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TIDAL lets US independent artists sell music directly and keep 90%. Is it a Bandcamp alternative?
TIDAL now lets independent artists in the US sell tracks and albums through TIDAL Upload, with payments run by Square and 90% of each sale going to the artist before processing fees and taxes. Uploads earn no streaming royalties, so for a DIY artist on TIDAL a sale is the main way to get paid. On fees alone it undercuts Bandcamp for newer sellers, but it is US-only, digital-only and has no fan community yet.
4 Jun 2026Industryvia Block
Sweden's STIM makes AI licensing opt-in, one work at a time
STIM's members have voted to create a separate AI rights category, in force from 1 Jun 2026. No work goes into an AI licence unless its creator switches it on, work by work; everything else stays monitored but excluded. It is the most consent-heavy model we have seen a collecting society adopt, and its weak spot is scale, not principle.
31 May 2026AIvia STIM
Udio's Starstruck: a licensed walled garden where fans make music as your favourite artist
Udio's licensed app Starstruck will let fans cover, reimagine, remix or write new songs, but only as a named, opted-in artist, with royalties paid on every creation and nothing allowed to leave the app. It is AI as fan merchandise rather than an artist's tool, and the opt-in usually runs through the label or publisher, not the artist.
22 May 2026AIvia Universal Music Group
UMG and TikTok renew their deal and promise to remove "unauthorised" AI music, without saying what that means
Universal Music Group and TikTok signed a new multi-year licence on 22 May 2026 that keeps UMG's catalogue on the app and repeats a pledge to remove "unauthorized AI-generated music". Neither company has said what "unauthorised" means, how tracks are detected or how an artist can appeal, and that gap falls hardest on independent artists who use AI tools legitimately.
22 May 2026Industryvia TikTok Newsroom
Stable Audio 3.0: open-weight music models you can run on your own machine, trained on stock and Creative Commons audio
Stability AI's Stable Audio 3.0 family puts music models that make up to 6:20 of audio onto ordinary laptops, with open weights for Small and Medium. The "fully licensed" training set is stock library and Creative Commons audio, not label catalogue, and the free licence ends at $1M in annual revenue.
20 May 2026AIvia Stability AI

TIDAL lets US independent artists sell music directly and keep 90%. Is it a Bandcamp alternative?

Sweden's STIM makes AI licensing opt-in, one work at a time

Udio's Starstruck: a licensed walled garden where fans make music as your favourite artist

UMG and TikTok renew their deal and promise to remove "unauthorised" AI music, without saying what that means

Stable Audio 3.0: open-weight music models you can run on your own machine, trained on stock and Creative Commons audio

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