More recently, UMG has set its sights on AI assistant Claude 2, developed by American tech startup Anthropic PBC. Instead of focusing on supposedly stolen voice talent, UMG has joined Concord Publishing and ABKCO Records to contest the AI assistant’s use of copyrighted lyrics. The complaint filed by the three music labels argues that “Anthropic unlawfully copies and disseminates vast amounts of copyrighted works—including the lyrics to myriad musical compositions owned or controlled by Publishers.” When the AI assistant Claude 2 is asked to recite lyrics from copyrighted music, they are regurgitated by the program. While websites like Genius, a large music lyric database, serve a similar function, they seek licensing agreements from the owners of the copyrighted material used on their site.

Even outside of music, AI companies have been in hot water over copyright law, with The Times filing a lawsuit against OpenAI, the operator of Chat GPT. The Times cites a similar claim to UMG, stating that their copyrighted materials are displayed by the program without permission. However, there is a deeper issue at the heart of both of these lawsuits. Copyrighted material is used to train these AI models. Understandably, both UMG and The Times are not thrilled by their material being used to improve the product of another business without credit or license. This is an issue posed by AI assistants across all mediums, with artists, musicians, and writers essentially having their work scraped from the internet and fed into a program that presents stolen work as original. 

ghotstwriter977’s ‘Heart on My Sleeve’ was a novelty designed to outline how producers and writers are often treated as disposable when compared to big-name artists like Drake. Speaking to CNN, ghostwriter977 said: “I was a ghostwriter for years and got paid close to nothing just for major labels to profit”. ghostwriter977 flipped this narrative on its head, producing and writing a compelling Drake song without involving the artist himself. In the case of Claude 2 and Chat GPT, the use of copyrighted content serves a less noble cause as many see the rise of generative AI programs to be reliant on the mass theft of other people’s work. This is an attitude expressed by UMC and associated parties in their filing against Anthropic. 

Most of us would wholeheartedly agree, that music is one of the healing luxuries we have in life that can transport us, and help elicit positive feelings of joy and euphoria. Bob Marley once said, “One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain” and according to some studies, this statement may be true. Our culture has erroneously taught us that we should find ways to get rid of negative feelings, rather than truly experience them. Music is one of the forms of escapism humans often turn to when it comes to escaping negative emotions, or to help them sit with those emotions and listen to what they’re trying to tell you.

According to a major study, Britain is a psychologically fragile society in which increased wealth has impacted soaring levels of individual isolation and stress. The Power of Music is a collaborative project between UK Music and Music For Dementia, which aims to illustrate how music can play more of a role in improving health and wellbeing. ‘The Power of Music’ report was recently launched at the Universal Music UK headquarters, with the goal to look at how music can support staff, create savings and generally improve healthcare services.

Grace Meadows, who is the campaign director Music for Dementia said,“The pandemic has shown us how we urgently need to reimagine health and social care in the UK.Music has a critical role to play in this and while we’re committed to making this happen, we can’t do this alone. We need leadership, public engagement and funding at the very least, including the appointment of a Power of Music Commissioner who will turn our recommendations into action. One of our biggest challenges is that many people still don’t fully appreciate the power of music, but we could begin to change that within a year. We’re calling upon the Government and leaders in the fields of health, care, music, charity and philanthropy to work together to ensure the greater use of music in social prescribing and make it a key tool in public health strategies.”

Although no real commitments have been made just yet, Nadine Dorries the UK government’s Culture Secretary who wrote the report’s foreword said: “Music can be a powerful tool. It is clear to me that more should be done to understand the social value of music, and the unique opportunities it presents to alleviate long-term and chronic conditions, including learning disabilities, depression and dementia. I look forward to working with the creative and health sectors to harness the power of music and boost its untapped potential to support health and wellbeing.”

Read the full report here.

Oh wow – it’s album time again. All those hours, days, weeks, months. All that writing, singing, recording, performing and mixing. It’s finally OUT !!!!! It always feels scary. I really hope you like it. https://t.co/wulalhC0eo pic.twitter.com/Krrcfu1QNA

— Gary Barlow (@GaryBarlow) November 27, 2020

Music News has commented on Gary approaching universal with the idea for his album saying, “I went to Universal, the record company, and I said, ‘Listen, I have got this idea but can I just record three songs? I don’t mean demos, I want to put the orchestra on, I want to mix it, I want to get right down the road with three songs’. And so I did: Big string sections, brass sections, the whole thing. I really wanted to know that it was right. Then I played it to them and they just said, ‘Listen, just go and finish the bloody thing. It’s fantastic.'”

David Joseph, boss at Universal Music UK has praised Barlow’s songwriting and the quality of his latest release to Music Week saying, “He’s got an extremely high quality threshold and he clearly knew what record he wanted to make. But it’s one thing knowing what record you want to make and how you want it to feel, the other thing is actually writing and recording a record that lives up to those expectations.”

The album which is made up of 14 songs and features artists such as Michael Bublé, Beverly Knight, Alesha Dixon and James Cordon amongst others. Luckily, The recording for the album the album was finished two weeks before lockdown after the pandemic hit. On explaining how the album came together, The Glasgow Times wrote, “And then it kind of took on another life then and I realised, actually, it’s not just an orchestral record, it’s a record celebrating musicians, that’s what it is.”

He continued to say “And their art, and the way they play together, and I don’t know if you’ve ever had the privilege of being stood near an orchestra, but to stand in the middle while they are playing my music, I mean it’s just thrilling on every level.”

As written in a previous article earlier this month in mxdwn UK, Barlow has already announced a UK Arena Tour for 2021. There is no doubt the tour will be hugely popular after the long awaited return of live music, as Gary will be performing songs from his new album with an orchestra plus special guest Beverly Knight. More information and ticket sales can be found here.

Album List

1. Who’s Driving This Thing
2. Incredible
3. Elita (ft Michael Bublé & Sebastían Yatra)
4. The Big Bass Drum
5. This Is My Time
6. Enough Is Enough (ft Beverley Knight)
7. Bad Libran
8. Eleven (ft Ibrahim Maalouf)
9. Before We Get Too Old (ft Avishai Cohen)
10. Supernatural
11. Oh What A Day (ft Chilly Gonzales)
12. What Leaving’s All About (ft Alesha Dixon)
13. The Kind Of Friend I Need (ft James Corden)
14. I Didn’t See That Coming

Deluxe edition:
15. Let’s Get Drunk
16. The Day The World Stopped Turning
17. You Make The Sun Shine (ft Barry Manilow)
18. Incredible (Live)
19. Incredible (F9 Charleston Remix)

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#TheShowMustBePaused

A post shared by Universal Music UK (@umusicuk) on Jun 1, 2020 at 1:11am PDT

The three major labels, Sony Music, Warner Music, and Universal Music, along with their subsidiaries, announced their partaking through social media today. Universal Music Group made a statement which reads “This Tuesday, June 2, the Universal Music Group family will observe “Black Out Tuesday” – a day to contemplate, connect, and organise,” using the hashtag #TheShowMustBePaused.

Universal UK will also be showing their support, saying “Universal Music UK stands proudly alongside the black community against all forms of racism, bigotry and injustice.” Further statements were made by Sony, as well as Columbia Records, Apple Music, and Interscope Records, who will be spending the rest of the week “taking long-term action”.

 

 

 

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  A post shared by Interscope Records (@interscope) on May 31, 2020 at 10:57am PDT

‘Black Out Tuesday’ will allow employees to reflect, connect, and take action. Whether the time is spent protesting, donating, or spreading the word, the music industry has shown that racism and injustice will not be tolerated. Artists who have joined the fight include Yungblud, Sam Fender, Mahalia, Ariana Grande, Halsey, and Beyoncé.

#TheShowMustBePaused is an initiative that is perfectly explained by Jamila Thomas and Brianna Agyemang of Atlantic Records, the two women who created it. In their statement, they wrote “The music industry is a multi-billion dollar industry. An industry that has profited prominently from Black art,” continuing, “This is not just a 24-hour initiative. We are and will be in this fight for the long haul.”

 

 

 

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#TheShowMustPause tomorrow. A post shared by Kojo Ebro Odogwu (@oldmanebro) on Jun 1, 2020 at 7:28am PDT

As well as landing the major deal for herself, Swift, one of Pops’ most influential and wealthiest artists, has used her influence to force record chiefs to pay more to other artists whenever their music is streamed on Spotify and Apple Music. The ‘Look What You Made Me Do’ singer agreed a deal that gives her more control over her own music, and a boost to future pay-outs to artists for their music played on streaming service Spotify.

Swift, 28, has earned 10 Grammys and is the only artist with four albums that have sold more than a million copies in their first week of release. Swift’s had massive success under her old label – who she signed with when she was a teenager – with the Financial Times stating that her catalogue is reportedly worth over $300 million (£233 million).

In a post on her Instagram page, Swift said: “I’m ecstatic to announce that my musical home will be Republic Records and Universal Music Group. Over the years, Sir Lucian Grainge and Monte Lipman have been such incredible partners. It’s so thrilling to me that they, and the UMG team, will be my label family moving forward. It’s also incredibly exciting to know that I’ll own all of my master recordings that I make from now on.

“It’s really important to me to see eye to eye with a label regarding the future of our industry. I feel so motived by using new opportunities created by the streaming world and the ever changing landscape of our industry… I also feel strongly that streaming was founded on and continues to thrive based on the magic created by artists, writers and producers.”

The deal with Universal Music Group (UMG) included an agreement that any future sales of UMG’s shares in Spotify were also redistributed to the artist. The ‘Shake it off’ singer told her 113 Instagram followers that UMG “have generously agreed to this, at what they believe will be much better terms and paid out previously by other major labels”.

In 2017, Swift returned to Spotify, a service with some 83 million paid subscribers around the world, nearly 3 years after publicly complaining that streaming services were not redistributing and sharing their profits with its artists.

Universal Music chief executive Lucian Grainge said in a statement that he supported and respected Swift’s long standing campaign for better working agreements for artists.

Grainge said: “because of her commitment to her fellow artists, not only did she want to partner with a company that understood her creative vision and had the resources and expertise to execute globally on her behalf, she also sought a partner whose approach to artists was aligned with hers”

“I feel strongly that streaming was founded on and continues to thrive based on the magic created by artists, writers and producers. I see this as a sign that we are headed towards positive change for creators – a goal I’m never going to stop trying to help achieve, in whatever ways I can,” says Swift, concluding her statement.

The 22-year-old has reportedly snubbed his mentor Simon Cowell by declining to carry on with his Syco record label, and instead gone for rival Universal Music, according to the Daily Star newspaper.

Horan has also began working with Adele’s writer and producer Greg Kurstin on his solo album in an effort to launch a massively successful career.

According to a US source, Simon Cowell’s label Syco “made a number of big money offers to try and persuade Niall to sign up but, in the end, Universal came in and put even more money on the table”

The Sun on Sunday newspaper reported that while Niall wrote songs with his band mates, he wanted to move away from his boyband image and on to writing serious music. “He wants to move away from boyband stuff and show what he can do, and he’s being doing some great work with Greg (Kurstin), among others,” a source told the publication.

On Twitter, the hashtag #WeAreReadyForSoloNiall was trending, with over 104,000 tweets.

A source also said “This will come as a real blow to Cowell who has been talking to Niall for months, wanting him to sign a deal with his label Syco. They’re chuffed to have got one over on Cowell and have taken one of 1D”

Meanwhile, the other members from the band have also been doing their own things. Liam Payne has signed a solo deal with Capitol UK and is looking to swap pop music for grime, while Harry Styles, who has recently finished filming Christopher Nolan’s new film ‘Dunkirk’ is believed to have an $80m deal with Columbia, which is owned by Sony. Louis Tomlinson is also believed to be planning to focus on his record label during the break, and he recently teamed up with Cowell to launch a new girl group.

The US source continued: “Cowell will be unhappy about it. “But Niall’s thrilled. He’s been telling pals he is really excited about his new music and this solo deal.

“It’s anyone’s guess where this decision leaves One Direction now.”