UMG CEO Lucian Grainge Outlines Company’s AI Strategy in New Memo: ‘Enormous Potential’

Universal Music Group (UMG) chairman/CEO Lucian Grainge has updated UMG employees connected the “progress” the euphony elephantine is making connected generative artificial quality successful a caller staff-wide memo circulated Monday (Oct. 13), which outlines the company’s efforts to safeguard artists’ copyrighted worldly portion touting the technology’s imaginable to unlock caller revenue.

“UMG is playing a pioneering relation successful fostering AI’s tremendous potential,” Grainge wrote successful the memo. “While our advancement is significant, the velocity astatine which this exertion is processing makes it important that you are each continually updated connected our efforts and well-versed connected the strategy and approach.”

Grainge went connected to item UMG’s enactment with AI developers, noting the company’s AI deals with apical platforms similar YouTube, TikTok and Meta arsenic good arsenic emerging ones similar BandLab and Soundlabs. Universal Music Japan, helium added, precocious announced a woody with Japanese telecommunications institution KDDI to make caller euphony experiences for fans and artists utilizing the technology.

The CEO besides discussed AI’s imaginable “to link our artists with their fans successful caller ways,” including done the usage of agentic AI — essentially AI agents that are susceptible of much blase problem-solving. In Grainge’s words, agentic AI has “the imaginable to revolutionize however fans interact with and observe music” and assistance supply “a important root of caller aboriginal gross for artists and songwriters.”

Grainge additionally reiterated UMG’s committedness to responsibly trained AI, mentioning the company’s deals with AI developers similar ProRata and KLAY and noting that it’s “in discussions with galore further like-minded companies whose products supply close attribution and tools which empower and compensate artists — products that some support euphony and heighten its monetization.”

“And to beryllium wide — and this is precise important — we volition NOT licence immoderate exemplary that uses an artist’s dependable oregon generates caller songs which incorporated an artist’s existing songs without their consent,” Grainge continued. He added that galore AI companies’ efforts to marque it ineligible to bid AI exertion connected copyrighted worldly with the consent of rights holders “amount to thing much than the unauthorized (and, we believe, illegal) exploitation of the rights and spot of originative artists.”

Grainge besides addressed the taxable of alleged “AI slop” connected streaming services, pointing retired UMG’s unveiling of “artist-centric” principles astatine the apical of 2023 — notably earlier the AI gyration truly began taking clasp successful the euphony concern aboriginal that twelvemonth — that helium says were designed to “combat what is fundamentally level pollution.”

“Since then, galore of our level partners person made important advancement successful putting successful spot measures to code the diversion of royalties, infringement and fraud — all to the payment of the full euphony ecosystem,” helium wrote, aboriginal noting UMG’s precocious announced collaboration with SoundPatrol, which utilizes neural fingerprinting that it says tin observe the usage of copyrighted worldly successful AI-generated songs (Sony besides partnered with the company).

Read Grainge’s afloat memo below.

Dear Colleagues,

I americium penning contiguous to update you connected the advancement that we are making connected our efforts to instrumentality vantage of the processing commercialized opportunities presented by Gen AI exertion for the payment of each our artists and songwriters.  

I privation to code 3 circumstantial topics:  

UMG is playing a pioneering relation successful fostering AI’s tremendous potential.  While our advancement is significant, the velocity astatine which this exertion is processing makes it important that you are each continually updated connected our efforts and well-versed connected the strategy and approach.  

The instauration of what we’re doing is the content that together, we tin foster a steadfast comme...