Photo Credit: Cytonn Photography
UMG’s copyright infringement lawsuit against Udio is officially dismissed in light of their deal to collaborate on a new music streaming venture.
Universal Music Group (UMG) has officially settled its copyright infringement lawsuit against AI company Udio in light of the companies’ deal to collaborate on a new music creation and streaming platform set to launch next year.
The first-of-its-kind partnership (which thus far is only between UMG and Udio; no other major labels or plaintiffs are involved at this juncture) promises to deliver “further revenue opportunities for UMG artists and songwriters.” It will also allow users to customize, stream, and share music within a “licensed and protected” environment.
But while the ink was still drying on the deal, artist advocate organizations, including the Music Artists Coalition (MAC), have been champing at the bit for clarity on the inner workings of the partnership—namely artist consent and revenue splits.
“Every technological advance offers opportunity, but we have to make sure it doesn’t come at the expense of the people who actually create the music—artists and songwriters,” said Irving Azoff, board member and founder of MAC. “We’ve seen this before—everyone talks about ‘partnership,’ but artists end up on the sidelines with scraps. Artists must have creative control, fair compensation, and clarity about the deals being done based on their catalogs.”
Meanwhile, Udio’s user base has been up in arms over the company’s swift shuttering of the ability to download creations made on the platform, even for its paying subscribers. To address the rapidly escalating backlash, Udio announced a 48-hour window, scheduled to begin today (November 3), allowing users to download all existing creations under the platform’s original (pre-settlement) terms of service.
But now that the damage is done, and the deal with UMG promises a walled garden environment that will undoubtedly prevent users from sharing their creations elsewhere, how many Udio users will jump ship to another AI platform with… ahem, more lax copyright restrictions? That is until the hammer undoubtedly drops to whack another mole from the playing field.
As we pointed out earlier, the questions pour in faster than we can hope to get satisfying answers. So what will it take before UMG head Lucian Grainge chimes in to offer some much-needed clarity on the Udio partnership?
