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Canada backs off making Spotify pay for Canadian music, and the money has stopped
Ottawa has told the Federal Court of Appeal it plans to scrap the rule that large foreign streamers pay 5% of their Canadian revenue into Canadian content funds, and replace it with government money. The 31 August payment date came and went with no new transfers. For music, that means FACTOR, Musicaction and the funds behind early-career artists swap a levy that grew with streaming for a budget line that can be cut.
2 Sept 2026Industryvia Department of Justice Canada (via Cartt.ca)
The DOJ says AI training is fair use. Music's best arguments were never about training
The US Justice Department has told the court in the New York Times' case against OpenAI that training AI models on copyrighted text is fair use, and it goes out of its way to reject the "market dilution" theory the music industry leans on. It leaves outputs, data sourcing and identity open, and that is where artists' claims are strongest.
2 Sept 2026Artist rightsvia US Department of Justice (copy hosted by MusicTechPolicy)
Moises Studio goes browser-native: a collaborative AI workspace with an agent built in
Moises has turned its stem-separation app into a browser workspace with multitrack recording, MIDI, generated parts, private voice models and an agent, and is plugging the same tools into Fender Studio Pro, UA LUNA and SoundCloud. The training promise is unusually firm; the terms on outputs and storage deserve a closer read.
2 Sept 2026Releasesvia Moises Newsroom
Spotify Discovery Mode explained: 30% of royalties for a better shot at the algorithm. Is it payola?
Discovery Mode lets you flag songs for Spotify Radio, Autoplay and some Mixes, and Spotify keeps 30% of the recording royalties from streams there. Here is the maths on when that pays, and why a listener lawsuit calling it payola went to private arbitration instead.
2 Sept 2026Industryvia Spotify for Artists Support
Indian artists' Spotify royalties grew 29% in 2025, and the growth is regional
Spotify's India Loud & Clear report says royalties generated by Indian artists rose 29% in 2025, led by Telugu (up more than 120%), with over 40% of that money coming from listeners abroad. At home, only about 14.4 million of India's 178 million audio streamers pay, so how much of the growth reaches regional independents depends on their deals and their publishing paperwork.
2 Sept 2026Industryvia Spotify Newsroom

Canada backs off making Spotify pay for Canadian music, and the money has stopped

The DOJ says AI training is fair use. Music's best arguments were never about training

Moises Studio goes browser-native: a collaborative AI workspace with an agent built in

Spotify Discovery Mode explained: 30% of royalties for a better shot at the algorithm. Is it payola?

Indian artists' Spotify royalties grew 29% in 2025, and the growth is regional

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