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A labels' court filing shows DistroKid tests uploads with an undisclosed third-party "prediction model" and has made statements about false positives, none of it published for artists. Here is what is known about distributor AI detection, what you control, and how to protect a release that gets misjudged.
Industryvia US District Court, Southern District of New York (via Music Business Worldwide)
Bandcamp waives its 10 to 15% revenue share on 6 November and 4 December, but payment processor fees still apply and the window runs on Pacific Time. A step-by-step plan for timing, merch and bundles, with the sums worked out and a note on where the Stripe payout switch stands.
Industryvia Bandcamp
Read together, the Katy Perry, Ed Sheeran and Mariah Carey cases draw a clear line in US law: a melody and an original selection and arrangement of elements can be owned, while scales, common chord progressions, rhythms and genre clichés can't. Style isn't copyrightable either. For producers working with reference tracks and AI, that makes the singer's voice a bigger risk than the vibe.
Artist rightsvia US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
Ditto Music's survey of 5,039 self-releasing artists found AI use rising with age, from 24% of 18–24s to 74% of over-55s. In the raw data, many of those older users are recent starters, which suggests AI is filling the engineer they never had. But the sample is Ditto's own customers, and Ditto sells AI mastering.
AIvia Ditto Music
From 3 September 2026, Suno Pro allows 20 song downloads a month and Premier 60, while free accounts that existed before then get seven lifetime trial downloads with no commercial rights. Listening stays unlimited; leaving the platform is what's metered. For producers who use Suno as one tool inside a DAW, that turns auditioning ideas into rationing, and it pulls the finishing work into Suno's own Studio.
AIvia Suno Help Center
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