Infinite Licensing in AI Music
For a few years now, in private conversations with various technologists, music rightsholders and fellow data nerds, I’ve been using, and trying to coin, the term “infinite licensing” to describe the concept of real-time AI-powered dynamic licensing of rights in both generative-AI and single-source derivative AI music applications.
No, I am not talking about smart contracts, which are finite preset rules hardcoded in a file that is then minted to a blockchain, but rather the convergence of AI (conceptual/subjective/ecosystem) and blockchain (context/ownership) within the permission layer of applications that can generate an infinite ♾️ combination of licensing deal terms.
Infinite licensing would behave sort of like an oracle within applications to dynamically value and clear rights in machine-to-machine, business-to-business, and consumer-to-machine applications, going beyond the scope of human objectivity, individual experience in negotiation and valuation, and workload capacity in the licensing process.
It removes limiting royalty formulas and most favored nations models and replaces them with highly customized and more commercially accurate representations of value at a given point in time.
I imagine a future where an AI system built on an LLM that has learned from previous licensing deals (and the outcomes and missed opportunities of such deals), ingested airplay and streaming stats, interpreted correlations and trends, while calculating the lost value of undervalued deals, analyzed historical sync data, quantifies hype, ingested sales data, and consumer behavior and sentiment data, etc. would dynamically determine rates and terms for gen-AI and single-source derivative AI music outputs.
Infinite licensing, unlike smart contracts, could factor in variations in types of use, the real commercial value of the source music involved, the perceived cultural value of music creators involved, the market value of the opportunity, and much more.
The blockchain aspect, which has been in development across a variety of projects and startups for over 10 years now, would provide the architecture for transparent and immutable rights management while remuneration could be supported by cryptocurrency.
In 2019, when I presented my lecture “Music 2020: The Next Era of Innovation in the Music Industry” at the California Institute of The Arts and again at Music Biz Conference, I argued that artificial intelligence, blockchain, and cryptocurrency would be among the technologies that will transform the music industry in the 2020’s.
We’re halfway through the 2020’s and I think someone will figure out infinite licensing before 2030.
10 Years Ago Dubset (And I) Wanted Rights-holders To Be Friendlier To DJs…10 Years Later Apple Music Is Making It Possible
Ten years ago, I wrote a piece for Hypebot (posted at the end) announcing the Mix Transparency Report by Dubset (acquired by Pex).
At the time, Dubset, a new startup, wanted to help DJs legally release, distribute, and monetize mixed music (i.e. remixes, mashups, mixes, etc.), and get artists, songwriters, and rights-holders paid. However, there was a ton of resistance amongst rights-holders to what I thought was a great idea. I was biased since I had once managed a roster of DJs who specialized in mash-ups.
The Mix Transparency Report set out a new standard for charting the consumption of mixed music while shinning a light on the commercial opportunities that existed for rights-holders and content creators of derivative works (e.g. DJs, producers, remixers).
(Side Note: Last year, I created the “Beats & Money: A Music Rights & Royalties Crash Course for Beatmakers” webinar for The Mechanical Licensing Collective with support by Chris McMurtry of Pex/RME which you can watch on YouTube https://youtu.be/8ZoPRmJFt-Q.)
Dubset wanted to locate the most popular mixed music in the world, thoroughly analyze it, and share its findings every month. The report would offer full transparency with regards to the “who” and “what” was being listened to (often royalty-free) by millions of music fans a day. Initially, the Dubset report included four charts: Dubset’s 25 Most Sampled Labels, Dubset’s 25 Most Streamed Mixes, Dubset’s 25 Most Sampled Artists, and Dubset’s 25 Most Sampled Tracks.
Recently, Apple announced it is opening its catalog to let users build mix sets by integrating the platform with a number of tools. These tools include Algoriddim’s djay Pro software, hardware platforms AlphaTheta, Serato, inMusic’s Engine DJ, Denon DJ, Numark, and RANE DJ.
(Fun Fact: I was once an advisor to a startup that built a software and hardware for DJs that would be installed between the controller and the sound system. If the controller experienced an outage during a live set, the device would kick in and algorithmically continue the DJ set until the controller was back up and running and the DJ could do his or her thing. Having been both a club promoter and DJ manager in Los Angeles in my early 20’s, I knew it was solution was to a real problem that I’ve witnessed many times, but of course they were “too early.”)
TechCrunch believes the integrations will possibly attract DJs to explore Apple Music’s catalog of over 100 million songs and also give aspiring DJs an opportunity to play around with some of these tools. It’s great to see DSPs engage more meaningfully with DJs. This has been a long time coming, only slowed by rights-holders inability to work with companies like Dubset to figure out the licensing splits.
That Hypebot piece: https://daeboganmusic.com/2015/11/11/hypebot-dubset-releases-inaugural-mix-transparency-report-atlantic-records-david-guetta-most-sampled/
Dae Bogan To Lead Seminar “The Art And Business Of Songwriting Collabs”
New technologies and online resources have made it possible for songwriters to find and collaborate with fellow songwriters, musicians, and singers from around the world more efficiently and economically than ever before. The convenient nature of the virtual collaboration and music production ecosystem has contributed to the explosion of independent music made available on digital music services today. Accordingly, the RIAA and IFPI have both reported steady growth in independent music in the last few years.
Now, it’s your turn to get involved in the collab movement! Register to attend this insightful webinar on Thursday, June 20th, where Dae Bogan Music, Head of Third-Party Partnerships at The MLC, and Kevin McCarty, CEO and Co-Founder at We Should Write Sometime, will discuss the art and business of songwriting collabs while highlighting WSWS app features for songwriters and The MLC’s tools and resources for self-administered songwriters.
Save your spot here: https://go.themlc.com/weShouldWriteSometime2024
DJs, You’re Next
DJs, You’re next! 😊
After 10+ years of building software to help recording artists, songwriters, composers, lyricists, background vocalists, session musicians, independent labels, and music publishers with their music copyrights and royalties; and on the back of helping thousands of the aforementioned administer thousands of copyrights while unlocking tens of millions of dollars in royalties, it’s time to turn my attention to another group of underserved music creators: DJs
There are over 13,000 DJs in the United States and over 56,000 DJs around the world.
There are more DJ/Producers collaborating with independent music creators and influencers than ever before, and DJ/Producers creating new expressions of original music and derivative works for which they often undervalue and underrepresent their own rights and entitlements (that’s if they’re even aware of their entitlements).
I entered the music industry in 2008, while a senior at UCLA, when I formed Renaissance Artist Management (RAM Artist) and began representing DJs, DJ/Producers, and DJ/Remixers. From local up-and-coming DJs to GRAMMY-nominated festival DJs, I’ve had the pleasure of advising, representing, educating, and collaborating with DJs of all walks of life.
Over the past few years, I’ve been privately advising a number of DJ/Producers on their business and careers. From helping to clear samples, to advising remix negotiations, to pitching mix sets to DJ playlists, to web3 experiences (metaverse and NFTs), to setting the music rights administration plan for collaborations on original songs I’ve been having fun guiding and advising a small group of DJ friends.
Now, I’m looking to my next side project: DJ Music Rights
If you’re a DJ/Producer or represent a DJ/Producer, sign up to be the first to know about my forthcoming side project at http://www.djmusicrights.com
Metadata And Money: On Background Vocalists and Session Musicians
Most independent artists do not know that 5% of their digital radio master royalties earned in the United States from the likes of Pandora, SiriusXM, Music Choice, iHeartRadio, Slacker, TuneIn, Last.fm, etc. are automatically allocated to a pool that is to be paid out to background vocalists and session musicians.
This money is allocated, *even if there are no background vocalists and sessions musicians on the record,* and are paid out in the United States by AFM & SAG-AFTRA Intellectual Property Rights Distribution Fund (aka “The Fund”).
Knowing this now, what should you do?
- Invite musician friends to perform background vocals or an instrument on your record.
- Invite the producer of the record to add background vocals or live instrumentation to their production (then, the producer would be able to qualify for these royalties; which is separate from his/her other producer royalties).
It is important to know that if you have background vocalists or session musicians on your record you MUST PUBLISH THE TRACK CREDITS! The Fund does track credit research to identify the individuals entitled to these royalties. THERE IS NO REGISTRATION PROCESS. They look for credits at places like AllMusic.com, Discogs, MusicBrainz, etc.
Don’t let your royalties go undistributed.
Get 👏 it 👏 done.
TuneRegistry, we deliver track credits to TiVo, which supplies data to AllMusic.com. We also deliver metadata and audio fingerprints to Gracenote, Audible Magic, Medianet, ACRCloud, Quantone, Exactuals – RAI, and Crunch Digital. These services power search and discovery features in hundreds of music apps, websites, audio devices, and smart speakers around the world.
10 Income Streams For A Music Producer
A breakdown of income you could earn by producing one hit (or at least, viral) record.
Production Icome
1. Production fee for your creative input in producing the track.
2. Recording Engineer fee for performing recording engineer duties in the studio.
3. Mixing Engineer fee for mixing the track.
4. Mastering Engineer fee for mastering the track.
(1-4 could be embodied all in one fee, or you could line item it in your contract and/or invoice.)
Master Income
5. Income share in the master sales, downloads, streams, often referred to as “points on the record.”
6. If you add background vocals and/or live instrumentation to the production, while you may not earn a session musician fee, you are still entitled to receive all or a portion of the non-featured performer share of statutory master royalties for US non-interactive streams, or so-called “digital radio royalties.” To get this, make sure that you are credited not only as a Producer but also as a background vocalist or musician for whatever instrument you played. These royalties in the US are paid out by the AFM & SAG-AFTRA Intellectual Property Rights Distribution Fund. These funds do not reduce the featured artist’s neighboring rights (US = digital radio) income. It is completely separate from the featured performer share of income and non-negotiable by that featured performer. If you don’t claim it, you still earn it but you leave it on the table!
7. Thanks to the passing of the Music Modernization Act, which became law on October 11th, 2018, and the inclusion of the Allocation for Music Producers Act (AMP Act), studio professionals such as producers and engineers have a legal and permanent right to directly collect non-interactive, digital royalties agreed through a letter of direction with the featured artist from SoundExchange. Join the Creative Affiliates Program at SoundExchange and submit your letters of direction.
8. A producer’s share of international neighboring rights royalties in several territories where recordings that you produce are performed on broadcast radio and TV.
Publishing Income
9. If you composed the melody or co-authored the lyrics, you should be considered a Writer on the musical work and be entitled to receive writer-share of publishing income (performance royalties, mechanical royalties, synchronization royalties).
10. If you composed the melody or co-authored the lyrics, as a Writer on the musical work, you are entitled to receive or assign the publisher-share of publishing income (performance royalties, mechanical royalties, synchronization royalties).
In conclusion, if you’re a music producer, make sure that you understand all of the income streams associated with the work that you put in on a recording AND your legal entitlements under copyright law and music publishing industry customs. Also, join the Recording Academy / GRAMMYs Producers & Engineers Wing.
Want to learn more? Download my FREE ebook “The DIY Musician’s Starter Guide To Being Your Own Label And Publisher.”
Dae Bogan To Provide Mentorship To Music Makers And Tech Founders At The Rattle Los Angeles
RattleCCPitch2018 from The Rattle on Vimeo.
Why So Many Hip-Hop Producers Are Putting Business Before Beats
I shared my thoughts on music business for Hip-Hop producers in this piece by Cherie Hu for Pitchfork:
“The way many of these companies are trying to match and verify their data? Hundreds of emails,” says Dae Bogan, founder and CEO of TuneRegistry, a rights management platform for indie artists. “Many labels are still using old software and systems to manage their digital catalog, and their rights department is different from the one responsible for metadata, which is different from the one responsible for collecting royalties. There’s a lot of bureaucracy involved.”
Read the full piece here.
Grammy Winning Engineers Launch Digital Mastering Service For DIY Musicians, eMastered
Using an intelligent mastering engine built from analyzing thousands of hit songs, eMastered gives musicians an easy and affordable way to master tracks from the comfort of their own homes.
Grammy Award-winning engineer Smith Carlson and hit EDM singer/producer Collin McLoughlin announce the launch of eMastered, an online tool redefining the way musicians approach audio mastering. eMastered enables users to instantly master recordings online, making what is traditionally a complex and expensive process much more simple, affordable, and accessible to musicians worldwide.
What Musicians Should Know About YouTube’s New Music App
[This article was written by Gray Gannaway and it originally appeared on his website. It is re-published here with his permission.]
YouTube announced the arrival of its new YouTube Music app on both iOS and Android devices. This news quickly follows last month’s announcement of YouTube Red, and may prove to be a useful product for people that primarily listen to music on YouTube. Read on for a quick overview on the new app, including its pros and cons for both fans and musicians.
New Layout
The YouTube Music app features 3 main tabs at launch: Home, Recommendations, and Liked Songs. The Home tab prominently features “My Station” which is an endless mix of videos based on your music listening history on YouTube. Below that, YouTube provides Genre Stations for the genres they think you’ll be interested in, as well as videos you’ve previously watched or may be interested in.
Free DIY eBook
CONNECT WITH ME
Dae Bogan Music 