Meta Platforms is releasing AudioCraft, a generative AI framework that creates “high-quality,” “realistic” audio and music from text prompts. AudioCraft consists of three models: MusicGen, AudioGen and EnCodec, all of which Meta announced it is open-sourcing. Released in June, MusicGen was trained on Meta-owned and licensed music, and generates music from text prompts, while AudioGen, which was trained on public domain samples, generates sound effects (like honking horns and barking dogs) from text prompts. The EnCodec decoder allows “higher quality music generation with fewer artifacts,” according to Meta. Continue reading Meta’s AudioCraft Turns Words into Music with Generative AI

Spotify is rolling out its new Confidence software development product in private beta. Based on its learnings from more than 10 years of experience experimenting at scale, the company says Confidence aims to make it simple for teams to set up, run and analyze their own user tests so they can quickly perfect and productize ideas. “Whether it’s automatically coordinating simultaneous A/B tests or orchestrating the rollout of an AI recommendation system across mobile, desktop, and web, the platform we built scales experimentation best practices and capabilities,” Spotify explains, adding that it plans to make the technology available soon to all companies. Continue reading Spotify’s Confidence Development Platform Is in Private Beta

Content hubs are gaining traction with streaming platforms as a search and discovery tool, according to a new study by Horowitz Research, which notes eight in 10 consumers indicating they watch content from a collection or hub occasionally. Multicultural audiences are turning to using hub resources in significant numbers, with African American streamers engaging at the 80 percent rate, and Asian viewers at 65 percent. The number trends higher — at 77 percent — among less acculturated Asian streamers. Among Latinx streamers, nearly 59 percent say they’ve turned to Latinx content collections, with less acculturated doing so at higher rates (78 percent). Continue reading Study: Streaming Viewers Are Interested in Hubs for Discovery

Four in five U.S. homes now have a smart TV, accounting for three in five TV sets, according to the fifth annual Hub Entertainment Research “Evolution of the TV Set” survey, which found streaming is growing commensurate with penetration of the intelligent displays. About 64 percent of viewers use their smart TVs to stream video, while roughly half use the connected devices to stream music or other audio content, the study found. The 74 percent of households that own at least one smart TV is up from 61 percent in 2020. Additionally, Horowitz Research found that consumers are increasingly turning to curated collections and hubs for content discovery. Continue reading Study: Smart TVs Are Now in 74 Percent of American Homes

As expected, Spotify unveiled its first premium subscription rate hike in 12 years after mounting pressure from the music industry and musicians — and as competing services hiked their rates. A premium Spotify streaming subscription in the U.S. will now cost $10.99 per month, a $1 increase. Now the largest paid music service in the world, with about 210 million subscribers, Spotify is also raising rates in some 50 additional markets, including Canada, parts of Europe and Asia, South America and Australasia. Existing customers are getting one month’s notice before the new rates kick in. Continue reading Spotify Announces Anticipated Price Hikes for Subscriptions

TikTok is branching out from short-form video with a new music streaming service poised to challenge Spotify and Apple Music. Called TikTok Music, the subscription-only platform has debuted in Brazil and Indonesia. Users can sync existing TikTok accounts to share songs, as well as listen and download tunes, including titles from the Sony Music, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group catalogs. TikTok Music replaces ByteDance’s previously launched music platform Resso, which on September 5 will cease operations in Brazil and Indonesia. The new offering is priced the same: between $3 and $3.50 monthly for Android and iOS. Continue reading TikTok Music Streaming Service Bows in Brazil and Indonesia

China’s ByteDance is testing an AI tool called Ripple. The free app for creating music and editing audio is being made available in closed beta in the U.S. with a small group of invited testers. Aimed at creators who want to up their sound game, Ripple is designed in the manner of a portable smart digital audio workstation (DAW). Ripple incorporates what TikTok’s parent company ByteDance calls a “virtual recording studio” that allows users to record and edit audio files on a mobile device, and the company plans to release additional mobile-friendly audio tools. Continue reading ByteDance Bows Ripple AI for Music Creation, Audio Editing

The AI Hub server on Discord has drawn attention from the Recording Industry Association of America, which sent a DMCA takedown notice and is alleging copyright infringement. The users are said to share a wide range of AI voice models, including some based on recognizable performers. Those that may sound familiar are in the style of Stevie Wonder, Frank Sinatra, Rihanna and Bruno Mars. AI Hub reportedly has more than 142,000 members that engage in sharing topical information, such as guides. One point that is getting a lot of attention is the RIAA demand that Discord identify the accused infringers. Continue reading RIAA Alleges Popular ‘AI Hub’ on Discord Violates Copyright

Twitter is being sued for more than $250 million in damages by a coalition of music publishers alleging copyright violations. More than a dozen plaintiffs — including Universal Music, EMI, Kobalt and Sony — are captioned on the complaint, which was coordinated by the National Music Publishers’ Association and filed last week in federal court in Tennessee listing Elon Musk’s X Corp. and Twitter as defendants. The complaint claims songwriters are owed compensation for music-backed videos posted to the platform. The litigation is the latest financial woe for Twitter, which Musk purchased for $44 billion last year. Continue reading Music Publishers Take On Twitter for Copyright Infringements

Meta Platforms has debuted what’s being called “ChatGPT for audio.” MusicGen is an AI music generator that can create tunes from natural language or song snippets. The company says MusicGen was trained on 20,000 hours of music, including 10,000 hours of “high-quality” licensed songs and 390,000 instrumental tracks. Meta released MusicGen on GitHub this past weekend, and is currently demoing the app on Facebook’s Hugging Face page. Visitors can generate tunes by describing the sound they want. Among Meta’s prompts: “80s driving pop song with heavy drums and synth pads in the background.” Continue reading Meta’s MusicGen AI Works with Language and Song Prompts

Deezer, the global music streaming platform based in France, claims to have developed a technique for flagging — and potentially deleting — songs that use artificial intelligence to simulate the performance of popular singers. “We need to take a stand now,” Deezer CEO Jeronimo Folgueira said in an interview. “We are at a pivotal moment in music.” His company plans to “weed out illegal and fraudulent content” in an effort to protect artists. Deezer’s detection technology is still under development. It relies on AI, which Folgueira said he is not against if it is used ethically. Continue reading Deezer Says Its Tech Can Flag and Delete Deepfake AI Tunes

TikTok is launching the #NewMusic search hub as a discovery space for global artists to showcase new songs. Prior to its Friday rollout, the hashtag already had 18 million views on TikTok, which is now fashioning it as a destination for music fans seeking content from new and established artists. TikTok says NewMusic will often feature exclusive drops and let artists connect with fans. The ByteDance company has partnered with Jonas Brothers and Miguel to promote NewMusic. Jonas Brothers’ new single “Waffle House” has amassed 1.1 billion views on TikTok’s For You pages internationally. Continue reading TikTok Rolls Out ‘NewMusic’ Global Search Hub for Discovery

Amazon is offering advertisers a unique marketing opportunity within “Thursday Night Football,” inviting them to take advantage of new streaming tech by programming different creative messages within the same 30-second slot. “For the first time in NFL history, fans across the country will no longer view the same national commercials while enjoying live coverage provided by Prime Video on Fire TV devices,” Amazon said at the NewFronts. For example, an automotive brand could promote sports cars to younger adults, SUVs to outdoor enthusiasts and a general spot for everyone else — all in the same 30-second window. Continue reading Amazon Offers New Ad Model for Thursday Night NFL Games

There’s been a lot of noise recently about music generated by artificial intelligence tools. The clamor is on multiple fronts: generative mimicry of specific artists’ vocal styles, the potential to put Muzak-style background tunesmiths out of business with potentially cheaper alternatives, and the particulars of takedown orders. The matter came to a head this month after generative AI vocals prompted to sound like Drake and The Weeknd performed a song called “Heart on My Sleeve,” written and produced by a TikTok user. The tune quickly went viral, raising numerous concerns. Continue reading Music Industry Contends with Artificial Intelligence Disruption

YouTube is expanding its Analytics for Artists feature with a new Total Reach metric that will include data for fan-uploaded YouTube Shorts. In addition to official content uploaded by the artist as well as user-generated long-form videos, YouTube says Total Reach represents “the most comprehensive snapshot of the size of an artist’s audience on YouTube,” showing how many viewers are experiencing content across all formats. The company is also launching a new Songs section in Analytics “to help artists see how fans are listening to their music or creating with it, across all video formats, all in one place.” Continue reading YouTube Expands Analytics for Artists Tool, Adds Shorts Data