{"id":223838,"date":"2025-02-14T17:38:56","date_gmt":"2025-02-14T17:38:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/?p=223838"},"modified":"2025-02-14T18:28:12","modified_gmt":"2025-02-14T18:28:12","slug":"from-the-fair-use-win-for-reuters-to-bytedances-ai-music-beast-its-mbws-weekly-round-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/from-the-fair-use-win-for-reuters-to-bytedances-ai-music-beast-its-mbws-weekly-round-up\/","title":{"rendered":"From the ‘fair use’ win for Reuters to ByteDance building an AI music beast… it’s MBW’s Weekly Round-Up"},"content":{"rendered":"

Welcome to\u00a0Music Business Worldwide<\/a>\u2019s weekly round-up \u2013 where we make sure\u00a0you caught the five biggest stories to hit our headlines over the past seven days. MBW\u2019s round-up is supported by\u00a0<\/i>Centtrip<\/i><\/span><\/a>,\u00a0which helps over 500 of the world\u2019s best-selling artists maximize their income and reduce their touring costs.<\/i><\/p>\n

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Copyright holders in the US got some good news this week when a federal court ruled that scraping copyrighted content without permission<\/strong> to train AI models doesn’t count as “fair use.”<\/strong> However, the ruling might not apply to generative AI<\/strong>, the kind that music companies are suing AI companies over.<\/p>\n

Also in the world of AI, MBW<\/em> reported this week on TikTok<\/strong> parent ByteDance<\/strong>‘s ongoing work in the field of AI music.<\/p>\n

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Elsewhere,\u00a0Sony Group Corp<\/strong> reported its calendar Q4 earnings this week. Sony<\/strong>\u2019s global music rights operation \u2013 across recorded music and music publishing \u2013 generated USD $2.70 billion<\/strong> in the three months to end of December 2024.<\/p>\n

Also, some notable news out of Warner Music Group<\/strong> this week, as the company steps up its M&A efforts by\u00a0strengthening its Corporate Development team led by Michael Ryan Southern<\/strong>. According to a press release, Warner is seeking to \u201cturbocharge its growth<\/strong>\u201d via M&A.<\/p>\n

Speaking of M&A,\u00a0Universal Music Group<\/strong> announced today (February 14) that it has acquired a majority stake in A-Sketch<\/strong>, a Japan-based artist management business and record label.<\/p>\n

Here’s what happened this week…<\/p>\n

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II.studio \/ Shutterstock<\/figcaption><\/figure>1) USING COPYRIGHTED CONTENT TO TRAIN AI WITHOUT PERMISSION IS NOT \u2018FAIR USE\u2019, US COURT RULES IN THOMSON REUTERS CASE<\/a><\/span><\/h6>\n

For the first time, a US court has ruled on whether using copyrighted material without permission to train AI<\/strong> amounts to \u201cfair use\u201d under copyright law, and the news is mostly<\/em> good for copyright holders: The judge in the case has ruled against the AI company<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

However, there is one big wrinkle: The judge noted in the ruling that it does not necessarily apply to generative AI<\/strong>, the kind of AI over which music companies are suing AI developers.<\/p>\n

The case pitted media and news conglomerate Thomson Reuters<\/strong>, owner of the Reuters news service, against Ross Intelligence<\/strong>, a now-defunct service that offered users access to a database of court cases compiled through machine learning (AI) technology…<\/p>\n

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<\/figure>2) BYTEDANCE HAS BEEN BUILDING AN AI MUSIC BEAST\u2026 WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM THE BEATLES AND MICHAEL JACKSON<\/a><\/span><\/h6>\n

TikTok<\/strong>\u2019s $300 billion<\/strong>-valued parent company, ByteDance<\/strong>, is one of the world\u2019s busiest AI developers. It plans to spend billions of dollars on AI chips this year, while its tech gives Sam Altman\u2019s OpenAI<\/strong> a run for its money.<\/p>\n

ByteDance\u2019s Duobao<\/strong> AI chatbot is currently the most popular AI assistant in China, with 78.6 million<\/strong> monthly active users as of January.<\/p>\n

It can also generate music.<\/p>\n

In September, ByteDance added an AI music generation function<\/strong> to the Duobao app, which apparently \u201csupports more than ten types of music styles and allows you to write lyrics and compose music with one click\u201d.<\/p>\n

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Photo: Press<\/figcaption><\/figure>3) SONY GENERATED $2.70 BILLION FROM RECORDED MUSIC AND PUBLISHING IN CALENDAR Q4, AS ATEEZ TOPPED FIRM\u2019S GLOBAL SALES CHART<\/a><\/span><\/h6>\n

Sony<\/strong>\u2019s global music rights operation \u2013 across recorded music and music publishing \u2013 generated USD $2.70 billion<\/strong> in the three months to end of December 2024.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s according to MBW<\/em>\u2019s calculations based on Sony Group Corp<\/strong>\u2019s calendar Q4 2024 (fiscal Q3) results, as announced by the Japanese firm on Thursday (February 13).<\/p>\n

The $2.70 billion figure was up 7.1% year-on-year<\/strong> (on the figure Sony reported in calendar Q4 2023) at US dollar-converted constant currency.<\/p>\n

However, the calendar Q4 figure was boosted by Sony changing the way it reports quarterly recorded music streaming sales from one digital platform, from a net basis to a gross basis. The precise impact of this change was unstated by Sony…<\/p>\n

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<\/figure>4) ALFONSO PEREZ-SOTO AND MICHAEL LOBIONDO JOIN MICHAEL RYAN SOUTHERN\u2019S M&A TEAM AT WARNER MUSIC GROUP<\/a><\/span><\/h6>\n

Warner Music Group<\/strong> is getting serious about M&A.<\/p>\n

On Monday\u00a0(February 10), WMG revealed that it is strengthening its Corporate Development team led by Michael Ryan Southern<\/strong>. According to a press release, Warner is seeking to \u201cturbocharge its growth<\/strong>\u201d via M&A.<\/p>\n

The move sees Alfonso Perez-Soto<\/strong> named EVP, Corporate Development, focusing on Recorded Music, and Michael LoBiondo<\/strong> appointed SVP, Corporate Development, focusing on Publishing.<\/p>\n

The pair report to \u00a0Michael Ryan Southern (EVP, Chief Corporate Development Officer), who said in a statement today that, with these two appointments, the company now has \u201ca strong M&A machine working together to find opportunities for the entire WMG group\u201d…<\/p>\n

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<\/figure>5) UNIVERSAL ACQUIRES MAJORITY STAKE IN JAPANESE MUSIC COMPANY A-SKETCH<\/a><\/span><\/h6>\n

Universal Music Japan (UMJ), a division of Universal Music Group (UMG) has acquired a majority stake in Japanese music company A-Sketch.<\/p>\n

A-Sketch operates as both an artist management business and record label. It is home to popular Japanese artists, including Saucy Dog, Flumpool, and Ayumu Imazu.<\/p>\n

Japan is the world’s second-largest recorded music market, behind the United States.<\/p>\n

A-Sketch will operate as a label division within Universal Music Japan, under the continued leadership of Nobuyuki Soma, Representative Director and President, A-Sketch, who will report to Universal Music Japan\u2019s President & CEO, Naoshi Fujikura…<\/p>\n

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<\/figure>MBW\u2019s Weekly Round-Up is supported by Centtrip, which helps over 500 of the world\u2019s best-selling artists maximise their income and reduce their touring costs.<\/a><\/i><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The biggest stories from the past week \u2013 all in one place\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":111195,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,7],"tags":[121285,5066,3938,131669,133650,128819,133642,418],"class_list":["post-223838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-analysis","category-news","tag-africori","tag-alfonso-perez-soto","tag-bytedance","tag-fair-use","tag-michael-lobiondo","tag-sony-music-group","tag-thomson-reuters","tag-warner-music-group"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=223838"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223838\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}