There is a lot about technology and its harbinger organizations that has helped to make the world a better place. I've been an advocate for the early adoption of technologies like AI, which can do a lot of good. In other cases I’ve shared examples of the unforeseen outcomes of technologies which are bad. However, when you reflect on the legal battle going on between Peloton and music licensing organizations like NMPA most of us may be unaware of what is really happening behind the scenes regarding music creation, licensing, and how technology will once again render the old way of looking at things useless.
Artificial intelligence can now be leveraged by the fitness industry and other industries to bypass traditional music licensing laws and truly disrupt the entire notion of paying for original music when more useful AI solutions have emerged (examples follow). With the push for fitness brands to become more like media companies the era of having to bow down to organizations over using their music content at very high fees as opposed to creating your own original works has arrived. Don't believe me ? Please read on.
Recently Peloton and The NMPA Got Into Quite A Squabble Over Music
In March, Peloton was sued over copyright infringements filed by the National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA), which alleged that it has used music in its workout videos without proper licensing. If found liable, Peloton could be responsible for over $150 millionin damages. Here’s a quote from the NMPA related to their litigation with Peloton:
“Peloton was fully aware that in order to lawfully embody copyrighted musical works in connection with visual images, copyright law required Peloton to obtain authorization from owners of the copyrighted works in the form of what is commonly referred to as a ‘synchronization’ or ‘sync’ license.”
In turn and not to be outdone Peloton filed a countersuit against some music publishers and an industry trade organization claiming that it isn’t infringing at all.
“Peloton is not the bad actor the Plaintiffs portray it to be. Peloton values the musicalelement of its service offering and respects – and pays – the music rights holders associated with that offering.”
This legal action comes in response to allegations that the NMPA is in violation of antitrust laws and engaged in a conspiracy of “black box” royalties.
These acts by NMPA that block companies such as Peloton from obtaining licensing agreements more economically and easily is just the beginning to how the impact of AI may disrupt the music industry with respect to licensing rights and perhaps many in the health club, fitness, or gym space do not see this coming. The notion of sole ownership by rights holders and publishers could further come into question and also challenged by ways music will be made and delivered without ANY of the current participants like ASCAP NMPA or others being involved.
Here Is How AI Could Change Music Licensing In Fitness
From copyright, production and A&R to consumption, sync and advertising, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine-learning are already having an impact on the modern music industry. At a panel at AIM’s Music Connected conference in London, Lydia Gregory from FeedForward AI remarked:
“the NMPA has exceeded the bounds of legitimate conduct for a trade association and become the ring leader of concerted activity among would-be competitor music publishers, all in violation of antitrust law… has instigated a coordinated effort… to fix prices and to engage in a concerted refusal to deal with Peloton.”
These acts by NMPA that block companies such as Peloton from obtaining licensing agreements more economically and easily is just the beginning to how the impact of AI may disrupt the music industry with respect to licensing rights and perhaps many in the health club, fitness, or gym space do not see this coming. The notion of sole ownership by rights holders and publishers could further come into question and also challenged by ways music will be made and delivered without ANY of the current participants like ASCAP NMPA or others being involved.
Here Is How AI Could Change Music Licensing In Fitness
From copyright, production and A&R to consumption, sync and advertising, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine-learning are already having an impact on the modern music industry. At a panel at AIM’s Music Connected conference in London, Lydia Gregory from FeedForward AI remarked:
“In the legal space it will get messier before we understand what the impact is. Perhaps it’s an idea that has been generated by a machine, or in a sync library where you start with a track that has been composed by a human, but then you can adapt that track – the person commissioning it can come in and say ‘I want to change the ending’… in both cases, the question of who ‘owns’ the creation could be up for discussion. There is the potential for real disruption,”
These changes are without mentioning that humans will still have the ability to manipulate and harness the power of AI for music production. It will actually be easier to identify plagiarism, understand the listener, and even bypass licensing laws. It also offers new ways to create customized music that is designed for specific places, specific business models, and for specific uses like workouts without any human involved.
AI Threatens Human Musicians In The World Of Licensing
AI is capable of making music, but does that make AI an artist? As AI begins to reshape how music is made, our legal systems are going to be confronted with some tough questions regarding authorship. Do AI algorithms create their own work (they can and do), or is it the humans behind them? What happens if AI software trained solely on Stevie Wonder creates a track that sounds just like him?
Peloton and the NMPA among others should pay close attention to this quote from Jonathan Bailey, CTO of iZotope who said in the article We’ve Been Warned About AI And Music For Over 50 Years But Noone Is Prepared as follows:
“I won’t mince words,” he says. “This is a total legal clusterf@ck.”
As the article notes, “the word “human” does not appear at all in US copyright law, and there’s not much existing litigation around the word’s absence. This has created a giant gray area and left AI’s place in copyright unclear. It also means the law doesn’t account for AI’s unique abilities, like its potential to work endlessly and mimic the sound of a specific artist. Depending on how legal decisions shake out, AI systems could become a valuable tool to assist creativity, a nuisance ripping off hard-working human musicians, or both.”
The article goes on and all of those folks out there collecting royalties from the fitness industry among other businesses for use of their works, some of it in questionable ways, should pay attention. “There’s nothing legally requiring you to give her any profits from it unless you’re directly sampling,” Rose says. There’s room for debate, she says, over whether this is good for musicians. “I think courts and our general instinct would say, ‘Well, if an algorithm is only fed Beyoncé songs and the output is a piece of music, it’s a robot. It clearly couldn’t have added anything to this, and there’s nothing original there.’”
Law is generally reluctant to protect things “in the style of,” as musicians are influenced by other musicians all the time, says Chris Mammen, partner at Womble Bond Dickinson. “Should the original artist whose style is being used to train an AI be allowed to have any [intellectual property] rights in the resulting recording? The traditional answer may well be ‘no,’” Mammen says, “because the resulting work is not an original work of authorship by that artist.”
Businesses That Use AI to Deliver Music Services Are Already Here
The music industry has seen a rise in the independent sector and the opportunities around AI for these organizations. This suggests that machine-learning applied to music discovery may be more impactful with AI creation and co-creation. Such start-ups like Brain.FM, Melodrive, and Muzeek use machine learning to arrange musical and acoustic features to differing media environments based on noise, mood, ambiance, and even workout. These features will not only allow club facilities to offer their own music content without legal consequences but also engage members in a more personalized setting. Time will tell if we will see these changes adopted sooner rather than later.
Here are a few examples of companies working in the world of AI music.
AIVA TECHNOLOGIES Location: Luxembourg
What it does: Aiva Technologies is the creator of a soundtrack-producing artificial intelligence music engine. The platform enables composers and creators to make originals or upload their work to create new variations. Depending on the plan chosen, creators can also forgo the worry of licensing because the platform offers full usage rights.Industry impact: Rather than replacing musicians, Aiva wants to enhance the collaboration between artificial and organic creativity.
AMPER MUSIC Location: New York
What it does: Amper Music provides an AI music tool that performs, composes and produces custom music for media content. The web application enables creators to choose composition style, mood and length, crafting it to fit their content with no additional musical knowledge or skills.
Industry impact: Amper continues to grow, recently closing a $4 million funding round to bring its total funding to $9 million. The company is expanding its international presence, bringing intelligent composition to a wider audience of consumers.
MELODRIVE Location: Berlin
What it does: Melodrive is a real-time adaptive music generator for interactive media. With uses like interactive experiences, video games and music branding, the generator creates music that adapts to its media environment, ramping up, slowing down and transitioning through emotions accordingly to give users the best experience.
Industry impact: According to studies done by Melodrive, after implementing the music engine to media, user immersion increased 30%, session time increased 42% and visual matching increased by 49%.
To learn more about other AI based music services check out this article: The AI Music Revolution is here and these 11 companies are leading the charge.
So what do you think about AI created music and the impact to the fitness industry ? I'd love to hear your thoughts.