Universal Music Group, the record label representing both artists, said the song was “both a breach of our agreements and a violation of copyright law”. The track quickly became an online sensation but has sparked a furious response from the music industry. Heart On My Sleeve, which clones the voices of the two best-selling artists, has racked up more than 20 million streams across Spotify, TikTok and Twitter in recent days. Spotify hit a new milestone with the news it has reached 500 million users, but its premium subscriber portion fell to a ratio of 40% paid-to-free listeners, with 210 million premium subscribers and 317 million on the ad-supported plan.Spotify and Apple have removed a song that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to mimic Drake and The Weeknd from their streaming services after accusations of copyright violations. The company reported its Q1 revenue was up 14% year-over-year to €3.04 billion, and its ad revenue was up 17% year-over-year to €329 million. “And obviously, those are things that we’re working with our partners on trying to establish a position where we both allow innovation but, at the same time, protect all of the creators that we have on our platform,” Ek said. And those are legitimate concerns,” Ek said. I think the AI pushback from the copyright industry or labels and media companies…it’s really around really important topics and issues like name and likeness what is an actual copyright who owns the right to something where you upload something and claim it to be Drake, and it’s really not and so on. So AI DJ, in and of itself - I think we’ve had nothing but positive reactions from across the industry. “I do think it’s important to kind of separate AI DJ from the AI conversation. “That has the chance I think, to meaningfully augment that creative journey that many artists do,” he noted.Įk also felt it was important to stress the difference between something like an AI-powered feature like the DJ and the concerns around AI in creating fake tracks. He envisioned artists instructing the AI to make a song sound “a little more upbeat,” just using a voice command, for example, or telling the AI to “add some congas to the mix.” The CEO also spoke to AI’s potential to help people create music without having to understand how to use complicated music production tools. That’s solid traction for the still experimental new feature and also a positive indication of the benefit of Spotify’s investment in AI technologies. Though limited to the North American market and still in beta, the AI DJ is now reaching “millions” of active users every week, Spotify reported, representing more than 25% of user consumption on days that they use the DJ feature. The feature is still in its early days, having only begun rolling out to Spotify users ahead of its product launch event Stream On in March, where the company also introduced a revamped, video-focused user interface, powered by algorithms and machine learning, and new tools for artists and podcasters, among other things. Meanwhile, the company is benefiting from the use of AI in other areas, Ek stressed.įor example, Spotify’s recently launched AI DJ feature has been gaining traction. “I think the whole industry is trying to figure that out and trying to figure out training…I would definitely put that on the risk account because there’s a lot of uncertainty, I think, for the entire ecosystem,” he said. When later pushed as to what material impact AI developments could have on the business, Ek admitted that the progress in AI is both “really cool and scary” and that there is a risk to the wider ecosystem. “These are very, very complex issues that don’t have a single straight answer…But we’re in constant discussion with our partners and creators and artists and want to strike a balance between allowing innovation and, of course, protecting artists,” he added. And it’s important to state that there’s everything from…fake tracks from artists which falls in one bucket to…just augmenting using AI to allow for expression, which probably falls in the more lenient and easier buckets,” Ek continued. “We’re in constant dialogue with the industry about these things. Both roles it takes very seriously, he said. Ek noted that Spotify had to balance two objectives, including being a platform for allowing innovation around creative works, and one that needs to protect existing creators and artists.
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