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☆ Taylor Swift seems to reference Matty Healy throughout her new album. Here's a complete timeline of their relationship.
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-05 | by ( Callie Ahlgrim | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +22 min

At the concert, Swift was photographed dancing with her friends on the balcony, getting especially cozy with Kloss. February 25, 2015: Swift and Healy hang out at the Universal Music Brits party in LondonNick Grimshaw, Taylor Swift, and Matt Healy at the Universal Music Brits party. "It's not really anything to talk about, because if she wasn't Taylor Swift we wouldn't be talking about her. AdvertisementHe continued: "If I had gone out with Taylor Swift I would've been, 'Fucking hell! Taylor Swift performs at the 2016 Grammys; Matty Healy performs at the 2016 Apple Music Festival.

Persons: —, Taylor Swift, Matty Healy, Swift's, Healy, Milwaukee Healy, Swift, Los Angeles Swift, Selena Gomez, Gomez, Ellie Goulding, — Taylor, Harry Styles, merch, Angus O'Loughlin, hasn't, Stone, I've, she's, Martha Hunt, Lily Aldridge, Karlie, Haim, Hunt, Aldridge, Instagram, concertgoers, it's, Taylor, Jared, Swift Healy, Australia's, London Nick Grimshaw, Matt Healy, David M, Bacardi Swift, Kloss, Goulding, Nick Grimshaw, Mick Jagger, Halsey, It's, wasn't Taylor Swift, Robyn Beck, Dave J Hogan, Elle, Lana Del Rey, Jack Antonoff, Jack, Ally, Phoebe Bridgers, Paul Mescal, Bo Burnham, Bridgers, Burnham Organizations: Service, Poets Department, Business, Swift, Eagles, Us, MTV, Universal Music Brits, Soho House, Bacardi, Q, NME, KROQ, Klein, Poets Society Locations: Milwaukee, Los Angeles, New York City, Australia, London, Soho

☆ How music lawyers are crafting a new playbook to protect artists from AI imitators
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-30 | by ( Dan Whateley | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Copyright and right of publicity laws are top of mind for entertainment attorneys as AI songs surge. Here are four key takeaways from a recent panel on AI music hosted by the law firm Manatt. But the precise manner that AI-generated music, trained on a human artist's body of work, could violate copyright laws is still being defined. Streaming platforms like Spotify and YouTube will play a big role in AI's futureThe sheer volume of AI songs spit out onto streaming platforms could create detection challenges for rights holders. Music platforms like Spotify and YouTube could set limits on how much AI music spreads, the attorneys said.

CNN —The songs of Queen are known the world over, and the band’s body of work might soon sell for a staggering sum. A source familiar with the music acquisition tells CNN that discussions are “well underway” for Universal Music Group to acquire Queen’s catalog from Disney Music Group. The source added that the sale could surpass $1 billion and that the deal is “expected to close within one month.”CNN has reached out to Universal Music Group and Disney Music Group for comment, as well as a representative for the band. That sum remains arguably the highest amount a music catalog has sold for, but if the Queen sale goes through, a new record will be set. The billion dollar total for Queen’s music is surely that high thanks in part to the 2018 Oscar-winning film “Bohemian Rhapsody,” which told the story of the band’s inception with a focus on late frontman Freddie Mercury, thereby inspiring a resurgence in popularity of the band’s music.

☆ How artificial intelligence could threaten major industries and business models
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-26 | by ( Samantha Subin | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +11 min

Meanwhile, limits on applicable copyright rules make it simpler to train AI tools. Nevertheless, accuracy issues with AI tools, Redburn said, could boost the use case for Pearson. Copyright issues are another major obstacle for music companies. Some potential copyright violations include replicating an artist's likeness or voice, and that could weaken the catalog value for many music companies, analysts said. Similarly, Deutsche Bank analyst Matthew Niknam highlighted in a recent note AI presents more opportunities than risks and offers "underappreciated upside tailwinds" for Five9.

Persons: GOOGL, Goldman Sachs, Dan Rosensweig, Chegg, Brad Erickson, Hayden Brown, Brown, BTIG, Chegg's, Pearson, Redburn, Morgan Stanley, Brent Thill, Thill, Douglas Mitchelson, Rosenblatt, Barton Crockett, Morgan Stanley's Omar Sheikh, Ygal, Nat Schindler, Wix, Jefferies, Oppenheimer, Timothy Horan, Matthew Niknam, Meta Marshall, Marshall, Michael Bloom Organizations: Wall Street, Microsoft, Nvidia, Goldman, Chegg, Companies, Freelance, Upwork, RBC Capital, Pearson, Bank of America, UBS, Jefferies, Industry Music, Spotify, Credit, Warner, Warner Music Group, Universal Music Group, Citi, NICE, Deutsche Bank Locations: Nice

☆ Sting: AI songs are 'going to be a battle we all have to fight'
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-18 | by ( Amarachi Orie | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

“That’s going to be a battle we all have to fight in the next couple of years: Defending our human capital against AI,” he added. Contentious debate over AI songs has arisen in the music industry over the last few months, with several high-profile figures being affected by the growth in the technology’s popularity. I imagine I will feel the same way about AI making music,” said Sting. But for songs, you know, expressing emotions, I don’t think I will be moved by it,” he added. Universal Music Group, which represents Sting, likened AI music to “fraud” in an urgent letter sent to music streaming platforms, such as Spotify and Apple Music, in April.

☆ How A.I. could disrupt the music industry
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( Samantha Subin | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

But for many sectors — including the music industry — AI could fundamentally shatter the way some companies operate, and implode some lucrative revenue sources underpinning their dominance. "If AI is able to create the next hit song, then you've broken that model and that's an existential challenge for music labels, and for pop stars." In a recent note to clients, Morgan Stanley's Omar Sheikh noted that labels could charge for AI tools to use their creative material, or harness generative AI capabilities to craft music that resonates with or better targets certain audiences. The company's already begun experimenting with AI technology, recently debuting a DJ tool that personalizes and plays curated music. AI tools would allow music distribution platforms to cut costs and take advantage of cheaper and independent music generated by AI, said Credit Suisse's Douglas Mitchelson in a recent note.

☆ TikTok is quietly moving in on record labels' territory and insiders say its ambitions could end up 'pissing off' music partners
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( Dan Whateley | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

Its music ambitions could ruffle feathers at record labels and publishers — unless it pays out. TikTok's app regularly sparks trends that help songs go viral, making it a favorite of marketers at major labels and independents. TikTok works closely with record labels and artists on promotional efforts like livestreamed concerts, in-person performances, and private listening parties with TikTok stars. Spotify has maintained a tenuous relationship with the labels over the years as it's sought to balance profit margins while splitting revenue with artists, labels, and publishers. Still, even as record labels and publishers push TikTok to pay more to music rights holders, they're investing more in the app.

☆ Spotify takes down thousands of AI-generated songs after suspected bot use to inflate streams, report says
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Pete Syme | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Tens of thousands of its songs were taken down by Spotify, the Financial Times reported. Universal Music warned streaming services that the number of streams had been boosted by bots. Spotify has taken down tens of thousands of songs which were generated by the AI startup Boomy, the Financial Times reported. In a statement sent to Insider, Spotify said: "Artificial streaming is a longstanding, industry-wide issue that Spotify is working to stamp out across our service." The FT also previously reported that Universal told streaming platforms to block AI services from training themselves on its songs.

☆ The creator of a viral AI-generated Drake song says it's scary how easy it was to make the music sound real
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( Beatrice Nolan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A student behind some popular AI-generated music says it was easy to make the songs sound real. A student behind some of the popular AI-generated music on TikTok discussed how easy it was to make the songs sound real. Chavez has been going viral on TikTok for his AI-generated music over the last few months. Chavez runs acapella versions of songs through AI models that are trained to sound like famous musicians, The Verge reported. Another viral AI-generated song, "Heart on My Sleeve," which mimicked Drake and The Weeknd, went viral last month.

☆ European shares edge lower as banking jitters resurface
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

April 27 (Reuters) - European shares edged lower on Thursday, despite a raft of positive corporate earnings, as troubles at U.S. lender First Republic Bank continued to rattle investors over the global banking sector. The pan-European STOXX 600 index (.STOXX) was down 0.1% by 0720 GMT. The index was dragged lower by media shares (.SXMP), which dropped 1.6%, while Universal Music Group (UMG.AS) fell 4% after it posted a slump in its first-quarter core profit. Worries over the banking sector unnerved investors as shares of First Republic Bank (FRC.N) sank almost 30% on Wednesday, hitting a record low for the second consecutive day. Still, banking shares (.SX7P) rose 0.4%, led by Barclays Plc (BARC.L) that climbed 2.4% on an estimate-beating quarterly profit, as a resilient performance from its consumer bank offset pressure on key other business lines.

☆ Universal Music reiterates AI concerns as quarterly profit slumps
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

April 26 (Reuters) - Universal Music Group (UMG.AS), the label representing Drake and Taylor Swift, on Wednesday posted a slump in first-quarter core profit due to compensation expenses, and reiterated concerns over AI-made music. Core profit, or earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA), slumped 43.4% in constant currency to 261 million euros ($288.04 million), due to non-cash, share-based compensation expenses, part of an equity compensation plan announced last year. Excluding these expenses, adjusted EBITDA was 522 million euros, up 13.0% on the same basis, and beating a consensus cited by Credit Suisse which had expected 513 million euros. UMG's CEO, Lucian Grainge, has come under shareholder pressure over an "excessive" $100 million pay deal, The Financial Times reported on Wednesday. Labels now face challenges like slowing global revenue growth in recorded music, particularly in established markets like the U.S, while the emergence of AI-generated music adds to their concerns, as many laws do not currently deem the replication of artists' voices as strictly illegal.

☆ Universal Music profit slumps due to compensation expenses
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

April 26 (Reuters) - Universal Music Group (UMG.AS), the label representing Drake and Taylor Swift, on Wednesday posted a significant drop in core profit due to compensation expenses, even as sales edged up in the first quarter. Core profit (EBITDA) for the first quarter fell 43.4% at constant currency to 261 million euros ($288.07 million), with the metric's margin also dropping to 10.6% from 20.6% in the same quarter a year earlier. The drop was due to non-cash, share-based compensation expenses of 261 million euros during the quarter, part of a global equity compensation plan announced in the fourth quarter of last year, UMG said. UMG's CEO Lucian Grainge has come under shareholder pressure over an "excessive" $100 million pay deal, The Financial Times reported on Wednesday. The group nonetheless posted higher first quarter sales, helped by growth in recorded music and music publishing.

☆ Spotify's CEO says the music industry has 'legitimate concerns' about AI-generated songs
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Jyoti Mann | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Spotify CEO Daniel Ek said concerns from labels and music companies about AI are "legitimate." His comments come after AI-generated songs that sound like popular artists went viral this month. The music industry has "legitimate concerns" about songs generated by AI, the CEO of Spotify said. Daniel Ek addressed the industry's growing unease about AI music in Spotify's first quarter earnings call Tuesday and said it's working with partners to come up with solutions. Grimes, the former partner of Elon Musk and mother to two of his children, tweeted Monday that she'd share half the royalties from any AI-generated song using her voice.

☆ Morning Bid: Cloud control - tech trumps banks
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Alphabet (GOOGL.O) also gained 1% as it too trumpeted gains in cloud services and AI, alongside plans for a $70 billion buyback. With Meta (META.O) results out later, its stock was up 2% and Amazon (AMZN.O) raced ahead 4%. PacWest Bancorp's (PACW.O) shares jumped 15% in extended trading after the regional lender said deposits have been building recently. And in Europe, Standard Chartered (STAN.L) shares bucked otherwise dour markets on a forecast-beating 21% jump in first-quarter profits. U.S. Treasury markets continued to rally, with yields on 2-year notes dropping below 4% Tuesday and testing 3.9% early today.

☆ People think AI is to blame for the mysterious case of the Spotify song with 49 different names
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-22 | by ( Will Gendron | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

One Spotify user was recommended the same song under 49 different names and suspects AI is behind it. Turns out, AI-generated songs are taking over conversation in the music industry. Spotify user Adam Faze took to Twitter to try to find out. except every time I looked, it was a different song name and artist entirely." He decided to add each of these recommended tracks to a playlist, which now includes 49 "different" songs.

☆ How TikTok is trying to become the music industry's everything app, even if it risks 'pissing off' record labels
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Dan Whateley | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

☆ The viral new ‘Drake’ and ‘Weeknd’ song is not what it seems
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( Samantha Murphy Kelly | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

CNN —One of the buzziest songs recently circulating on TikTok and climbing the Spotify charts featured the familiar voices of best-selling artists Drake and the Weeknd. But there’s a twist: Drake and the Weeknd appear to have had nothing to do with it. The viral track, “Heart on my Sleeve,” comes from an anonymous TikTok user named Ghostwriter977, who claims to have used artificial intelligence to generate the voices of Drake and the Weeknd for the track. The original TikTok video has seemingly been taken down, and the song has since been removed from streaming services including YouTube, Apple Music and Spotify. Taryn Southern’s debut song “Break Free,” which was composed and produced with AI, hit the Top 100 radio charts back in 2018, and VAVA, an AI music artist (i.e.

☆ Elon Musk threatens to sue Microsoft over using Twitter data for its A.I.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( Kif Leswing | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Twitter CEO Elon Musk threatened to sue Microsoft on Wednesday, accusing the software giant of illegally using the social media company's data to train its artificial intelligence model. "They trained illegally using Twitter data," Musk tweeted. Microsoft develops its own so-called large language models (LLMs) and sells access to OpenAI's models. Training data from social networks is valuable because it captures informal, back-and-forth conversations. As these new AI models move from research labs and universities into the corporate world, the owners of the data are starting to make demands.

☆ Universal Music Group calls AI music a ‘fraud,’ wants it banned from streaming platforms. Experts say it’s not that easy
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-18 | by ( Vanessa Yurkevich | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

New York CNN —Universal Music Group — the music company representing superstars including Sting, The Weeknd, Nicki Minaj and Ariana Grande — has a new Goliath to contend with: artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligence, and specifically AI music, learns by either training on existing works on the internet or through a library of music given to the AI by humans. That could possibly threaten UMG’s deep library of music and artists that generate billions of dollars in revenue. “However, the training of generative AI using our artists’ music … begs the question as to which side of history all stakeholders in the music ecosystem want to be on.”The company said AI that uses artists’ music violates UMG’s agreements and copyright law. Grammy-winning DJ and producer David Guetta proved in February just how easy it is to create new music using AI.

PARIS, April 18 (Reuters) - French shipping group CMA CGM (CMACG.UL) is offering 5 billion euros ($5.48 billion) for the logistics unit of Bollore, the family-run conglomerate said on Tuesday. For Bollore a deal would mean cutting ties with its biggest business while offering cash-rich CMA CGM a chance to bolster its bid to offer end-to-end transportation services and supply chain management. Bollore said in a statement that it had agreed to enter into exclusive talks with CMA CGM until May 8. CMA CGM, privately controlled by the founding Saade family, has seen its earnings surge in the past two years on high freight rates and saturated supply chains. Bollore, run by the family of billionaire Vincent Bollore, sold its Bollore Africa Logistics business last year to shipping company MSC Group for 5.7 billion euros.

April 17 (Reuters) - Grunge music pioneers Soundgarden and Vicky Cornell, the widow of lead singer Chris Cornell, have settled a legal dispute over the late singer's unreleased recordings, according to a joint post from their Instagram accounts on Monday. They said the "amicable" settlement marked a new partnership between Soundgarden and Cornell's estate that will allow fans to "hear the final songs that the band and Chris were working on." She claimed the band members withheld the estate's share of royalties to "strong arm" her into giving them unreleased recordings Chris Cornell made before his death in 2017. Her lawsuit argued that Cornell recorded the songs separately from the band and that he was their sole owner. The band countersued her for refusing to turn over the recordings, which it said were meant for a Soundgarden album for UMG.

☆ The CEO of the world's biggest record company just got a new contract with stock options worth as much as $100 million
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-01 | by ( Ryan Hogg | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Universal Music's CEO could receive stock options worth up to $100 million under a new contract. He took a annual pay cut to $5 million in the new contract that runs to 2028. Half of the $100 million equity option will be paid out in installments if the share price hits the targets of 26.50 euros, 30 euros, and 38 euros. The stock closed Friday at 23.30 euros in Amsterdam, valuing the company at just over 42 billion euros ($45 billion). Apple CEO Tim Cook collected almost $100 million last year alone, making about $83 million in stock awards, $12 million in incentives and salary of $3 million, CNBC reported.

☆ YouTube creators testing its new song-licensing feature are feeling sticker shock from prices as high as $18,000
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( Dan Whateley | Amanda Perelli | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Some Creator Music licenses have a set price, while others have custom pricing based on a channel's size. Prices for a song license in Creator Music can vary widely based on a creator's subscriber count. Music rights holders regularly crack down on brands that use songs in social-media posts without paying for a license. YouTube has gradually introduced features over the past decade-and-a-half to compensate music rights' holders on its platform. The company is also setting aside revenue for music rights holders as it introduces revenue-sharing on Shorts this month.

☆ YouTube creators testing its new song-licensing feature are feeling sticker shock from prices as high as $1,000
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( Dan Whateley | Amanda Perelli | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Some Creator Music licenses have a set price, while others have custom pricing based on a channel's size. Prices for a song license in Creator Music can vary widely based on a creator's subscriber count. YouTube has gradually introduced features over the past decade-and-a-half to compensate music rights' holders on its platform. In 2015, it built a standalone music-streaming service called YouTube Music. The company is also setting aside revenue for music rights holders as it introduces revenue-sharing on Shorts this month.

☆ Ackman's Pershing Square reaps $2.7 bln from rate trade but down 9% in 2022 -letter
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-10 | by ( Nell Mackenzie | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

U.S. stock indexes had a dismal 2022 with the S&P 500 slumping almost 20%, as the Federal Reserve battled soaring inflation with aggressive interest rate hikes that roiled markets. The assets minus the liabilities in Ackman's fund trade at a discount to its share price. "This possibility is also something that we do not feel is currently reflected in PSH's share price," it said. The interest rate hedges were initiated in late 2020 and early 2021. In 2022 the fund entered new positions in long-term interest rates, currencies and energy it said.

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