From anti-AI lawsuits filed by big companies to Believe’s big acquisition plans… this is MBW’s weekly digest

Welcome to the weekly Music Business Worldwide roundup – where we make sure you catch the five biggest stories that hit our front pages over the last seven days. The MBW roundup is supported by Centripwhich helps over 500 of the world’s most famous artists maximize their revenue and reduce their touring costs.

In a not entirely unexpected move this week, three major music trends – Sony, universalAND Warner – has filed lawsuits against AI music generators Suno AND SoundThe move marks the first major attempt by studios to seek redress for alleged unauthorized use of copyrighted works to train artificial intelligence.

And while AI tools that can create complete songs in seconds clearly pose a threat to music rights holders, this week we learned of another potential threat: decline in demand for music streaming services. A YouGov survey in Sweden found that fewer people in Spotify’s home country now pay to stream music than two years ago.

We learned this in other news this week Be careful boss Denis Ladegaillerie – part of the recently acquired consortium 95% French digital music company – is looking at “transformational” takeoverpossibly a music publisher to add to the Believe ecosystem of companies.

We also learned that it was a record label, distribution company and entertainment network Create a music group lifted up $165 million in the financing round, which means it is valued at $1 billionwhich turned the nine-year-old company into a true unicorn.

Finally, this week’s news stated that Youtube leads conversations Sony, universal AND Warner to license music to train new AI technologies.

Here’s what happened this week…

1) HOW MAJOR LABS PLAN TO COST SUNO AND UDIO BILLIONS (AND WHY IT ALL DEPENDS ON MICHAEL BUBLÉ)

Lawsuits filed on Monday (June 24) by major record companies against music companies using AI Suno AND Udio leave no doubt that the music industry sees these types of AI tools as a threat to its existence.

“The unauthorized use of… copyrighted recordings by both companies threatens to eliminate the existing market for licensing sound recordings,” the lawsuit states, “as well as the future market for licensing sound recordings to generative AI companies.”

In other words, these technologies – which allow users to create songs in seconds using only text suggestions – could lead to the collapse of the entire music industry.

For the main music rights owners behind the lawsuits, failure is not an option…

2) WARNING SIGN? ACCORDING TO YOUGOV SURVEY, SWEDEN HAS FEWER PAYING MUSIC SUBSCRIBERS THAN 2 YEARS AGO

The music recording industry is optimistic about price increases premium streaming services in key markets.

However, a new study from the traditionally important streaming market, Swedenmay make those in the music industry think twice.

According to a YouGov poll, 56% Swedish residents currently pay for a premium subscription, either directly or through a bundle.

This number was lower compared to 59% respondents in Sweden who said they paid for a premium music subscription in 2022…

3) DENIS LADEGAILLERIE HAS FAITH IN HIS ARMS AGAIN – AND HE HAS AN EYE IN EYES

Prediction: There will likely be at least one in the recorded music industry Acquisition for over a billion dollars distribution and services entity over the next 12–24 months.

Surprise: this could very well have been the company behind the aforementioned acquisition Be careful.

This is what Believe’s founder and CEO says, Denis Ladegailleriein an exclusive conversation with Music Business Worldwide.

Ladegaillerie called MBW today following the news that its consortium – which Ladegaillerie co-owns with EQT and TCV – now owns 95% Believe in its recent share tender…

4) CREATE A $1 BILLION MUSIC GROUP BY RAISING $165 MILLION DURING THE INVESTMENT PERIOD

Create a music group secured A 165 million US dollars a minority investment round led by a private equity firm Ford flex pointMBW can reveal.

Watch out, unicorn! Investment round values Los Angeles-HQ’d Create at $1 billion– confirmed the spokesman.

Music industry veteran Karol Goldstuck also joined the financing round, which assumes that the group led by Flexpoint will acquire nearly one fifth of Create’s share capital.

Create says it will spend the money on fuel further global expansion and implement an “ambitious acquisition strategy”…

5) YOUTUBE TALKS TO SONY, UNIVERSAL AND WARNER ABOUT MUSIC LICENSING FOR AI TOOLS (REPORT)

Google‘S Youtube is in talks with three major music universities – Sony, universalAND Warner – licensing its music in order to train AI tools that will clone the music of popular artists – according to a report published in Financial Times.

YouTube wants to offer upfront cash in the form of a lump sum for acquiring the rights to specific artists’ music – with the consent of the artists themselves.

The idea is to encourage more artists to allow their work to be used to create AI music tools. YouTube wants “dozens” of artists to take parttwo people familiar with the matter told the FT.

YouTube’s initial efforts to work with artists on AI tools appear to have fallen short of expectations: only 10 artists agreed to participate in the training The path of dreamsa tool designed to bring AI-generated music to YouTube Shorts, a video platform that competes with TikTok…

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