Warner Music Group (WMG) settled a lawsuit with an AI company in exchange for a portion of the proceeds. The label announced Wednesday that it has settled a 2024 lawsuit against AI music creation platform Udio. As part of the deal, Udio gets a license to Warner’s catalog for an upcoming music creation service. It follows a similar agreement between Universal Music Group and Udio announced last month.
Udio’s service will allow customers to create, listen to and discover AI-generated music trained on licensed work. You will be able to create new songs, remixes and covers using the sounds or compositions of favorite artists. The boundaries between human creation and algorithmic inference are becoming blurred. Not in terms of artistic quality, but based on what’s being spread online.
WMG is hailing the deal as a win for artists, who – if they choose to join – will gain a new revenue stream. Ahead of the launch of the service, Udio will introduce “expanded security and other measures designed to protect the rights of artists and songwriters.”
Therefore, this agreement appears to at least establish some control over the artists’ work. What the normalization of robot-produced music will do to society’s collective tastes is another question.
A neon sign on a wall that reads, “You are what you listen to.” (Mohammed Metri/Unsplash)
The settlement is reminiscent of the warning Spotify gave to musicians and labels last month. “If the music industry doesn’t lead this time, AI-powered innovation will happen elsewhere, without rights, consent, or compensation,” the company wrote. Spotify plans to launch an “artist-first AI music product” in the future, a vague promise to be sure. However, given Udio’s plans, it wouldn’t be surprising to see the streaming service create a similar licensed AI music-creation product.
“We are unwaveringly committed to protecting the rights of our artists and songwriters, and Udio has taken meaningful steps to ensure that the music on its service will be authorized and licensed,” Warner Music CEO Robert Kinkl wrote in a press release. “This collaboration is in line with our broader efforts to responsibly unlock the potential of AI – fostering new creative and business possibilities while delivering innovative experiences for fans.”