Artificial Intelligence - CMU | the music business explained

The Sony and Warner music publishers finally get round to suing Anthropic

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Anthropic • 3 min read

The Sony and Warner music publishers finally get round to suing Anthropic

The Sony and Warner music publishing companies are the latest publishers to sue AI firm Anthropic for copyright infringement. They also name Anthropic founders Ben Mann and Dario Amodei as defendants, arguing they were personally involved in the illegal downloading of pirated sheet music and lyrics…

Chris Cooke • 01 Sep 2026

Universal and Sony file amended Suno lawsuit after judge gives all clear to add stream ripping claims

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Suno • 3 min read

Universal and Sony file amended Suno lawsuit after judge gives all clear to add stream ripping claims

Earlier this month Universal and Sony were given permission to add stream ripping allegations to their Suno lawsuit, prompting the filing of an amended complaint this week. Those allegations may make it easier for the majors to defeat the AI company’s ‘fair use’ defence in the copyright dispute…

Chris Cooke • 28 Aug 2026

Apple Music to start labelling tracks ‘Made With AI’

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Apple Music • 2 min read

Apple Music to start labelling tracks ‘Made With AI’

Apple Music has told its industry partners that AI-generated tracks will be labelled as such within its app from later this year. It’s relying on labels and distributors to identify which tracks were “materially generated using AI”, using ‘AI transparency tags’ that Apple introduced back in March…

Chris Cooke • 21 Aug 2026

Round Hill joins the AI lawsuit party, targets Suno and Anthropic

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Round Hill Music • 3 min read

Round Hill joins the AI lawsuit party, targets Suno and Anthropic

More lawsuits have been filed against generative AI companies, this time its Round Hill suing Suno and Anthropic. Aware both defendants will claim that AI training is ‘fair use’ - meaning they can use existing music without permission - Round Hill insists “there is nothing fair about that use”…

Chris Cooke • 19 Aug 2026

Spotify to start labelling “AI personas”

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Spotify • 2 min read

Spotify to start labelling “AI personas”

Spotify will start labelling “AI personas” next month, so artists that don’t really exist but which have a profile on the streaming service with an AI-generated identity. It hopes anyone releasing music in that way will self-declare that fact, but will also be monitoring for undeclared AI personas…

Chris Cooke • 12 Aug 2026

Songwriter AI victory in Europe as GEMA beats Suno in copyright lawsuit

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Suno • 5 min read

Songwriter AI victory in Europe as GEMA beats Suno in copyright lawsuit

The European music industry has scored a significant win when it comes to AI and copyright, with a German court siding with collecting society GEMA against Suno. Judges ruled that Suno breached US and German copyright law by training its model on GEMA controlled compositions without permission…

Chris Cooke • 31 Jul 2026

Record labels come together to propose rules for when AI-generated tracks can get into the music charts

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Artificial Intelligence • 3 min read

Record labels come together to propose rules for when AI-generated tracks can get into the music charts

The major labels and an assortment of indies have proposed a set of rules for when AI-generated recordings should be eligible for the music charts. They say only AI-assisted tracks should be allowed to chart, that those tracks should only use legit AI tools, and the use of AI should be labelled…

Chris Cooke • 29 Jul 2026

Two class action lawsuits filed over Suno’s big data breach

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Suno • 3 min read

Two class action lawsuits filed over Suno’s big data breach

Following the recent media reports that data connected to 55.3 million Suno users was accessed by hackers last November, two class action lawsuits have now been filed against the AI company over its failure to protect that data. Which makes a nice change from all the copyright infringement lawsuits…

Chris Cooke • 29 Jul 2026

ChatGPT training was legal and covered by ‘private research’ copyright exception says Indian judge

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Open AI • 4 min read

ChatGPT training was legal and covered by ‘private research’ copyright exception says Indian judge

A judge in India has ruled that Open AI was fine to use content owned by news agency ANI when training ChatGPT, because AI training is covered by a ‘research’ exception in Indian copyright law. Although related to news content, it’s a key ruling on the copyright obligations of AI companies in India…

Chris Cooke • 27 Jul 2026

Only humans can be ‘authors’ say Canadian music publishers in test case on copyright status of AI-generated works

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Music Publishers Canada • 3 min read

Only humans can be ‘authors’ say Canadian music publishers in test case on copyright status of AI-generated works

The debate over the copyright status of AI-generated works continues, and in Canada there’s a key court battle as part of that debate centered on an AI-generated artwork. The precedent set in that case could impact on music copyright too, so Canada’s music publishers have formally intervened…

Chris Cooke • 24 Jul 2026

AFM insists ‘new use’ clause in its musicians agreement applies to AI - and that any other interpretation is “nonsensical”

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AFM • 3 min read

AFM insists ‘new use’ clause in its musicians agreement applies to AI - and that any other interpretation is “nonsensical”

US musicians’ union AFM reckons a ‘new use’ clause in its agreement with the labels means Warner and Universal should be sharing income for their Udio deals with its members. But there’s a disagreement over how that clause should be interpreted. AFM says the majors’ interpretation is “nonsensical”…

Chris Cooke • 22 Jul 2026

AI-generated tracks now account for more than 50% of Deezer’s uploads

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Deezer • 3 min read

AI-generated tracks now account for more than 50% of Deezer’s uploads

Deezer has published more AI music stats, revealing that over 50% of new tracks uploaded to the streaming service are now AI-generated, on average 90,000 per day. That big stat will prompt more debate about how the streaming services and music industry deal with AI-generated music…

Chris Cooke • 21 Jul 2026