AI Music News
Your independent source for AI music news and what each story means for music creators.
- 23 Jun
23 JunNearly 300 AI licensing deals are signed, but only 16% of indie labels are exploring them
- A BPI-commissioned WPI Economics report counts nearly 300 commercial AI agreements across creative sectors, with 274 in place by early 2026.
- Only 16% of BPI indie label members have begun exploring AI licensing partnerships, the report found.
- The Featured Artists Coalition cited the report on June 22, 2026 alongside the 31-organization open letter demanding consent in AI deals.
- 23 Jun
23 Jun31 creator organizations demand consent and fair pay before labels sign AI deals
- 31 organizations representing artists, songwriters, and managers signed an open letter on June 22, 2026, demanding consent, fair pay, and transparency in AI deals.
- The European Music Managers Alliance coordinated the letter, with the FAC, the Ivors Academy, and the MMF among the signatories.
- The letter responds to the AI deals labels have struck with Suno, Udio, KLAY, and Spotify, where artists say they are opted in by default.
- 23 Jun
23 JunSZA condemns AI music training after finding 238 of her tracks in a dataset
- SZA said 238 of her tracks appear in the giant datasets used to train AI music models, per a June 2026 report by The Atlantic's AI Watchdog.
- On her private Instagram, SZA called musicians who support unlicensed AI training "disgusting" and named Diplo, who has since denied her claim that he holds an equity stake in Suno.
- Her reaction follows The Atlantic's finding that more than 12 million tracks are being used in AI development without permission.
- 17 Jun
17 JunBoy George's AI 'Karma Chameleon', explained: how it was made and who owns it
- Boy George and Culture Club re-recorded "Karma Chameleon" using AI trained on the original 1983 recordings, timed to his 65th birthday.
- The track is an AI-assisted re-record, not a synthetic voice clone. George sang a new vocal that AI reshaped to match his younger voice.
- George never owned the master of "Karma Chameleon," so a roughly $4 million Virgin sync deal paid the rights holders, not him.
- 16 Jun
16 JunThe Atlantic publishes 4 databases of songs used to train AI music models
- The Atlantic published 4 searchable databases of music used to train AI models, with 12 million tracks in one and 9 million in another.
- The data names hit songs from Taylor Swift, Bad Bunny, and many other major artists.
- Suno has generated tracks that closely resemble Michael Jackson's "Thriller" and Ed Sheeran's "Shape of You."
- 16 Jun
16 JunBoy George re-records 'Karma Chameleon' with AI to reclaim his biggest hit
- Boy George and Culture Club re-recorded "Karma Chameleon" with AI to recreate his original 1983 vocal, timed to his 65th birthday.
- The release launches Artist Included, co-founded by manager Paul Kemsley and attorney Jeremy Rosen, with Boy George as creative director.
- George says the motive is control, after a roughly $4 million Virgin sync deal paid the master owners and not him.
- 15 Jun
15 JunLate rapper Eyedea returns on a 14-song album built from AI-cloned vocals
- A new 14-song album, 15-Year-Old Shit Talking, recreates late rapper Eyedea's voice using AI vocal cloning and his own handwritten teenage lyrics.
- Eyedea's mother, Kathy Larsen Averill, saved the lyrics and recorded placeholder vocals to train the voice model, alongside rappers Ecid and Brady O'Rourke.
- Human producers made every beat, including DJ Willy Lose and Big Jess of Unknown Prophets, so the record is a reconstruction, not a fully synthetic album.
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- 15 Jun
15 JunLionel Richie files 4 trademark applications to protect his voice from AI clones
- Lionel Richie filed four sound-mark trademark applications with the USPTO on June 11, 2026, each covering a snippet of his best-known lyrics.
- The marks cover the lines Hello is it me you're looking for, Say you say me, Easy like Sunday morning, and All night long, each described as a man saying the lyric.
- Richie joins Taylor Swift and Matthew McConaughey, who have filed voice and likeness trademarks as AI soundalikes spread.
- 12 Jun
12 JunClaude FM explained: Anthropic's 24/7 YouTube music stream, the /radio command, and the artists behind it
- Claude FM is a 24/7 lo-fi music stream on YouTube run by AI company Anthropic, broadcasting since May 9, 2026.
- The music is not AI-generated. Real artists are credited on screen, and the stream calls itself made and curated by musicians.
- Listeners open Claude FM from inside Claude Code by typing the /radio command, which launches the YouTube stream in their browser.
- 12 Jun 12 Jun
Anthropic runs a 24/7 music stream on YouTube called Claude FM, and nobody knows if the music is licensed
- Claude FM is a 24/7 lo-fi stream on YouTube from AI company Anthropic, broadcasting since May 9, 2026
- The stream plays human-made music, credits each artist on screen, and calls itself made and curated by musicians
- Anthropic has not said whether the tracks are licensed or how the featured artists are paid
- 12 Jun
12 JunA fake Bridgit Mendler EP sat on her official Spotify and Apple Music profiles for a week, despite Artist Profile Protection
- An EP titled "Once Again..." appeared on Bridgit Mendler's official Spotify and Apple Music profiles in early June 2026
- Mendler confirmed on X the release isn't hers, and Spotify has since removed it
- Spotify's Artist Profile Protection lets artists review releases before publication, but it's opt-in and still in beta
- 12 Jun
12 JunDeezer's free AI music detector scans your Spotify or Apple Music library and shows how much AI you stream
- Deezer launched a free online AI music detector on June 11, 2026, covering 20 streaming platforms and 27 languages
- 43% of users joining Deezer from other platforms already have AI-generated tracks in their playlists
- Deezer receives nearly 75,000 fully AI-generated tracks every day, more than 44% of all daily uploads