https://wearethemusicmakers.co/latest Music tech and AI in music: the news that matters, what we think about it, and a directory of the tools. en-us Mon, 26 Oct 2026 04:30:00 GMT https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/10/suno-shared-workspaces-custom-models-studio-updates https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/10/suno-shared-workspaces-custom-models-studio-updates Suno now lets teams share song libraries in Workspaces and lets Premier users share custom models trained on their own uploads, a week after Studio got tighter timing, clip stretching and fade curves. The tools point towards a collaborative studio. Suno's terms say nothing about who owns a shared model or the songs made with it. Mon, 26 Oct 2026 04:30:00 GMT We are the music makers aiai-musicsunocollaborationdaw https://wearethemusicmakers.co/learn/ai-sample-packs-licence-check https://wearethemusicmakers.co/learn/ai-sample-packs-licence-check AI-made one-shots, loops and whole packs are now everywhere, and the licence questions are different from a normal sample pack. This guide gives a five-step check for any AI-generated sound you plan to release with: who made it, what plan it came from, what the pack licence says, whether anyone can own it at all, and what your distributor and Content ID will do with it. Sources checked on 25 Oct 2026. Sun, 25 Oct 2026 05:30:00 GMT We are the music makers sampleslicensingaiworkflows https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/10/youtube-music-ai-labels-fully-partly-no-gen-ai https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/10/youtube-music-ai-labels-fully-partly-no-gen-ai YouTube Music began labelling AI-generated songs on its player on 14 Oct 2026, and the labels are coming to the main YouTube app. Partners declare Fully, Partly or No Gen AI, and YouTube's own detection fills the gaps. Here is how to declare, where the lines fall, and how it compares with Spotify's AI Credits. Sun, 25 Oct 2026 04:30:00 GMT We are the music makers aiai-musicyoutube-musicmetadatastreaming https://wearethemusicmakers.co/learn/content-credentials-c2pa-for-audio https://wearethemusicmakers.co/learn/content-credentials-c2pa-for-audio Content Credentials are signed provenance records, built on the open C2PA standard, that can travel inside WAV, MP3, FLAC and M4A files. Here is what a credential actually records, how to check one, which tools read them today, and the limits every artist should understand before relying on one. Sat, 24 Oct 2026 06:30:00 GMT We are the music makers provenanceaimetadataartist-rights https://wearethemusicmakers.co/learn/opt-out-of-ai-training https://wearethemusicmakers.co/learn/opt-out-of-ai-training EU law lets you reserve your music from commercial text and data mining, but only if you say so in a way a machine can read. Here is what the law says, what robots.txt, TDMRep and written notices each do, where they fall short, and the order we would set them up in. Sat, 24 Oct 2026 06:30:00 GMT We are the music makers aiai-trainingopt-outcopyrightartist-rights https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/10/spotify-one-year-ai-credits-verified-what-to-switch-on https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/10/spotify-one-year-ai-credits-verified-what-to-switch-on Spotify's one-year AI update says no single signal decides what counts as slop, so the signals you control matter more. Here is what to switch on, what you can't apply for, and what each tool doesn't do. Sat, 24 Oct 2026 04:30:00 GMT We are the music makers aiai-musicspotifystreamingworkflows https://wearethemusicmakers.co/learn/midi-generators-in-your-daw https://wearethemusicmakers.co/learn/midi-generators-in-your-daw Ableton Live 12, FL Studio and Logic Pro all generate MIDI you can edit note by note, but none of the three turns a plain-language prompt into a melody. The closest thing to text-to-MIDI is FL Studio's Gopher, which writes Piano Roll scripts on request. For artists, MIDI beats rendered audio because every note stays yours to change. Fri, 23 Oct 2026 06:30:00 GMT We are the music makers midiaiableton-livefl-studiologic-proworkflow https://wearethemusicmakers.co/best/best-ai-mastering-services https://wearethemusicmakers.co/best/best-ai-mastering-services A desk review of four AI mastering options from what their makers publish, with no scores yet. Prices and features are easy to compare. The real differences are in the terms, from eMastered's clause letting it train on uploads, to LANDR's opt-in training programme, to Ozone, which runs in your DAW and needs no upload at all. Fri, 23 Oct 2026 06:30:00 GMT We are the music makers masteringaibuyers-guiderights https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/10/suno-admits-kept-training-recordings-v6-user-creations https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/10/suno-admits-kept-training-recordings-v6-user-creations In its answer to Universal and Sony's second lawsuit, Suno admits it has not deleted all the recordings it trained on, and repeats that v6 learned from "creations and preference signals" from its community. That makes Suno's own users part of the training pipeline the labels call laundering, under a licence they can't take back. Fri, 23 Oct 2026 05:30:00 GMT We are the music makers aiai-musicsunocopyrighttraining-data https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/10/concord-v-anthropic-fair-use-hearing-lyrics https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/10/concord-v-anthropic-fair-use-hearing-lyrics Music publishers and Anthropic argued cross-motions for summary judgment over Claude and song lyrics on 21 Oct 2026, with no ruling yet. The publishers are testing "market dilution", the theory that AI-written lyrics compete with human songwriters, which one 2025 ruling dismissed and another said could win. Thu, 22 Oct 2026 03:30:00 GMT We are the music makers aicopyrightlawsuitssongwritersartist-rights https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/10/elevenlabs-instant-soundtracks-sync-library-squeeze https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/10/elevenlabs-instant-soundtracks-sync-library-squeeze ElevenLabs now generates an original score plus timed sound effects for an uploaded video, on separate editable layers and through an API. Its own licence keeps film, TV, radio and studio games for top-tier enterprise customers, so the first squeeze lands on the online, short-form work that pays many library composers. Wed, 21 Oct 2026 04:30:00 GMT We are the music makers aiai-musicelevenlabssyncproduction-music https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/10/spotify-ai-remix-tool-artist-consent https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/10/spotify-ai-remix-tool-artist-consent Believe and TuneCore became the fourth licensor of Spotify's planned AI covers and remixes add-on on 20 Oct 2026, and the first to describe an artist-level, two-step opt-in. The earlier UMG and Kobalt announcements talk about "participating" artists without saying who makes that choice, and Merlin says artists get a choice without describing how. Price, revenue split and launch date are still undisclosed. Tue, 20 Oct 2026 06:30:00 GMT We are the music makers aiai-musicspotifylicensingconsent https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/10/mixroom-seed-korea-ai-co-producer-daw https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/10/mixroom-seed-korea-ai-co-producer-daw Seoul startup MixRoom has seed money from impact investor MYSC for a DAW whose AI edits, mixes and masters what you recorded, on your instructions. The pitch is "assistant, not generator". The open question is the next step, training its own mixing models on producers' decisions, which its current privacy policy and terms don't mention. Mon, 19 Oct 2026 04:30:00 GMT We are the music makers music-techaifundingdawprivacykorea https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/10/copyright-office-ai-training-report-still-pre-publication https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/10/copyright-office-ai-training-report-still-pre-publication The US Copyright Office's report on generative AI training, released as a "pre-publication version" on 9 May 2025, has never been finalised. Its view that some training is fair use and some isn't, and that market dilution is real harm, is the closest thing music has to an official US position. Litigants cite it, the Justice Department attacks it, and the two big 2025 rulings didn't cite it at all. Fri, 16 Oct 2026 04:30:00 GMT We are the music makers ailegalcopyrightfair-usetraining-dataartist-rights https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/10/brazil-ai-bill-pl-2338-training-opt-out-remuneration-stalled https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/10/brazil-ai-bill-pl-2338-training-opt-out-remuneration-stalled Brazil's Senate passed PL 2338/2023 in December 2024 with a copyright chapter that lets rightsholders forbid AI training on their work and requires AI developers to pay for what they use. The Chamber of Deputies' special committee has held no meetings in 2026, and the rapporteur now expects a vote only after the October elections. Thu, 15 Oct 2026 05:30:00 GMT We are the music makers artist-rightsaibrazilcopyrightai-trainingregulation https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/10/heart-on-my-sleeve-ghostwriter-three-years-on https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/10/heart-on-my-sleeve-ghostwriter-three-years-on In April 2023 an anonymous producer called Ghostwriter put out a song with AI voices made to sound like Drake and the Weeknd, and it was gone from the streaming services within days; on YouTube, Universal's claim reportedly rested on a producer tag rather than on the voices. Since then labels have sued AI companies and then licensed them, and platforms have written voice-clone rules. The idea Ghostwriter pitched, licensed voices with a revenue split, is now the business model. It's just not his. Wed, 14 Oct 2026 06:30:00 GMT We are the music makers aiartist-rightsai-music https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/10/ai-music-licence-anatomy-udio-suno-settlements https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/10/ai-music-licence-anatomy-udio-suno-settlements Universal and Warner settled with Udio, and Warner with Suno, on a shared template: retrain on licensed music, let artists opt in their voice and likeness, and control what leaves the platform. The public terms don't say what any of it costs, how revenue is split, or how money reaches an individual artist. Wed, 14 Oct 2026 05:30:00 GMT We are the music makers aiai-musicsunoudiolicensingartist-rights https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/10/platforms-label-ai-music-differently https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/10/platforms-label-ai-music-differently YouTube Music started labelling AI-generated songs on 14 Oct 2026, using what partners declare plus its own detection. Apple Music, Spotify, TIDAL, Deezer and the RIAA/IFPI scheme each draw the line in a different place, so an artist who uses AI for one stem now has to describe it five ways or let a detector decide. Wed, 14 Oct 2026 05:30:00 GMT We are the music makers aiai-musicstreamingmetadatayoutube-music https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/10/deezer-ai-toggle-fraud-problem https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/10/deezer-ai-toggle-fraud-problem Deezer will let listeners hide fully AI-generated music from search before the end of 2026. Its own figures matter more than the toggle. Deezer receives nearly 90,000 fully AI tracks a day, yet they draw only 1-3% of streams, and up to 85% of those streams in 2025 were fraudulent. For human artists, the fix that counts is in the payout system, not the search bar. Tue, 13 Oct 2026 05:30:00 GMT We are the music makers aideezerstreamingstreaming-fraudai-music https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/10/holly-herndon-holly-plus-governed-voice-consent-tools https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/10/holly-herndon-holly-plus-governed-voice-consent-tools In July 2021 Holly Herndon released Holly+, a voice instrument trained on her isolated vocals, with a plan for token holders to approve official uses and share the money. A year later she and Mat Dryhurst co-founded Spawning, whose "Have I Been Trained?" opt-out became one of the most widely used opt-out tools in AI. The first idea asked permission up front; the second asked artists to object. Five years on, the first is still the better template. Sat, 10 Oct 2026 04:30:00 GMT We are the music makers aiartist-rightsvoiceholly-herndonspawning https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/10/music-teachers-ai-lesson-prep-surveys https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/10/music-teachers-ai-lesson-prep-surveys Three 2026 studies, from Indiana, Australia and Italy, and China, find music teachers using AI mostly behind the desk for planning and paperwork, and drawing a firm line at artistry, authorship and assessment. Here is what they found, what worries teachers, and what good practice looks like. Sat, 10 Oct 2026 04:30:00 GMT We are the music makers aieducationmusic-teachersresearch https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/09/how-much-music-is-ai-qobuz-siqa-numbers https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/09/how-much-music-is-ai-qobuz-siqa-numbers Qobuz says only 0.38% of its streams come from AI-identified tracks, and it treats 60% of those streams as fraud. A self-selected sample of AI creators charted by SIQA points the other way, towards hybrid human-plus-AI work. Supply is huge, real listening is small, and policy written for "fully AI slop" misses most of the people actually using these tools. Thu, 24 Sep 2026 06:30:00 GMT We are the music makers aiai-musicqobuzstreaming-frauddata https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/09/ai-music-detectors-not-proof-artifactbench-benchmark https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/09/ai-music-detectors-not-proof-artifactbench-benchmark Intrect tested eight public AI music detectors on the same 2,104 files. The public Deezer research model flagged 13% of real tracks and caught 64.6% of AI ones, and two detectors flagged more than two-thirds of real music as AI. Vendors advertise 99%. Here is how to read the gap, and what to do if a score lands on your release. Mon, 14 Sep 2026 04:30:00 GMT We are the music makers aiai-musicai-detectiondeezerbenchmarks https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/09/umg-elevenlabs-deal-elevenmusic-v25 https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/09/umg-elevenlabs-deal-elevenmusic-v25 Universal Music Group signed its first deal with ElevenLabs on 10 Sep 2026, for a fan remix platform that will include "personalized vocal experiences". A day later ElevenMusic shipped v2.5 with downloads and new terms. Those terms show what voice consent could look like on the UMG product, and where it falls short. Fri, 11 Sep 2026 03:30:00 GMT We are the music makers aiai-musicelevenlabsuniversal-music-groupvoice-rights https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/09/ai-training-fair-use-bartz-kadrey-music https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/09/ai-training-fair-use-bartz-kadrey-music Two US judges ruled in June 2025 that training language models on books was fair use, but only on the records in front of them, and one said plainly that most such copying will likely be illegal. Music cases turn on market harm, and that is where songwriters and labels have a stronger hand than the authors did. Wed, 09 Sep 2026 04:30:00 GMT We are the music makers aifair-usecopyrightai-musiclawsuits https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/09/can-you-copyright-ai-song-us-copyright-office-rules https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/09/can-you-copyright-ai-song-us-copyright-office-rules In the US, a prompt on its own does not make you the author of what an AI generates. Lyrics, melodies, performances, edits and creative arrangement you made yourself can still be registered, as long as you claim your part and disclose the AI part on the form. Tue, 08 Sep 2026 04:30:00 GMT We are the music makers aiai-musiccopyrightregistrationartist-rights https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/08/who-gets-to-chart-ifpi-luminate-billboard-ai https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/08/who-gets-to-chart-ifpi-luminate-billboard-ai IFPI's principles keep AI-made recordings off official charts unless they are substantially human made and built on licensed tools. Luminate, which supplies Billboard's chart data, will tag fully AI tracks rather than block them, and Billboard has promised to identify AI songs without publishing an eligibility rule. Wed, 26 Aug 2026 04:30:00 GMT We are the music makers aichartsifpiluminatebillboardartist-rights https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/08/do-not-train-registries-opt-outs-musicians https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/08/do-not-train-registries-opt-outs-musicians EU law lets you reserve your music from commercial AI training, and German courts have now said what a valid reservation looks like. Opt-outs are worth setting up, but treat them as evidence for later rather than a lock. Here is a realistic setup, from robots.txt to your collecting society, and where it stops working. Sat, 22 Aug 2026 04:30:00 GMT We are the music makers aiartist-rightscopyrightai-trainingopt-out https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/08/gdpr-access-request-artists-dpdp-act-india https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/08/gdpr-access-request-artists-dpdp-act-india Article 15 of the GDPR lets you ask any platform what personal data it holds about you, why, and who it went to. Here is a template request, what Spotify, SoundCloud and two distributors say they will give you, and why India's own access right is not in force until mid-2027. Thu, 20 Aug 2026 04:30:00 GMT We are the music makers artist-rightsprivacygdprdpdp-actaispotifysoundclouddistribution https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/08/youtube-content-id-independent-artists-explainer https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/08/youtube-content-id-independent-artists-explainer Most independent artists can only reach YouTube's Content ID through a distributor, and the eligibility rules exclude far more music than people expect. Here is how claims, disputes and held revenue work, the false-claim traps around samples and public-domain material, and why AI soundalikes are still a gap in the system. Wed, 19 Aug 2026 05:30:00 GMT We are the music makers workflowsyoutubecontent-idaicopyright https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/08/ai-mastering-honestly-landr-ozone-engineer https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/08/ai-mastering-honestly-landr-ozone-engineer LANDR and Ozone's Master Assistant both learn from finished records and push your mix toward a reference and a loudness target. That makes them fast and cheap at a good mix's last 10%, but a 472-listener public blind test still put two human engineers on top. Here is how the assistants work, how to test them fairly, and what they cost. Wed, 19 Aug 2026 04:30:00 GMT We are the music makers workflowsmasteringailandrizotopeloudness https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/08/accessible-music-tech-2026-disabled-musicians-design https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/08/accessible-music-tech-2026-disabled-musicians-design Two NIME 2026 papers and Berklee's ABLE Assembly show where accessible instrument design is heading. Generative AI helped a disabled co-designer sketch a bespoke instrument but failed at physical fit, while a kit built from a generic gamepad, 3D prints and an old Android phone cost about INR 3,600 in rural India. Mon, 17 Aug 2026 05:30:00 GMT We are the music makers music-techaccessibilitydisabilitynimeinstrument-designai https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/08/imogen-heap-ai-mogen-artist-owned-voice-model https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/08/imogen-heap-ai-mogen-artist-owned-voice-model Imogen Heap has trained a private model of her own singing voice, licenses her style to the AI platform Jen on her terms, and is reported to take 70% of each StyleFilter sale. It is the opposite of being scraped. It also shows how much of the model still depends on other people's tools. Wed, 12 Aug 2026 05:30:00 GMT We are the music makers aiartist-rightsai-voiceimogen-heapjen https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/08/grimes-ai-voice-50-50-split-three-years-on https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/08/grimes-ai-voice-50-50-split-three-years-on In 2023 Grimes let anyone release songs with an AI copy of her voice in exchange for half the master royalties. About three years on, the GrimesAI profile lists 168 releases, the Elf.Tech site has gone quiet and Grimes now says humans still have to tell the story. Here is what worked, what didn't, and what other artists can borrow. Tue, 11 Aug 2026 05:30:00 GMT We are the music makers aiai-musicgrimesvoice-cloninglicensingartist-rights https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/08/spotify-ai-persona-badge-identity https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/08/spotify-ai-persona-badge-identity Spotify will badge artist profiles whose public identity looks like a photorealistic AI-generated person, and keep those profiles out of editorial and algorithmic recommendations by default. The badge says nothing about how the music was made. For artists, that means the face on the profile now matters more to discovery than the method behind the track. Tue, 11 Aug 2026 05:30:00 GMT We are the music makers aiai-musicspotifystreaming https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/08/velvet-sundown-one-year-ai-labelling-test-case https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/08/velvet-sundown-one-year-ai-labelling-test-case A year after an AI-generated "band" reached more than a million Spotify listeners, its audience has collapsed and Spotify has written rules for synthetic identities. The real cost has landed elsewhere, on a small human band with a similar name that had to pay for a trademark to fight an AI lookalike. Mon, 10 Aug 2026 05:30:00 GMT We are the music makers aiai-musicspotifyartist-rightsstreaming https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/08/audio-watermarks-content-credentials-synthid-c2pa https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/08/audio-watermarks-content-credentials-synthid-c2pa Google stamps every Lyria 3 track in Gemini with an inaudible SynthID watermark, and the C2PA standard lets tools attach a signed history to WAV, MP3 and FLAC files. Both can point to AI. Neither can prove a human made a song, but an artist can use them to build evidence of their own process. Fri, 07 Aug 2026 04:30:00 GMT We are the music makers aiai-musicprovenancewatermarkingartist-rights https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/08/sync-ai-era-clean-chain-of-title https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/08/sync-ai-era-clean-chain-of-title AI tracks are flooding the cheap end of production music, but a music supervisor can't clear or insure a cue whose authorship and training data nobody can document. Here is how sync money works, and why well-documented human catalogues are gaining value. Thu, 06 Aug 2026 05:30:00 GMT We are the music makers industrysynclicensingaimusic-supervisorscopyright https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/08/treblo-detector-rubberz-disclosure https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/08/treblo-detector-rubberz-disclosure AI music app Treblo released a detector built to recognise its own output, and it returned "very likely Treblo" for Fenix Flexin's "Rubberz", a song then at No. 58 on the Billboard Hot 100. Fenix had denied using AI and later admitted it. The bigger story is that a generator that can identify its own output holds leverage over every artist who used it. Tue, 04 Aug 2026 05:30:00 GMT We are the music makers aiai-musicdetectiondisclosuretreblo https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/08/how-to-disclose-ai-use-ddex-containsai-spotify-ai-credits https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/08/how-to-disclose-ai-use-ddex-containsai-spotify-ai-credits Spotify's AI Credits run on a DDEX standard that records AI use per role and per file, as None, Partly or All. You can only use it through a distributor that supports it, so here is how to credit AI and human work separately, step by step, with a template you can copy. Mon, 03 Aug 2026 04:30:00 GMT We are the music makers workflowsaiai-musicmetadataspotifyddexcredits https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/07/hybe-supertone-liquidation-ai-voice https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/07/hybe-supertone-liquidation-ai-voice HYBE's AI voice company Supertone is being dissolved after HYBE put nearly KRW 49 billion (about $35 million) into it. Three tools have moved to a new company and the rest shut on 31 August. Nothing public says what happens to the voice models built from artists. Tue, 28 Jul 2026 04:30:00 GMT We are the music makers aiartist-rightsai-voicehybek-pop https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/07/bandlab-acquires-aiode-musician-models https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/07/bandlab-acquires-aiode-musician-models BandLab Technologies has bought Aiode, whose AI "musician models" are built with named session players who get a share of the tokens spent on their model. It is a better deal for players than scraped training, but neither company says how big that share is. Wed, 15 Jul 2026 04:30:00 GMT We are the music makers aibandlabsession-musiciansacquisitions https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/07/fl-studio-gopher-assistant-engineer https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/07/fl-studio-gopher-assistant-engineer FL Studio 2026 lets its Gopher assistant act inside a project, routing audio, setting levels and writing scripts, while coverage of the launch says it won't write melodies or chords, draw automation or pick presets. That line is the right one. The harder question is the request log Image-Line keeps, with no stated retention period. Thu, 09 Jul 2026 04:30:00 GMT We are the music makers music-techaifl-studiodawprivacy https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/06/jasrac-ai-songs-human-parts-article-30-4 https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/06/jasrac-ai-songs-human-parts-article-30-4 Japan's biggest music rights society will only manage the human-made parts of a song, and songwriters must say which parts AI made when they register. It is also asking for Article 30-4, which lets AI firms train on works without permission, to give creators a choice. That puts Japan's songwriters further from a say over training than their counterparts in the EU or the UK. Sat, 13 Jun 2026 05:30:00 GMT We are the music makers artist-rightsaijapanjasraccopyrightai-training https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/06/xania-monet-label-jv-trademark-lawsuit https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/06/xania-monet-label-jv-trademark-lawsuit A trademark suit filed in Connecticut on 10 June names Hallwood Media, Xania Monet creator Telisha Jones and a company called TJM Inc. It comes months after Monet's manager launched an AI-and-human label venture with Create Music Group. Both raise the same question about an AI act. If copyright barely reaches the voice, the name is the main thing anyone can own. Wed, 10 Jun 2026 05:30:00 GMT We are the music makers aiartist-rightsxania-monetsunohallwoodtrademark https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/05/udio-starstruck-licensed-walled-garden https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/05/udio-starstruck-licensed-walled-garden 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. Fri, 22 May 2026 05:30:00 GMT We are the music makers aiai-musicudiolicensingwalled-garden https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/05/umg-tiktok-renewal-unauthorised-ai https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/05/umg-tiktok-renewal-unauthorised-ai 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. Fri, 22 May 2026 04:30:00 GMT We are the music makers aitiktoklicensinguniversal-music https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/05/tencent-music-qq-music-ai-songs-royalty-model https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/05/tencent-music-qq-music-ai-songs-royalty-model Tencent Music says more than 10 million people use its AI music production platform, and its tools can publish a generated song to QQ Music in one click. On its Q4 call it said songs made wholly by AI get a different royalty-sharing model, while AI-assisted songs sung by humans stay on the traditional one. We haven't seen a big Western streaming service draw that line in public. Tue, 12 May 2026 05:30:00 GMT We are the music makers aitencent-musicqq-musicroyaltieschinastreaming https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/04/splice-variations-pay-per-source https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/04/splice-variations-pay-per-source Splice launched Variations and Craft, with Magic Fit to follow, and says the original sample creator is paid each time their sound is used as a source and each time a variation is downloaded. It is one of the clearer consent-and-pay designs in music AI, but Splice hasn't said what a use is worth, and producers carry the release risk. Wed, 15 Apr 2026 04:30:00 GMT We are the music makers aisplicesamplesroyalties https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/03/timbaland-tata-taktumi-pacific-music-group-hybrid-ai-artist https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2026/03/timbaland-tata-taktumi-pacific-music-group-hybrid-ai-artist Ne-Yo's Pacific Music Group is now the global label and Asia manager for TaTa Taktumi, the AI act from Timbaland's Stage Zero, which has been recast as a "hybrid artist" with a private performer of Filipino heritage behind it. Nobody has said who gets paid, who is credited, or what that performer owns. Thu, 26 Mar 2026 05:30:00 GMT We are the music makers aitimbalandvirtual-artistsartist-rightsrecord-deals https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2025/07/lehrman-v-lovo-ai-voice-clones-new-york-publicity-law https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2025/07/lehrman-v-lovo-ai-voice-clones-new-york-publicity-law A federal judge in Manhattan has let two voice actors pursue New York publicity, consumer-protection and contract claims against Lovo, the AI voice company they say cloned them, while dismissing most of their trademark and copyright claims. This was a ruling on a motion to dismiss, not a win at trial. Its reasoning still matters to singers: in this court's view, copyright in a recording doesn't protect the voice on it, but New York's civil rights law does. Thu, 10 Jul 2025 04:30:00 GMT We are the music makers artist-rightsaivoice-cloningright-of-publicitylawsuits https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2025/04/randy-travis-ai-voice-consent-where-that-came-from https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2025/04/randy-travis-ai-voice-consent-where-that-came-from A model trained on Randy Travis's own vocal stems turned another singer's demo into "Where That Came From", his first new song in over a decade. Eleven months later Travis backed the NO FAKES Act against voice theft. The line between the two is consent and control, and the Travis case shows it has to cover the human singer underneath as well as the star on the label. Wed, 09 Apr 2025 04:30:00 GMT We are the music makers aiartist-rightsvoice-cloningno-fakes-act https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2025/03/celine-dion-ai-fakes-sevdaliza-dahlia-licensed-voice https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2025/03/celine-dion-ai-fakes-sevdaliza-dahlia-licensed-voice Céline Dion's team has warned fans that "unsanctioned" AI recordings using her voice and name are circulating on streaming services. In 2023 Sevdaliza went the other way, opening an AI model of her voice, Dahlia, to anyone on the Myvox platform for half the royalties. Both are legitimate choices, and each depends on consent being written down somewhere a platform can act on it. Tue, 11 Mar 2025 04:30:00 GMT We are the music makers aiartist-rightsvoice-cloning https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2025/02/beatles-now-and-then-grammy-separation-not-generation https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2025/02/beatles-now-and-then-grammy-separation-not-generation "Now and Then" won Best Rock Performance at the 2025 Grammys. The machine learning behind it separated John Lennon's real vocal from a late-1970s home demo; it did not generate a voice. That distinction is what kept the record inside the Recording Academy's human-authorship rules, and it is the line the industry should be arguing about instead of "AI or not". Mon, 03 Feb 2025 04:30:00 GMT We are the music makers aistem-separationartist-rightsgrammys https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2024/05/fka-twigs-ai-twin-senate-testimony-artist-control https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2024/05/fka-twigs-ai-twin-senate-testimony-artist-control At a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing on the draft NO FAKES Act on 30 April 2024, FKA twigs said she had spent a year building an AI version of herself that speaks in her voice, and argued the line between a useful tool and a theft is whether the artist controls it. Her label's CEO, sitting beside her, argued the new right should be transferable. That tension is the real story. Wed, 01 May 2024 04:30:00 GMT We are the music makers aiartist-rightsvoice-cloningno-fakes-actpolicy https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2024/04/tupac-estate-drake-taylor-made-ai-voice-publicity-rights https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2024/04/tupac-estate-drake-taylor-made-ai-voice-publicity-rights Tupac Shakur's estate sent Drake a cease-and-desist over the AI-voiced "Taylor Made Freestyle" and he pulled the track from Instagram and X within days. He folded without a court testing the estate's claim, and under California law as it stood then, a song was exactly the kind of work the dead's publicity right exempted. California's AB 1836 has since closed much of that gap. Fri, 26 Apr 2024 04:30:00 GMT We are the music makers artist-rightsvoice-rightsaipublicity-rights https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2023/11/bad-bunny-nostalgia-flowgpt-ai-voice-takedowns https://wearethemusicmakers.co/news/2023/11/bad-bunny-nostalgia-flowgpt-ai-voice-takedowns A Chilean producer recorded a track with AI voices made to sound like Bad Bunny, Justin Bieber and Daddy Yankee, and it went viral on TikTok. Bad Bunny told fans who liked it to leave his WhatsApp channel, and the creator says Apple Music and Spotify then pulled versions of it. Nobody has said which rule was applied, which is the real story: without a law covering voice, takedown decisions are left to platforms. Wed, 08 Nov 2023 04:30:00 GMT We are the music makers artist-rightsaivoice-cloningplatforms