Sony Music Group has made a major preemptive attack against artificial intelligence (AI), notifying AI companies that it will not allow the company’s music to be used to train models. The New York-based multinational media giant’s music division said in a “AI training refusal statement” on Thursday that AI developers are prohibited from using SMG’s vast catalog of music content.
In addition to issuing the declaration, Sony Music Group also sent letters directly to OpenAI, Microsoft and Google, among more than 700 additional unnamed AI companies, demanding that the major players stay away from Sony content, the BBC reported .
“We support artists and songwriters who are at the forefront of embracing new technologies to support their art,” Sony Music Group acknowledged. “Advances in technology have often changed the direction of the creative industries. AI is likely to continue this long-standing trend.”
However, these innovations must ensure that the rights of songwriters and recording artists, including copyright, are respected.
The company’s statement asked AI developers to disclose whether they had previously used the work of Sony artists to train models, how they accessed it, and how many copies of each copyrighted track they had.
The Sony Music Group entities included in the declaration were Sony Music Publishing (SMP), Sony Music Entertainment (SME) and their subsidiaries. All entities “expressly prohibit and deny any text or data mining, web scraping or similar reproduction, extraction or use of musical compositions, lyrics, audio recordings, audiovisual recordings, artwork, images and (and) data.” “For any purpose, including those related to the training, development or commercialization of AI systems.”
Sony, OpenAI, Google and Microsoft did not immediately respond. detoxification Request for comment.
Sony Artist is a popular destination for AI music enthusiasts who use their work collected by AI to create similar-sounding songs like this: AC/DC, Michael Jackson, Celine Dion, Adele, Travis Scott. AI-generated clones are rampant on YouTube, and several AI music platforms explicitly list specific artists they can emulate.
However, as Sony noted in its manifesto, some artists have taken direct approach to the technology, including: Billy Joel Jazz drummer on his single “Turn the Lights Back On” nate smithDoja Cat’s songwriter and Jonas Brothers.
In New Jersey, Smith says, “you’ll see musicians emerging who are building bridges between what AI can do and what humans can do. “And that person will create something that we can all emulate.” WBGO last summer.
For Jessica Agombar, composer of the Jonas Brothers’ “What a Man Gotta Do,” using AI is about using a tool, not replacing a first draft in the creative process.
“For me, there’s always been an art to organic songwriting and producing, to putting your own vocals on a record, to doing rough sketches of bad notes and bum notes,” Agombar told the BBC last October. “Because that’s rock and roll, I’m more interested in that than clean, polished AI, computerized stuff.”
Last April, Sony Entertainment, Warner Music Group, Universal Music Group, and Disney Music Group joined the Screen Actors Guild and SAG-AFTRA to allow record labels to use performers’ voices. I signed a contract restricting how I can stay there. .
“If companies want to use any kind of AI tool for digital voice reproduction, they must secure the artist’s written consent,” Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, the union’s executive director and chief negotiator, previously said. decoding. “Not only must it be secured, it must be in a separate document and cannot be part of the royalty agreement or key performer agreement.”
That same month, a group of artists including Billie Eilish, Katy Perry, Nicki Minaj, Pearl Jam, Jon Bon Jovi, Jonas Brothers, Peter Frampton, Billy Porter, Zayn Malik, Darius Rucker, Imagine Dragons, and Greta Van Fleet signed the Artist Rights Coalition. Rights Alliance and signed an open letter calling for an end to the unauthorized use of their voices.
At a meeting of the US Senate Judiciary Committee, British actress and musician FKA Twigs (real name Tahliah Debrett Barnett) spoke directly about how AI could impact artists.
“The bottom line is my spirit, my art. “My brand is my brand,” she said. “I spent years developing it and it’s mine. It doesn’t belong to anyone else, whether it’s used in a commercial sense or a cultural sense or even just for a laugh.”
“I am who I am. I am human. And we must protect it.”
Edited by Ryan Ozawa.
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