In today's CMU Daily: The National Music Publishers Association has some legislative proposals which it says will “permanently fix the power imbalance” faced by songwriters as a result of the compulsory licence in the US. This comes as the dispute over Spotify’s music and audiobooks bundling continues to heat up

One Liners: Otis Redding deal; Global Merch appointment; Neil Portnow lawsuit dismissed; AWAL launches AWAL Futures; Zayn to read bedtime story; Glastonbury new venues; Bob Vylan tour dates; new releases from Mike Lindsay, Why?, Reb Foundation, Clamm

Also today: Scarlett Johansson says ChatGPT stole her voice; Leadmill eviction battle gets to court; WIN unveils AI principles

Plus: Jahnah Camille is CMU Approved

US publishers plan “legislative proposals” in response to Spotify audiobooks bundling bust up 

The boss of the US National Music Publishers Association has said that the trade body will soon unveil legislative proposals that will “permanently fix the power imbalance” songwriters face in the American market because of the compulsory licence. 

David Israelite made that commitment in an article for Billboard about the big dispute between the music publishers and Spotify over its audiobook bundling tactics. What streaming services pay songwriters and publishers in the US is set out in the mechanical rights compulsory licence. Spotify is exploiting a bundling provision in that licence to lower what it pays on the songs side, by claiming that its main subscription product is a music and audiobooks bundle. 

The publishers - and the MLC, which administers the compulsory licence - both argue that Spotify doesn't qualify for the bundling discount by simply adding fifteen hours of audiobooks access to every premium subscription. But the bundling bust-up has nevertheless put the entire compulsory licence, reviewed every five years by the judges that make up the Copyright Royalty Board, back into the spotlight. 

In his article Israelite notes that, on the recordings side, record labels and music distributors each negotiate their own deals with the streaming services. 

“Record labels, who are in a free market, have immediate recourse against such underhanded tactics”, he writes. “They are not under a compulsory licence like songwriters, and they have the freedom to negotiate directly with streaming services like Spotify. Crucially, this means if they don’t like the way their royalties are affected by Spotify’s bundling strategy, they can say no”.

“Unfortunately, songwriters and music publishers cannot”, he adds. “They must go to court every five years and are at the mercy of three judges to interpret Spotify’s routing of the rules”.

The CRB hearings put negotiations between the music industry and the streaming services very much in the public spotlight as both sides seek to negotiate a one-stop-shop licence that works for all platforms and all rightsholders. 

There has been plenty of drama around those hearings over the years, with many streaming services fighting a rate increase set by the CRB judges for 2018-2022 through the appeal courts. Though for the 2023-2027 period, the industry and services reached an agreement relatively quickly, avoiding all the drama and litigation of the previous round. 

Next time though, the drama could return. “As we look to the next CRB trial, where we will again face the largest tech companies in the world, we had hoped to approach it as business partners, bolstered by several years of collaboration”, Israelite’s article continues. “This development has shattered that potential as Spotify has returned to attacking the very songwriters who make its business possible - and worse, they’re doing it through a dishonest work-around”.

The NMPA previously said it was considering its legal options in relation to Spotify's audiobook bundling. However, it was the MLC that actually filed a lawsuit, with the NMPA instead sending a stern letter accusing Spotify of having gaps in its licences in relation to lyrics, videos and podcasts. 

Suggesting the NMPA will now go the lobbying rather than litigation route on all this, Israelite revealed, “in addition to these legal challenges, soon we will unveil a legislative proposal to permanently fix the power imbalance songwriters face by being subject to a compulsory licence for their songs”. 

It’s not yet clear what that proposal might involve. Outside the US, music publishers and collecting societies privately negotiate licensing deals with the streaming services, like the labels and distributors do in the US. So the publishers could push for something similar in the US market. 

Although, on the songs side - because labels and distributors upload recordings containing songs without identifying what those songs are - the services generally look for one entity to provide a ‘mop-up licence’ covering any gaps in their other song licences in any one country.

Usually the local collecting society performs that role. It’s not clear if the MLC could continue to perform that task if the compulsory licence it currently administers was changed in any major way.

Either way, the Spotify audiobook bundling dispute could now prompt multiple strands of legal wrangling and debate.

Since publishing this story online earlier this afternoon, CMU has since been sent a copy of a letter from the NMPA to Congress setting out its legislative proposals, which you can read in full here.

Domino Publishing // Copyright & Royalties Assistant (London Hybrid)

All Flowers Group // Project Manager (London)

Spiritmuse Records // Label Manager (London Hybrid)

Your Culture // Campaign Management Assistant (Brighton)

Horizon is CMU's new weekly newsletter - published each Friday - that brings you a hand-picked selection of early-stage career opportunities from across the music industry.

Whether you're looking for your first job in music or you're ready to take a step up, Horizon is here to help you find your dream job faster.

👉 Click through to see the current selection.

ONE LINERS

Zayn, Glastonbury, Neil Portnow + more

DEALS 

Sony Music Publishing has signed a deal with the Otis Redding estate to administer the late musician’s catalogue of songs in the US. “For over 50 years I have been diligent to make sure Otis’s legacy remains relevant and recognisable around the world”, says his widow Zelma Redding. “I feel that the Sony Music Publishing team can assist my family in this never-ending effort”.

APPOINTMENTS

US merch company Global Merchandising has hired Lisa Streff as SVP Licensing & Brand Development. She has previously held roles at Bravado and Epic Rights. “With a successful track record in music merchandising, Lisa has been instrumental in developing merchandise and licensing programmes for some of the biggest artists in the world, including Kiss, Aerosmith and Def Leppard”, says Global Chair Barry Drinkwater. “Her expertise will make her a valuable addition to our team, leading Global’s North American efforts as we continue to build and grow our artists’ programmes”.

LEGAL

A sexual assault case against former Recording Academy boss Neil Portnow has been dismissed at the request of his anonymous accuser. She filed a motion to dismiss on Sunday, citing “fear of potential grave harm” as a result of moves by Portnow’s legal team to have her name revealed in court documents and a dispute with her own lawyers. She will be able to resubmit the case in the future. 

DISTRIBUTION 

Sony Music’s AWAL has partnered with Creative Futures Collective to launch the AWAL Futures programme - an initiative to launch and support the careers of artists from underrepresented communities. The first acts to benefit are Bitters, NanaBcool and Jay Wood. “Our core mission is to partner with independent artists to tell stories that shape culture, so joining forces with CFC is a natural partnership”, says AWAL CEO Lonny Olinick.

MEDIA 

Zayn Malik is the latest musician to read to your kids on ‘CBeebies Bedtime Story’. Interested toddlers will be able to hear him run through ‘Music Is In Everything’ by Ziggy Marley from tomorrow, Malik being a big fan of Ziggy’s dad. “I chose this book because I love Bob Marley, and because music and reading are both important to me as a parent”, says Malik. “I sing to my daughter at night-time when she goes to sleep and I read to her at bedtime too. I feel like this will be something really cool to show her, so I’m up for reading a CBeebies Bedtime Story!”

GIGS & FESTIVALS

Glastonbury has announced two new venues for 2024 - The Wishing Well, which will be “a place in which to ignite your deepest desires and unfurl your wildest wishes”, and “utterly delicious femme-queer venue” Scissors. Both will replace The Rabbit Hole, which has been part of the festival for seventeen years. 

Bob Vylan have announced UK tour dates in October and November, finishing up with a performance at Brixton Electric in London on 7 Nov. Tickets go on general sale on Friday. 

RELEASES

Mike Lindsay has released new single ‘Pretender To Surrender’ featuring Anna B Savage. His debut solo album 'Supershapes Volume 1’ is out on 14 Jun.

Why? will release their eight studio album ‘The Well I Fell Into’ on 2 Aug. Out now is its first single ‘The Letters, Etc’.

Reb Fountain has released a cover of ‘How Bizarre’. Yes, that ‘How Bizarre’. 

Clamm have announced that they will release new EP ‘Disembodiment’ on 19 Jul. Out now is new single ‘Change Enough’.

Scarlett Johansson accuses ChatGPT of stealing her voice

How performers protect their voices in the context of AI is back in the spotlight thanks to a dispute between movie star Scarlett Johansson and ChatGPT developer OpenAI. She says she was approached by OpenAI boss Sam Altman last year about working on the creation of an AI voice. She declined but has now discovered that one of the five AI assistant voices offered by ChatGPT sounds very like her. Though, OpenAI insists, that's just a coincidence. 

Altman last year told Johansson that by providing her voice for a ChatGPT AI assistance she could "bridge the gap between tech companies and creatives" and "help consumers to feel comfortable", the actor said in a statement yesterday. She declined to get involved but - she added - friends, family and the general public have all since noted that the ChatGPT voice assistant called Sky "sounded like me". 

Saying she was "shocked" and "angered" that Altman would create an AI voice "so eerily similar to mine", she also noted that the OpenAI boss himself seemingly acknowledged the similarity in a post on X. Last week - as the Sky voice was used in a live demonstration - he posted the single word "her", seemingly referring to the 2013 film 'Her', in which a character played by Joaquin Phoenix develops an intimate relationship with an AI virtual assistant played by Johansson. 

Although, in response to Johansson's statement, OpenAI suspended use of the Sky voice, the AI company nevertheless denies any wrongdoing. Altman told reporters, "The voice of Sky is not Scarlett Johansson's and it was never intended to resemble hers. Out of respect for Ms Johansson, we have paused using Sky's voice in our products. We are sorry to Ms Johansson that we didn't communicate better". 

In a blog post, the company says, "In September of 2023, we introduced voice capabilities to give users another way to interact with ChatGPT. Since then, we are encouraged by the way users have responded to the feature and the individual voices. Each of the voices - Breeze, Cove, Ember, Juniper and Sky - are sampled from voice actors we partnered with to create them". 

"We believe that AI voices should not deliberately mimic a celebrity's distinctive voice", it adds. "Sky’s voice is not an imitation of Scarlett Johansson but belongs to a different professional actress using her own natural speaking voice. To protect their privacy, we cannot share the names of our voice talents".

Nevertheless, Johansson said in her statement that her lawyers had now written to Altman and OpenAI seeking clarity on the "exact process" the company went through in creating the Sky voice. She added, "In a time when we are all grappling with deepfakes and the protection of our likeness, our own work, our own identities, I believe these are questions that deserve absolute clarity". 

The creative industries, including the music industry, have been very vocal about the need for clear legal protections for performers - and people more generally - to stop the use of their voice and likeness in the training of generative AI. 

Copyright can help to an extent, but it is widely agreed that a strong personality right is also needed. That right doesn't currently exist in the UK and, in the US, only exists at a state level. Though a US-wide federal publicity right has been proposed in US Congress. 

Copyright owners also want AI companies to have strong transparency obligations so that they declare what content has been used to train any one AI model. 

Such transparency will allow creators and performers to identify if their work, voice or likeness has been exploited, especially where similarities appear and AI companies inevitably argue those similarities are a coincidence. 

Though, where creators and performers are being hired specifically to work on the training of AI models - as is seemingly the case here - would those transparency obligations force that work to be publicly declared? If not, they wouldn't necessarily help Johansson in this dispute.

Approved: Jahnah Camille

A rising star of the Birmingham, Alabama indie scene, Jahnah Camille has picked up support slots with the likes of Clairo and Soccer Mommy in recent times. After a gap of a few years, she’s now also back releasing music. Following on from new single ‘Flesh’ last month, she’s now put out ‘Roadkill’.

"’Roadkill' is an energetic breakup song that details all of my desires, distress and all of my ex partner’s shortcomings, highlighting what a brighter future could be”, she says.

Camille’s songs have a tender indie-rock feel, with production that lends themselves to listening while lying flat on some grass in the sunshine. Both new songs are taken from her upcoming EP ‘I Tried To Freeze Light, But I Only Remember A Girl’, which is set for release on 21 Jun.

🎧 Watch the video for ‘Roadkill’ here

Leadmill eviction battle in court

The legal battle over who gets to run Sheffield venue The Leadmill got going in court yesterday, with the venue’s current operator alleging human rights violations and that, if his team departs the building, it will likely need a new roof. Both of those arguments received polite  - if slightly baffled - rebuttals from lawyers working for the building’s owner, The Electric Group.

Among other things, the court heard that the current operator, if forced to leave, will take all his fixtures and fittings with him, leaving “a brittle shell”, and that removing an air ventilation system could result in a new roof being required. A revelation that prompted The Electric Group’s lawyer to state, “I have never encountered, ever, a wall and a roof being part of a tenant’s fixtures”.

The building that houses The Leadmill was acquired by The Electric Group - which operates a small network of venues around the UK - back in 2016. Initially the venue continued to be run by its existing management team led by Phil Mills but, in March 2022, the landlord decided it wanted to directly manage the space and gave Mills one year to vacate the premises.

That prompted a big Save The Leadmill campaign, supported by lots of artists and fans, which called on The Electric Group to allow Mills to keep running the building. Meanwhile, Mills and his team refused to vacate the premises - despite their notice period lapsing in March 2023 - and continued to book new shows. As a result The Electric Group began formal eviction proceedings, which reached court yesterday.

At times the Save The Leadmill campaign has implied that, if Mills and his team are forced out, Sheffield will lose a key grassroots music venue. However, The Electric Group and its CEO Dominic Madden have insisted throughout that they intend to continue running the building as a venue presenting more or less the same kind of programme as the current Leadmill team.

That commitment was used against Madden in court yesterday, with lawyers repping Mills arguing that The Electric Group’s plan to continue running a venue in the Leadmill building somehow breaches human rights law. 

According to the BBC, lawyer Tom Hickman told the court that Madden running a venue in the Leadmill building “exploiting goodwill” that has been built up by Mills would violate article one of the UK Human Rights Act, which protects a person’s right to property. 

Responding, Madden’s lawyer Wayne Clark told the court, “With respect to my learned friend, he's reading far too much into it”. Which is probably barrister code for “that’s bullshit”.

Nicholas Trompeter, also repping Mills, then talked through all the improvements his client has made to the Leadmill building over the years, adding that lease terms mean all the fixtures and fittings that have been added along the way can be removed as the current tenant departs. It will then - the lawyer claimed - cost £4.7 million and take at least six months for The Electric Group to get the building back in position where it can operate as a venue.

“In the event that those fixtures and fittings are removed it’s probably not an exaggeration to say that the premises would be left as a brittle shell, a bit like the old flour mill it once was”, Trompeter explained, before adding that revelation that the removal of an air ventilation system could result in a new roof being required.

Madden’s rep Clark was somewhat disparaging of that argument too. After insisting that his client has access to any cash required to fund a refit, which was planned anyway, it was then that he noted, “I have never encountered, ever, a wall and a roof being part of a tenant’s fixtures”.

The hearing on the Leadmill eviction order was expected to run for two to three days, although lawyers working for Mills have asked for the case to be adjourned because they need more time to respond to evidence submitted by Madden’s legal team.

Setlist Podcast: Music publishers go to war with Spotify

In this week's Setlist Podcast: Chris Cooke and Andy Malt discuss the battle between music publishers and Spotify over it’s plans to reclassify its subscriptions as bundles of music, audiobooks and podcasts, and commercial media companies hit out at the BBC’s plan to sell advertising on its podcasts.

🎧 Click here to listen - or search for 'Setlist Podcast'

WIN publishes key principles for generative AI

The Worldwide Independent Network - which speaks for independent music companies across the globe - has published five key principles around the use and development of generative AI. Like other music industry organisations, it puts an emphasis on protecting human creators and pressing the need for permission when training AI models on copyrighted content. 

“The global independent music community welcomes new technological developments which respect the value of music and creators' rights”, says WIN CEO Noemí Planas. “These principles for generative AI are the result of extensive consultation with independents around the world and align with our recently published Global Independent Values”.

“With these principles provided as a compass, we look forward to collaborating with responsible AI developers and inspiring policymakers around the world”, she concludes. 

The five AI principles are:

• AI development is subject to copyright.

• Prioritising a human-centred approach.

• Safety of creators, fans, consumers and the public.

• Transparency as a fundamental element.

• Ethical AI development hand-in-hand with music.

The principles have been written in consultation with trade bodies representing independent music companies from all over the world. 

In the UK that includes the Association Of Independent Music, whose interim CEO Gee Davy says, “The global independent music community believes in leadership through knowledge-sharing and inclusive discussion. These principles have been created in that light, to provide the basis for meaningful collaboration. and create a successful and creative future for AI in music, to the benefit of all participants”.

A number of industry organisations have previously published their own AI principles, as use of the technology has grown. Particularly as the industry has gone head to head with those AI companies that insist they do not need permission to train AI models on copyrighted content. 

Last year, UK Music published its own list of five principles, which also highlighted the need to protect human creativity and for transparency. It also called for the labelling of music generated by AI and the introduction of a new personality right in the UK. The Council Of Music Makers then published five AI fundamentals too, echoing the demands of UK Music, but also calling on record labels and music publishers to seek creator consent before undertaking any music AI projects. 

Globally, the Human Artistry Campaign launched a manifesto at SXSW in March 2023. And then in July last year a group of organisations representing songwriters, performers and their collecting societies issued seven principles, which covered similar ground to the Human Artistry Campaign, but also went into more detail in some areas - notably calling for a system to credit human creators when their work is used by AI, and the development of a clearer system for AI companies to licence copyrighted work.