SoundPatrol, a research lab for large music models, has revealed a collaboration with both Universal Music Group and Sony Music to protect artists from copyright infringement activity coming from AI music generators.
SoundPatrol’s patent-pending ‘forensic AI model for audio-video fingerprinting’ employs neural embeddings, which capture and analyse musical semantics in order to identify the influence of original human-created music in fully or partly AI-generated music content.
“The technology represents a step change in copyright detection and responsible music creation and is tailored specifically to capture the evolving complexities of the music landscape,” said a statement.
The announcement of the collaboration involving two majors follows Spotify’s roll-out of measures to deal with generative AI and prevent it from unfairly impacting artists.
Sir Lucian Grainge, UMG’s chairman and CEO, said: “We’re constantly focused on enabling AI – bringing to market the many commercial and creative opportunities that will benefit our artists while establishing effective tools to protect them. Bringing solutions to the table that support the entire industry is at the heart of our relationship with SoundPatrol, who share our commitment to safeguarding our artists’ creative integrity and work.”
Dennis Kooker, president, global digital business, Sony Music, said: “The possibilities of AI present opportunities for artists and creators when used the right way. We're committed to navigating this developing landscape by protecting their work while also exploring the innovative potential of these technologies. Our collaboration with SoundPatrol is about respecting artists’ rights to build a sustainable and equitable ecosystem for everyone.”
Bringing solutions to the table that support the entire industry is at the heart of our relationship with SoundPatrol
Sir Lucian Grainge
Neural fingerprinting is a significant advancement beyond traditional audio fingerprinting techniques. It captures semantic relationships to identify covers, remixes and generative-AI derivatives.
SoundPatrol will also develop tools and models designed to proactively help third-party platforms and research labs prevent copyright violations.
The lab originated at Stanford University with leading AI, machine learning and cybersecurity academics.
Walter De Brouwer, SoundPatrol co-founder and CEO, said: “Generative AI is transforming music in extraordinary ways, but if we abandon copyright, we risk severing artists from ownership of their own work. It is compulsory to proactively feed deep embeddings of these neural signatures into streaming infrastructures so that owners can maintain control, authenticity, and monetization of their intellectual property in the generative AI era. Eliminating copyright to accelerate AI is like changing the speed of light to advance physics – it misunderstands the fundamental laws that sustain creativity.”
Michael Ovitz, SoundPatrol co-founder and chairman, said: “This is a huge victory for all artists in the creative universe.”
He added: “One of the premier issues affecting artists has always been the protection of their intellectual property rights. SoundPatrol has answered the long-standing problem of IP theft by creating a frontier lab with neural fingerprinting capabilities that can identify all pipelines of directly transmitted content, whether on its own or intermixed, in real time. This is the first of-its-kind technology implemented to protect all copyright holders and creators of any type of intellectual property.”
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