{"id":231767,"date":"2025-05-16T16:43:04","date_gmt":"2025-05-16T15:43:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/?p=231767"},"modified":"2025-05-16T17:31:42","modified_gmt":"2025-05-16T16:31:42","slug":"from-trump-firing-a-top-copyright-official-to-soundcloud-fixing-ai-policy-its-mbws-weekly-round-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/from-trump-firing-a-top-copyright-official-to-soundcloud-fixing-ai-policy-its-mbws-weekly-round-up\/","title":{"rendered":"From Trump firing top copyright official to SoundCloud ‘fixing’ AI policy… 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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It was a week of dramatic developments in the field of AI.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration<\/strong> fired the US’s Register of Copyrights, Shira Perlmutter<\/strong>, shortly after Perlmutter issued a report asserting that using copyrighted works to train AI likely exceeds the limits of “fair use”<\/strong> under copyright law.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, SoundCloud<\/strong> felt the heat from artists over a change to its terms of service regarding AI. Following the backlash, CEO Eliah Seton<\/strong> said the company would be changing the T&Cs.<\/p>\n

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This was also a week of significant changes in the music industry. First, we got word that Jeremy Sirota<\/strong> will be stepping down as CEO of Merlin<\/strong> at the end of this year. Merlin, the digital licensing partner for indie labels and distributors, says it has developed a transition plan.<\/p>\n

Then we got word that Bill Ackman<\/strong> is no longer on the board of Universal Music Group<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, a group of scholars wrote to the judge adjudicating Drake<\/strong>‘s defamation lawsuit against UMG<\/strong>, arguing that treating the lyrics of Kendrick Lamar<\/strong>‘s Not Like Us<\/em> as factual would be a “dangerous” move.<\/p>\n

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

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<\/figure>1) DONALD TRUMP FIRES TOP US COPYRIGHT OFFICIAL \u2013 SENDING CONCERNING MESSAGE OVER MUSIC AND AI<\/a><\/span><\/h6>\n

Donald Trump<\/strong>\u2019s administration has fired a top public servant at the United States\u2019 Library of Congress.<\/p>\n

So far, so 2025.<\/p>\n

Yet the sudden removal from office of US Register Of Copyrights, Shira Perlmutter<\/strong>, last weekend brings with it context that could be of great importance \u2013 and concern \u2013 to the global music business. On Friday (May 9), Perlmutter and her team, via the US Copyright Office, issued a pre-publication version of a new report on copyright and artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n

The balanced report seems to take a stance that some tech titans won\u2019t appreciate: training AI on copyrighted songs without licensing likely exceeds \u2018fair use\u2019 definitions<\/strong> in the United States…<\/p>\n

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Photo: Kristoffer Tripplaar\/Alamy<\/figcaption><\/figure>2) BILL ACKMAN RESIGNS FROM UNIVERSAL MUSIC GROUP\u2019S BOARD OF DIRECTORS<\/a><\/span><\/h6>\n

Bill Ackman<\/strong> is no longer on the board of Universal Music Group<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The surprise news was confirmed Wednesday morning (May 14) by UMG via an investor announcement.<\/p>\n

It reads: \u201cUniversal Music Group N.V. (EURONEXT: UMG) announced that Non-Executive Director Bill Ackman has notified the company of his intention to resign from its Board of Directors effective today due to new executive and board obligations arising from his recent investments. The Board is very grateful for Mr. Ackman’s contributions to the Company…\u201d<\/p>\n

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Photo: Caitlin Mitchell<\/figcaption><\/figure>3) JEREMY SIROTA TO EXIT AS MERLIN CEO AT END OF 2025<\/a><\/span><\/h6>\n

Jeremy Sirota<\/strong> will step down as CEO of Merlin<\/strong>, the digital music licensing partner for independent labels and distributors, effective December 31, 2025, the organization announced Tuesday (May 13).<\/p>\n

The Merlin Board and Sirota said they have developed a transition plan as the organization searches for his successor.<\/p>\n

\u201cJeremy has been an extraordinary CEO for Merlin, bringing great focus, tremendous energy and brilliant thinking to one of the most important and challenging roles within the independent community,\u201d said Darius Van Arman<\/strong>, Chairperson of Merlin and co-founder of Secretly Group<\/strong>…<\/p>\n

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<\/figure>4) SOUNDCLOUD \u2018FIXES\u2019 AI POLICY FOLLOWING BACKLASH; CEO ELIAH SETON SAYS \u2018AI SHOULD SUPPORT ARTISTS, NOT REPLACE THEM\u2019<\/a><\/span><\/h6>\n

SoundCloud<\/strong> was at the center of an online storm over the weekend after critics spotted an update to the platform\u2019s T&Cs regarding AI training.<\/p>\n

The policy update, which was added in February 2024, stated: \u201cYou explicitly agree that your Content may be used to inform, train, develop or serve as input to artificial intelligence or machine intelligence technologies or services as part of and for providing the services\u201d.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday (May 14), SoundCloud CEO Eliah Seton<\/strong> stepped forward to tackle what he calls \u201cconfusion\u201d created by his company\u2019s choice of language in its terms of service regarding AI.<\/p>\n

Most importantly, Seton has confirmed that SoundCloud is now updating the troublesome text in its Terms of Use…<\/p>\n

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Photo: Jacob Giampa\/Shutterstock<\/figcaption><\/figure>5) COURT SHOULD REJECT DRAKE\u2019S \u2018DANGEROUS\u2019 ASSUMPTION THAT RAP LYRICS ARE FACTUAL IN CASE AGAINST UMG, SCHOLARS ARGUE<\/a><\/span><\/h6>\n

A group of academics are urging the court to dismiss Drake<\/strong>\u2019s defamation case against Universal Music Group<\/strong> over Kendrick Lamar<\/strong>\u2019s Not Like Us<\/em>, arguing that taking rap lyrics as factual threatens freedom of speech and risks a miscarriage of justice.<\/p>\n

In a proposed amicus brief sent on Wednesday (May 14) to federal court judge Jeannette A. Vargas<\/strong>, the four scholars, all linked to the University of California\u2013Irvine, warned of \u201cthe harms that arise when courts treat rap lyrics as confessions or factual representations.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDrake\u2019s defamation claim rests on the assumption that every word of Not Like Us<\/em> should be taken literally, as a factual representation,\u201d they wrote in their proposed brief.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis assumption is not just faulty\u2014it is dangerous…”<\/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":[5835,131060,133527,1747,2167,4049,588,134184,457,269],"class_list":["post-231767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-analysis","category-news","tag-ai","tag-bill-ackman","tag-defamation-lawsuit","tag-donald-trump","tag-drake","tag-jeremy-sirota","tag-merlin","tag-shira-perlmutter","tag-soundcloud","tag-universal-music-group"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231767","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=231767"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231767\/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=231767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}