AI ETHICS & REGULATION

oday, you can listen to a 50’ s rock version of Eminem and Rihanna’ s song Love The Way You Lie, to Phil Collins’ songs as Jazz music – but none of it is really them. The music industry has spent the past two years wrestling with AI, watching as tech companies hoover up copyrighted recordings to train their systems without asking permission.

Now Spotify, the Swedish streaming giant with more than 600 million users, is taking a different approach by striking deals directly with the three major record labels, saying it wants to make AI tools which“ put artists and songwriters first” and be transparent about respecting their copyright.

The partnerships with Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group will see Spotify license music to build these products.

Music rights organisation Merlin and digital distributor Believe have also joined the arrangement, bringing together companies that represent the lion’ s share of commercially released music worldwide.

Spotify has already started building its first products, saying that it recognises there is a“ wide range of views on use of generative music tools within the artistic community” and plans to allow artists to choose whether they want to participate.

Behind the major labels striking licensing deals with Spotify Musicians from Dua Lipa to Sir Elton John and Sir Paul McCartney have been

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