You might have heard whispers about streaming fraud lurking in the corners of the music business. It seems to be a pesky game of hide and seek that platforms like Spotify are grappling with.

The recent court ruling against AI copyright protection upheld the established requirement of human authorship under current law, but broader questions remain as AI creativity advances. Determining appropriate rights and protections for increasingly autonomous machine-generated works poses complex challenges ahead.

Google's DeepMind created an AI tool, SynthID, that detects images made by AI. This has big implications as detection spreads to music, writing, and beyond. How will creative fields adapt?

Yesterday, I wrote a post exploring the potential downsides for songwriters of a BMI sale to private equity. I laid out the legitimate concerns around declining royalty distributions and lack of transparency. However, after reflecting further, I decided to challenge myself to see if I could make a case for why the deal could potentially turn out alright for creators. As an industry observer aiming for nuanced perspective, in today's post I present some counterpoints arguing why a BMI sale may not be all bad for writers' incomes.

The Crucial Role of Performing Rights Organizations

Performing rights organization BMI is exploring a sale to private equity, and songwriters are right to be extremely concerned. As a passionate industry observer and advocate for fair creator compensation, I'm taking a deep dive into what this deal could mean for writers' incomes.

SoundExchange is once again at odds with Sirius XM, accusing them of misrepresenting and underpaying royalties related to their internet streaming service. This conflict revolves around the distinction between Sirius' two primary services: its satellite subscription and internet streaming. Given that the U.S. Copyright Royalty Board has set different royalty rates for each, the lawsuit alleges Sirius XM has been strategically bundling these services, skewing revenue towards 'webcasting revenue' to reduce royalty costs.