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GrayFlannel

macrumors 6502
Feb 2, 2024
405
797
It is not semantics. Spotify's license is for serving artists' recordings of a particular composition. They are not licensed to publish the lyrics to that composition, just as a theatre is not licensed to publish the script of a play they are showing. Just because Spotify has the lyrics doesn't mean they can republish them without a license, because that would be a copyright violation, and that's exactly the situation the law intends to address. Republishing performances is completely different than republishing the performances' source material.

Uhhh, ummm….I’ll wait for a court filing to see what is argued.
 

Analog Kid

macrumors G3
Mar 4, 2003
9,061
11,859
I thought this was an interesting take on AI music:


I'm not sure I agree with all of his conclusions, but the highlights a very important distinction between musical output and the musical creation process.
 
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Analog Kid

macrumors G3
Mar 4, 2003
9,061
11,859
Their song-generation prgm has built some sort of super mean song of thousands it has in its database

That seems to describe pop music pretty well, actually... Was that angsty song about writing code all night really any worse that something Weird Al would put out?
 
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wbeasley

macrumors 65816
Nov 23, 2007
1,368
1,515
AI “art” is garbage and will always be so because truly great art is borne from real human emotion and experiences. Sure, AI will probably be used to make jingles for commercials. But it will never be the same, because art is more than just the end product.

Mass produced paintings have been around for a very long time. There’s a market for them, but nobody would ever hang them in a museum. Or travel across the world to see them in person
Did you listen to the ai generated song? Still super boring . Pfff and the lyrics… no comments. Their song-generation prgm has built some sort of super mean song of thousands it has in its database but creativity is not exactly that.
Wait until the first AI song charts...

The leaps the tech has come up with in such a short time.
Remember when CGI looked like CGI... took years to improve.

It's only a couple years since I started playing with Text 2 Speech voiceovers for work training videos.
Initial stuff was really bad. Robotic.
I found another tool and blew the manager's mind when he couldnt believe it was computer generated.

Since then, there are some way better algorithms.
And now singing.

Five years from now? Are you going to know? EDM is pretty generic now. I'd think AI will quickly analyze what makes a dance hit. They aren't lyrically deep, they follow patterns. Even humans who write them now do much the same.
 

Gasu E.

macrumors 603
Mar 20, 2004
5,051
3,178
Not far from Boston, MA.
So they can play the music but if they display the lyrics to those songs, that's infringement? Sounds like they're arguing over semantics, and if this is what copyright law had intended, it all needs to be torn down.
It's not "semantics"; all these terms are extremely well defined via case law. And the purpose of these distinctions is precisely to make sure songwriters don't get ripped off by music publishers. Tearing down the laws means going back to square one, where the publishers keep everything.
 
Dec 4, 2022
692
1,271
I saw on YT that aside from all the money laundering Swedish crime gangs do on Spotify that one of the most popular creators on there just pumps out generative fake music under 40 aliases.
 
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Jensend

macrumors 65816
Dec 19, 2008
1,432
1,638
Tidal pays the most. Apple is #2 right behind them. Spotify is 4.
The individual subscription for each of these services is $10.99 a month in the US. I live in the US. Which service should I subscribe to if I want the highest percentage of my subscription money to go to the rights holders? Can you give an estimate of how many dollars would go to the rights holders for each service? Does it depend on how many songs I listen to? What if I just listen to one song in a particular month?
 

steve09090

macrumors 68020
Aug 12, 2008
2,227
4,237
The individual subscription for each of these services is $10.99 a month in the US. I live in the US. Which service should I subscribe to if I want the highest percentage of my subscription money to go to the rights holders? Can you give an estimate of how many dollars would go to the rights holders for each service? Does it depend on how many songs I listen to? What if I just listen to one song in a particular month?
Don’t listen to new artists. Spotify pay them a total of $0 if they have less than 1,000 streams.

As Spotify say
“Today, Spotify hosts well over 100 million tracks. Tens of millions of them have been streamed between 1 and 1,000 times over the past year”

And don’t even think you’re getting anything if you add mindfulness music. if you have a song that is less than 2 minutes you will get nothing even if you get a million streams.

Spotifys view on new artists.
“Well, an artist with 20 songs at just under 1,000 streams each previously would earn around $60. Now that artist would earn $0. $60 is not life changing”
“the royalty pool that should be delivered to honest, hardworking artists.” And also to get more money into the royalty pool by taking from the songs where it wouldn’t make a material difference to the artist. What’s a few dollars here and there?"
 

tcgjeukens

macrumors regular
May 16, 2007
203
357
Esbeek, the Netherlands
This is about the songwriters, not the musicians who perform their songs.
#singersongwriter. A piece of music is a) written by somebody and b) performed by somebody. I assume that a Performer has obtained the rights of the Writer to sing the Song and make money with it. So if a Performer gets paid for the Song being be heard, does that mean those royalties cover the embedded permission from the Writer to have the Song being heard?
I guess lawyers could make a case to extend the value chain towards the Pen the Writer holds, the chair he/she sits on, the SW he/she uses. Great we have blockchain to connect the dots.
 

wanha

macrumors 68000
Oct 30, 2020
1,561
4,504
It's my understanding that Apple doesn't pay artists well either.
The whole streaming music business is a good deal for consumers, streaming companies, and to some degree record companies but a terrible one for artists, which is why they have become so more reliant on merchandise and touring income.

To them, music has become a way of getting attention (customers in the door) rather than the main money maker of their business, which is perverse and results in worse music.

Hopefully this changes, as I would like to live in a world that rewards artists without forcing them to become business men and women.
 
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Jensend

macrumors 65816
Dec 19, 2008
1,432
1,638
Don’t listen to new artists. Spotify pay them a total of $0 if they have less than 1,000 streams.

As Spotify say
“Today, Spotify hosts well over 100 million tracks. Tens of millions of them have been streamed between 1 and 1,000 times over the past year”

And don’t even think you’re getting anything if you add mindfulness music. if you have a song that is less than 2 minutes you will get nothing even if you get a million streams.

Spotifys view on new artists.​
“Well, an artist with 20 songs at just under 1,000 streams each previously would earn around $60. Now that artist would earn $0. $60 is not life changing”
“the royalty pool that should be delivered to honest, hardworking artists.” And also to get more money into the royalty pool by taking from the songs where it wouldn’t make a material difference to the artist. What’s a few dollars here and there?"
Their policies sound reasonable to me, though I'd think the threshold would be based on plays per artist rather than plays per song.

I can see why they'd want to pay less when someone plays a 31 second track of white noise on loop for four hours than they'd pay if someone listened to four different hour-long albums by a musician.

And they don't say you get nothing on songs less than 2 minutes long, they say you get nothing for "noise" tracks less than 2 minutes long. If you have a rain forest ambience track, make it at least 2 minutes long. Though it seems to me that they should just pay per minute for noise tracks rather than having a hard cutoff.

Anyway, my point is that Spotify passes the same amount to rights holders, even though they may have a slightly different way of splitting the revenues between various rights holders.

It's probably best to pick your music service based on how you like the service and software, rather than based on misleading metrics about how much each service pays per listen.
 

steve09090

macrumors 68020
Aug 12, 2008
2,227
4,237
Their policies sound reasonable to me, though I'd think the threshold would be based on plays per artist rather than plays per song.

I can see why they'd want to pay less when someone plays a 31 second track of white noise on loop for four hours than they'd pay if someone listened to four different hour-long albums by a musician.

And they don't say you get nothing on songs less than 2 minutes long, they say you get nothing for "noise" tracks less than 2 minutes long. If you have a rain forest ambience track, make it at least 2 minutes long. Though it seems to me that they should just pay per minute for noise tracks rather than having a hard cutoff.

Anyway, my point is that Spotify passes the same amount to rights holders, even though they may have a slightly different way of splitting the revenues between various rights holders.

It's probably best to pick your music service based on how you like the service and software, rather than based on misleading metrics about how much each service pays per listen.
So you still think it’s okay that emerging artists get paid nothing unless they go viral, but someone like Taylor Swift could release a song of her clearing her throat and she’d get thousands. Because she is (according to Spotify) a hard working artist and deserves it more.
 

JungeQuex

macrumors regular
Sep 16, 2014
202
506
I agree let's tear it all down.

Now did you get your Legal degree from Macrumors University or a proper college ?
What’s a proper college? One where losers go to and graduate with useless “skills” to have zero career path and live at home afterward in debt?
 

Chazak

macrumors 6502
Aug 15, 2022
474
725
This is about lining the pockets of lawyers and record execs. If more money is extracted from Spotify as a result of this, musicians will see an extra penny in their royalty check each month.
This is about one thing - using someone else's property without paying for it and without permission.
 
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eboychik

Contributor
Jun 19, 2003
105
73
NJ USA
I agree let's tear it all down.

Now did you get your Legal degree from Macrumors University or a proper college ?

#singersongwriter. A piece of music is a) written by somebody and b) performed by somebody. I assume that a Performer has obtained the rights of the Writer to sing the Song and make money with it. So if a Performer gets paid for the Song being be heard, does that mean those royalties cover the embedded permission from the Writer to have the Song being heard?
I guess lawyers could make a case to extend the value chain towards the Pen the Writer holds, the chair he/she sits on, the SW he/she uses. Great we have blockchain to connect the dots.
Separate rights.
 
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