A growing number of artists, or aspiring artists, are releasing songs generated by artificial intelligence (AI) on Spotify and Apple Music, but most of these violate copyright.
The complaint comes directly from Universal Music Group (UMG), one of the largest record labels in the world. In reality, the news is not surprising that much, since we know well that artificial intelligence generates content by algorithmically assimilating and processing from pre-existing databases.
As a result of the violations, UMG has already processed a large number of requests to remove the offending songs. The major has also asked Apple and Spotify to integrate systems to prevent the loading of non-compliant songs. The situation is actually extremely complex, given that the uploading of songs to digital stores takes place through special digital distributors, which artists or labels pay to bring their music to the platforms.
The problem is as much with the music as with the lyrics, since copyright infringement can manifest itself in both musical and lyrical plagiarism. We recall that UMG manages the music licenses of about a third of the world record market, representing, among others, names of the caliber of Taylor Swift, Elton John e The Weeknd.
AI-generated songs infringe copyright: UMG’s letter to Apple and Spotify
The Financial Times confirms that UMG has sent an email to a number of streaming music services, including Apple Music and Spotify, asking them to stop scraping lyrics and tunes. The portal also reported part of the email:
“We have become aware that some AI systems may have been trained on copyrighted content without obtaining the required consents or paying compensation to the rights holders who own or produce the content […] We will not hesitate to take steps to protect our rights and those of our artists.”