The EU AI Act and what it means for music producers and artistsJonathan Coote is a music and AI lawyer at Bray & Krais.
AI music tools might be controversial right now, but almost two-thirds of young creatives are embracing AI in their music making, according to a recent study. While AI music generation software has led to innovative creative opportunities, the legal landscape is still hotly contested with new disputes arising almost every week.

READ MORE: Opinion: AI won’t replace music producers anytime soon — but many need to adapt

On May 21, 2024, the EU Council approved the EU AI Act, which could have a significant global impact on the music industry. Below, we set out some of the key legal questions raised by AI for the music industry and how different jurisdictions are dealing with them, before flagging the biggest risks from a legal perspective when using AI to make music, particularly for music producers and engineers.
There are three main legal questions raised by the use of AI in the music industry:

Should AI tools be trained on huge catalogues of music for free or should they get a licence first?
Is there a way to stop deepfakes and voice clones like the “Ghostwriter” track which replicated the voices of Drake and The Weeknd so effectively?
Is there actually any copyright in music created by an AI tool?

Image: wundervisuals via Getty Images
Train in Vain?
There is a huge public debate at the moment about the use of music (and other content) in the training and development of AI tools. Put simply, most AI-generated music tools train and learn from existing human-made music. While some have secured licences to do so, there are various lawsuits against AI companies, alleging that they have trained their tools without getting a licence first. To make the matter more complex, the laws on this topic are different around the world.
In the EU, copyright law restricts training on copyright works for commercial purposes without a licence if rightsholders have simply ‘opted out’. Under the new EU AI Act, providers of so-called ‘general purpose’ AI models on the EU market will not only have to abide by these rules but must also demonstrate their compliance by providing transparency on their training process, seemingly even if the training was conducted outside the EU. This could have profound implications for AI companies worldwide – many of whom have trained their tools in countries with more lenient rules, such as the US.
In the UK, the government decided not to bring in the EU’s ‘opt-out’ approach post-Brexit, so the law currently appears to prevent all training on copyright works for commercial purposes without a licence. However, there is a major case going through the English courts at the moment (Getty Images v Stability AI), which would be the first time the law is actually tested in practice.
Before that reaches trial, though, the law may have already changed.
The UK government has been unable to update the law, and its attempts to set up a voluntary system led to failed talks between the tech industry and rightsholders. Prior to the calling of the general election, Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer suggested that change would be coming, although it now remains to be seen whether either of the main parties will commit to regulating AI should they form the next government.
In the US, there is no specific law on this issue and so there is even more uncertainty. Perhaps unsurprisingly, there are currently a large number of lawsuits on this issue involving AI tool providers such as OpenAI, Stability AI and Anthropic.
Image: M Stock via Getty Images
Fake it till you … take it down
Deepfakes and voice clones have taken the internet by storm in the past 12 months. However, this is a complex area of law with no specific right to protect artists and celebrities in most countries (unless used as part of a false endorsement). So far, online takedowns have been successful but the process isn’t as easy or straightforward as the music industry would like.
The EU AI Act is set to introduce a transparency obligation which requires deepfakes to be identified, including voice clones. This won’t stop their circulation entirely, but it should at least mean that consumers can clearly spot a deepfake when they happen across one.. However, there remain questions about the impact on more creative or parodic uses. There is therefore still a gap for a specific ‘digital representation’ right, as has been considered in the US and proposed by UK Music and the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Music in the UK.
Do androids dream of electric beats?
You may be surprised to learn that music created with AI tools might not actually be protected by copyright at all. This has been the position taken so far by the US Copyright Office, and is probably similar in the UK based on the current law — although there’s the added complication that, in the UK, sound recordings appear to be protected regardless of whether they are made by a human or an AI tool.
Though the output of an AI tool based on a minimal prompt may not be protected, if this is then edited or modified (e.g. AI-generated chords to which you add a melody and lyrics), it is likely that the final version will be protected.
Image: Drablenkov via Getty Images
What to think about when using AI tools in your music creation

Music created purely with AI from a basic prompt may not be protected by copyright. This is important as you may be asked to warrant in agreements with other parts of the industry (e.g. record labels, publishers or distributors) that you own all the rights to the music. To try and get some level of copyright protection, you should adapt and modify what the AI produced in a creative way.
Check to see what rights you have to use anything you create using an AI tool. Do you own it or do you license it? Are you limited to “non-commercial” use, unless you pay a fee? If so, this probably means that you can’t upload it to a streaming service, for example.
Avoid uploading or distributing unlicensed voice clones and deepfakes of real people — unless you would like a letter from their lawyers!
Many producers are increasingly using separation tools to extract stems to create new mixes or to find new samples. Remember that in almost every case, you still need a licence to use a sample (even if you’ve extracted the stem from an existing mix).

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Alan Parsons Announces New ASSR “Music Production Workshop”After more than a decade of sold out Master Classes held in studios from Buena Park to Bogota, Alan Parsons wants to shake up the music production learning space with new hands-on Music Production Workshops where attendees get to be part of the recording and mixing process.

At the inaugural event being held at Parsons’ beautiful studio in the hills above Santa Barbara, students will be able to sit behind Alan’s Neve 5088 and try their hand at EQ-ing, processing using outboard gear including UnFairchild, DBX, SPL, Zulu and more plus the studio’s virtual basket of plug-ins. 

Alan and his assistant engineer Noah Bruskin will be ever present guides and advisors but the idea is for everyone can experience working with top quality equipment, even if it’s just pushing up faders to create a unique balance.

A variety of exciting musicians including American Idol star James Durbin will record using different instrumental and vocal recording techniques, taking advantage of Alan Parsons’ classic mic collection built from his days at Abbey Road. There’ll also be a field-recording sortie using 3Dio binaural mics!

The second of this two-day event focuses on mixing, with look at the current state of spatial / immersive audio with ASSR Immersive Audio course author and expert David Reyes. Throughout the day attendees will not only be able to mix music recorded the previous day, Alan promises to have some truly classic recordings - now being mixed in Dolby Atmos - for everyone to not only experience but literally get their hands on. 

Ticket prices include gourmet food and wines and the chance to hang with one of the most iconic music producers of the past fifty years, both in the studio and at the event’s after-party where you’ll be able to take photos and get memorabilia signed.

Early booking is advised to ensure a place at these perennially sold-out ASSR events. For full details and ticketing visit the website at www.artandscienceofsound.com/mcts/July2024 or call ASSR at 1-800-852-2570. 

ASSR’s Music Production Workshop: www.artandscienceofsound.com/mcts/July2024

ASSR’s online recording courses: www.artandsienceofsound.teachable.comThe post Alan Parsons Announces New ASSR “Music Production Workshop” first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

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BikeBeamer Adds POV Display to Bicycle WheelsUnless you’re living in a bicycle paradise like the Netherlands, most people will choose to add some sort of illumination to their bicycle to help drivers take note that there’s something other than a car using the road. Generally, simple flashing LEDs for both the front and the rear is a pretty good start, but it doesn’t hurt to add a few more lights to the bicycle or increase their brightness. On the other hand, if you want to add some style to your bicycle lighting system then this persistence of vision (POV) display called the BikeBeamer from [locxter] might be just the thing.
The display uses four LED strips, each housed in their own 3D printed case which are installed at 90-degree angles from one another in between the spokes of a standard bicycle wheel. An ESP32 sits at the base of one of the strips and is responsible for storing the image and directing the four displays. This is a little more complex than a standard POV display as it’s also capable of keeping up with the changing rotational speeds of the bicycle wheels when in use. The design also incorporates batteries so that no wires need to route from the bike frame to the spinning wheels.
This is an ongoing project for [locxter] as well, meaning that there are some planned upgrades even to this model that should be in the pipe for the future. Improving the efficiency of the code will hopefully allow for more complex images and even animations to be displayed in the future, and there are also some plans to improve the PCB as well with all surface-mount components. There are a few other ways to upgrade your bike’s lighting as well, and we could recommend this heads-up headlight display to get started.

2024 Business Card Challenge: Make Them Shake Your HandiworkBefore COVID, people traditionally sealed their initial introduction to each other with a handshake. Nowadays, that activity seems kind of questionable. But you can still give them something to shake if you build this persistence of vision (POV) business card from [chaosneon] to show your credentials in blinkenlights form.
As you might have guessed, the input comes from a tilt switch. The user simply shakes the card back and forth, and the sensor detects the direction and cadence of the shake. Cleverly, the pattern plays forward-ways on the swing, and backwards on the back stroke, which just reinforces the POV effect. Don’t worry about how slow or fast to shake it, because the timing adjusts for your speed.
The first version used individual white LEDs, hand-soldered to an ATtiny2313. Now, in the updated version which you can see in the demo video after the break, [chaosneon] is using an RGB NeoPixel strip, which only needs one data wire to connect to the microcontroller. Thanks to this, [chaosneon] was able to to downsize to an ATtiny85.

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Sanujeet Bhujabal named Managing Director, Universal Music India and South Asia; Viral Jani appointed Chief Revenue Officer"We have been growing rapidly, through our groundbreaking, artist-first non-film music strategy..."
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Arturia FX Collection 5 now available As well as gaining a pair of existing plug-ins, FX Collection 5 also includes two completely new offerings in the form of Bus PEAK and Bus EXCITER-104.

Spotify’s New Release Guide is a how-to manual for launching new musicSpotify For Artists has compiled its growing marketing toolkit into a New Release Guide, which offers a step-by-step manual for launching new music. The New Release Guide begins with free. Continue reading
The post Spotify’s New Release Guide is a how-to manual for launching new music appeared first on Hypebot.

A2IM Libera Independent Music Award winners 2024 [Full List]A2IM (American Association of Independent Music) crowned the 2024 Libera Award winners at Gotham Hall in New York City on Monday. Here is the full list of winners
The post A2IM Libera Independent Music Award winners 2024 [Full List] appeared first on Hypebot.

Indie music pioneer Molly Neuman is CD Baby’s new PresidentDowntown Music has named Molly Neuman as President of its d.i.y. music distribution division, CD Baby, as part of a greater reorganization.....
The post Indie music pioneer Molly Neuman is CD Baby’s new President appeared first on Hypebot.

Spotify to launch pricier Premium music tier that includes high-fidelity audio (report)New tier will cost "at least $5 more per month", Bloomberg reports
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Trilix Studio: Demystifying Dolby Atmos & more Trilix Studio have announced that they will be hosting a two-day workshop featuring sessions dedicated to Dolby Atmos, home studio acoustics, music marketing and producing guitar tracks. 

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