Symphonic Distribution has forged a partnership with AI attribution and license management company, Musical AI, that will allow its users to become part of a licensed dataset used in AI training. Joining the dataset is a choice that Symphonic users must opt-in to and participating artists can earn additional income for their contribution.
Musical AI’s goal is to clean up what it calls the “Wild West of AI” by providing a way to track every time an AI model uses a given song in the dataset in hopes that this will help compensate the proper copyright owner for each time their work is employed by the AI model. Symphonic is the first major rights holder to partner with Musical AI, and Musical AI’s co-founder and COO Matt Adell says his team is currently “build[ing] a new layer based on attribution and security for training AI to the benefit of all involved.”
The AI training process is one of the most contentious areas of the burgeoning tech field. To learn how to generate realistic results, generative AI models must train on millions, if not billions, of works. Often, this includes copyrighted material that the AI company has not licensed or otherwise paid for. Today, many of the world’s biggest AI companies, including ChatGPT creator OpenAI and music AI generators Suno and Udio, take the stance that ingesting this copyrighted material is a form of “fair use” and that compensation is not required. Many copyright owners, however, believe that AI companies must obtain their consent prior to using their works and that they should receive some form of compensation.
Already, this issue has sparked major legal battles in the music business. The three major music companies — Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group and Sony Music — filed a lawsuit against Suno and Udio in June, arguing that training on their copyrights without permission or compensation was a form of widespread copyright infringement. A similar argument was made in a 2023 lawsuit filed by UMG, Concord, and ABKCO against Anthropic for allegedly using their copyrighted lyrics in training without proper licenses.
According to a spokesperson for the companies, one AI firm, who wishes to remain anonymous, has already signed up to use the Symphonic-affiliated dataset, and in the future, the dataset will likely be used by more. Artists who wish to participate can only opt-in if they totally control their own publishing and records to ensure there are no rights issues.
Licenses made between AI companies, Musical AI and Symphonic will vary, but ultimately that license will stipulate a certain percentage of revenue made will belong to rights holders represented in the dataset. Musical AI will create an attribution report that details how each song in the dataset was used by the AI company, and then AI companies will either pay out rights holders directly or through Musical AI, depending on what their deal looks like.
“Symphonic’s catalog has clear value to AI companies who need both excellent music by passionate artists and a broad representation of genres and sounds,” says Adell. “We’re thrilled to make them our first major rights holder partner.”
“We strive to make our services the most advanced in the business to support our artists. But any new technology needs to work for our artists and clients — not against them,” adds Jorge Brea, founder and CEO of Symphonic. “By partnering with Musical AI, we’re unlocking a truly sustainable approach to generative AI that honors our community.”
