Streaming sites urged not to let AI use music to clone pop stars

In a letter to streamers including Spotify and Apple Music, the record label Universal Music Group expressed fears that AI labs would scrape millions of tracks to use as training data for their models and copycat versions of pop stars. UMG instructed the platforms to block those downloads, saying it would "not hesitate to take steps to protect our rights and those of our artists". The letter, first reported by the Financial Times, comes after a similar move from the Recording Industry Association of America, the industry's trade body, last October. Writing to the US trade representative, the RIAA said that AI-based technology was able "to be very similar to or almost as good as reference tracks by selected, well known sound recording artists". The group added: "To the extent these services, or their partners, are training their AI models using our members' music, that use is unauthorised and infringes our members' rights by making unauthorised copies of our members works."