Spotify And UMG Solidify Announce Licensing Deal For Fans To Create AI Cover Songs

Spotify and Universal Music Group (UMG) announced a licensing deal for recorded music and publishing rights, enabling Spotify to launch generative AI music models in the future. With this deal, Spotify’s models will allow fans to create covers and remixes of their favorite songs from participating artists and songwriters signed to UMG. The new deal was announced on Thursday as part of Spotify’s Investor Day presentation, and the company touts that it will open up additional revenue streams on top of what artists already earn on Spotify and will provide new discovery opportunities for participating UMG talent. These AI products will eventually become available to premium users as a paid add-on. It is unclear when they are set to launch. The licensing deal — and the forthcoming models it supports — does not come as a total surprise. Last fall, Spotify announced that it was partnering with the three major music companies — UMG, Sony Music Group, Warner Music Group — as well as Believe and Merlin to create “artist-first” AI music tools. To create these models, Spotify said in a blog post at the time that it started building a state-of-the-art generative AI research lab and product team. The announcement also included four key principles for developing its AI tech, including that artists and songwriters get a choice in participation. “We recognize there’s a wide range of views on use of generative music tools within the artistic community,” the announcement read. “Therefore, artists and rightsholders will choose if and how to participate to ensure the use of AI tools aligns with the values of the people behind the music.”

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