It’s the Weekly Headline Roundup!
This week we’re looking at SoundCloud’s new feature for super fans, Warner’s acquisition of Revelator, Suno’s voice cloning tool, and more.
RIAA, NMPA, and more file amicus brief backing UMG, Concord and ABKCO in original Anthropic case, arguing AI firm’s unlicensed copying is ‘inexcusable’
The RIAA, NMPA, and six other key music industry groups have thrown their weight behind the music publishers suing Anthropic over AI copyright infringement.
– Murray Stassen, Music Business Worldwide
The coalition, which also includes A2IM, SoundExchange, SONA, BMAC, the Music Artists Coalition, and the Artist Rights Alliance, filed an amicus brief on Monday (March 30) urging a federal court to reject Anthropic’s fair use defense in the case brought by Universal Music Publishing Group, Concord Music Group, and ABKCO in October 2023.
Warner Music Group Acquires Digital Distributor Revelator
The Warner Music Group (WMG) has entered a definitive agreement to acquire Revelator, the B2B music distribution platform, the companies announced today (April 1). The transaction is expected to close next quarter, according to a press release.
– Ariel King, Billboard
Revelator specializes in digital music distribution, rights management, royalty accounting and real-time analytics, with cloud-based tools helping to streamline operations and financial reporting for artists, labels and distributors. Among the platform’s features include Revelator Pro, Revelator API and its white label solutions, which it can offer to independent labels. The deal will allow Revelator to offer their services to WMG’s artists and distributed labels, helping to scale the major label’s distribution and services offerings, which are currently housed under its ADA division..
SoundCloud to help artists drop exclusive tracks for superfans
“In an age of ubiquity where everybody can have everything, people want the things that other people can’t have. They want the scarcity…”
– Stuart Dredge, Music Ally
That was Midia Research boss Mark Mulligan talking at our Music Ally Connect conference in January, while explaining what music fans might want from ‘supremium’ tiers on streaming services.
Early access to tickets, pre-releases and exclusive music are top of their list according to his company’s research. Now SoundCloud is rolling out a new feature focusing on the latter two of those options.
It’s called ‘Follower Exclusive Releases’ and can be used by musicians on its ‘Artist Pro’ tier – so the payment in this case is coming from the artist side rather than the fans.
“Artists can give their followers the first listen to what they’re working on, whether it’s an early demo, a work-in-progress track, or a surprise drop,” is how SoundCloud pitched the new feature, which can be used for a limited time or indefinitely.
Suno launches v5.5 AI model with voice cloning tool: ‘The best music starts with a human.’
AI music generator Suno released version 5.5 of its platform on Friday (March 27), introducing a voice capture feature and two personalization tools that the company says are aimed at attracting first-time creators and working professionals.
– Mandy Dalugdug, Music Business Worldwide
The voice capture feature, called ‘Voices’, lets users record or upload audio of themselves singing and incorporate that vocal identity into tracks generated by Suno.
The feature is limited to Pro and Premier subscribers, and Suno has developed a verification layer that matches a voice to a random phrase that creators are prompted to speak.