Alex Mubert, founder of the Mubert AI generative music platform, discusses how generative AI music platforms will revolutionize music-making. He highlights the role of content creators in the mass adoption of generative music and its impact on streaming platform revenue. The podcast also explores payment for rights holders and monetization options on generative AI music platforms, as well as the future of generative music on streaming platforms. With personalized music generation and collaborations with major labels, the concept of music-making is being redefined.