AI Music News
Your independent source for AI music news and what each story means for music creators.
I track the AI music lawsuits, label licensing deals, streaming policy, and the artists testing what AI makes possible. Tool launches and reviews live in AI music tools news; interviews and analysis in AI music industry. Want it in your inbox? Get the AI music newsletter.
- 01 Oct
01 OctIMPF and IMPEL publish 7 AI licensing principles, and the song must be valued at least equally with the recording
- IMPF and IMPEL published a joint framework of 7 principles for generative AI licensing on September 30, 2026.
- The one principle they call non-negotiable is that the song must be valued at least equally with the recording, absent other salient factors.
- In 2021, recording rights took 53% of UK streaming revenue and publishing rights took 15%, according to the UK Competition and Markets Authority.
- 01 Oct
01 OctKenjiro Tsuda's AI voice case: Tokyo court rules a voice is a publicity right, but rejects his TikTok takedown
- The Tokyo District Court ruled on September 30, 2026 that a person's voice is protected by the publicity right, the first ruling of its kind in Japan.
- The court dismissed voice actor Kenjiro Tsuda's demand that TikTok remove 188 AI-narrated videos, because the videos had already left TikTok's servers.
- Under the court's test, using a performer's voice without permission infringes when the voice draws customers and the use is solely aimed at exploiting that pull.
- 01 Oct
01 OctProsecutors want Michael Smith in prison for at least 46 months over his $8M AI streaming fraud
- Prosecutors asked Judge John G. Koeltl to sentence Michael Smith to at least 46 months in prison, in a letter dated September 28, 2026 and filed September 29.
- 46 months is the bottom of the 46 to 57 month guidelines range. Smith's lawyers want probation, and the probation office recommends 24 months.
- The letter says Smith's catalog drew 80.9 million YouTube Music family-plan streams in April 2023, against 9.3 million for Taylor Swift's entire catalog.
- 01 Oct
01 OctThomson Reuters v. ROSS: the first US appeals ruling on AI training rejects fair use, with the RIAA and NMPA on the winning side
- The US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled on September 29, 2026 that ROSS Intelligence's AI training on Westlaw headnotes was not fair use.
- It is the first ruling by a federal appeals court on whether training AI on copyrighted works is fair use.
- The 32-page precedential opinion by Judge Tamika Montgomery-Reeves found 3 of the 4 fair use factors weighed against ROSS.
- 29 Sept
29 SeptORCA wants streaming services to charge a per-track upload fee to curb AI spam and fraud
- ORCA proposed on September 15, 2026 that streaming services charge a fee for every new track uploaded.
- Each streaming service would set and collect its own fee, and the money would go into the royalty pool.
- Creators who pass trust and safety checks for human-made music could pay a lower fee or none.
- 29 Sept
29 SeptTaylor Swift's 'Patient Zero' gets compared to a viral AI song about steel coils on trains
- Taylor Swift released "Patient Zero" on September 25, 2026, as the lead single from The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore.
- Spotify says it became its most-streamed song by a female artist in a single day in 2026.
- Listeners on Threads compared it to a viral AI-generated TikTok song about how trains carry steel coils.
- 29 Sept
29 SeptUniversal Music hires Òscar Celma, who helped build Spotify's AI DJ, as its first SVP of applied AI
- Universal Music Group appointed Òscar Celma as Senior Vice President, Applied AI and Machine Learning, effective September 28, 2026.
- Billboard reports the role is the first of its kind at UMG.
- At Spotify, Celma helped lead the development of AI DJ, Jam and Daylist.
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- 28 Sept
28 SeptMusic Technology UK adds ClicknClear's Chantal Epp and SoundPatrol's Will Hughes to its board
- Music Technology UK appointed Chantal Epp, founder of ClicknClear, and Will Hughes, Chief Revenue Officer at SoundPatrol, to its Board on September 28, 2026.
- The 2 appointments take the MTUK Board from 5 directors to 7, after a nomination process that opened in summer 2026.
- ClicknClear holds blanket licensing deals with Universal, Sony and Warner, and won a 2025 WIPO Global Award.
- 26 Sept
26 SeptAI-generated love songs from Caleb Flynn's iPhone played as evidence at his Ohio murder trial
- Prosecutors played 2 AI-generated love songs recovered from Caleb Flynn's iPhone at his murder trial in Miami County, Ohio, on September 25, 2026.
- In texts read in court, Flynn said he recorded the song on piano and used ElevenLabs to pick an AI voice to sing it.
- A forensic investigator testified that Flynn deleted an app called "AI music song generator" days before his wife Ashley Flynn was killed.
- 26 Sept
26 SeptNashville songwriter Chris Gray built AI singer Vance Drake to sing his songs, and labels every release as AI
- Nashville songwriter Chris Gray created an AI singer called Vance Drake to perform songs he has written over decades.
- Gray writes every song himself, and says Vance Drake sings but does not write.
- He plans to release one Vance Drake song a month and to label the artist clearly as AI-generated on every release.
- 26 Sept
26 SeptFred again.. says the opposite of AI music isn't human music, it's making music
- Fred again.. posted 4 Instagram Stories about AI music on September 25, 2026.
- He said the opposite of AI music is making music, and that the process is the magic.
- He said he has felt no pull whatsoever to try AI, because he places much of his identity in the process of making music.
- 26 Sept
26 SeptTHE MOTEL's 'NO' tops Japan's iTunes Alternative chart, and the band still hasn't said if it used AI
- THE MOTEL's single 'NO' reached No. 1 on Japan's iTunes Alternative chart and No. 13 on the all-genre chart after a studio clip passed almost 15 million views on X.
- Music commentator Mino put the chance that the band used AI at 99.99% and named Suno, while a vocal coach suggested a hybrid built from the band's own voices.
- The only documented AI link so far is a Gemini sparkle on the artwork for the March single 'Broken Amp', which says nothing about how the music was made.
- 25 Sept
25 SeptMichael Smith asks for no prison over his $8M AI streaming fraud, saying no artist felt the harm
- Michael Smith's lawyers asked Judge John G. Koeltl for probation instead of prison in a filing dated September 22, 2026.
- The filing says no individual artist or songwriter suffered “any perceptible harm” from his bot streams.
- The Presentence Investigation Report recommends 24 months, below the federal guidelines range of 46 to 57 months.
- 25 Sept
25 SeptQobuz now tags AI-generated music, and says only 0.38% of its streams come from AI tracks
- Qobuz started showing an AI tag on September 24, 2026, on albums its in-house system identifies as including AI-generated tracks.
- Only 0.38% of all streams on Qobuz come from tracks identified as AI-generated, about 1 in every 263.
- Qobuz says 60% of streams on AI-identified tracks are fraudulent and excluded from royalty payouts.
- 24 Sept
24 SeptOpenAI hires Patreon co-founder Sam Yam and 2 Patreon execs to build tools for creators
- Patreon co-founder Sam Yam announced on September 22, 2026 that he is joining OpenAI to lead Creator Product.
- Drew Rowny, Patreon's head of product, and Shannon Ma, its head of engineering, are joining him.
- Yam promised early access to a new set of tools for creators but has not said what they are.
- 24 Sept
24 SeptSony Music joins AI policy coalition ARIAM, 5 days after suing Suno a second time
- Sony Music Group joined ARIAM, the Alliance for Responsible Innovation in the Arts & Media, on September 23, 2026.
- Sony is the first music company in the coalition, which launched on June 15, 2026 with members like Disney, the BBC and The New York Times.
- Sony Music Entertainment COO Kevin Kelleher said a licensing environment where AI companies partner with rightsholders is the only foundation for getting AI right.
- 24 Sept
24 SeptYouTube Music upgrades Ask Music into a chat across 300 million songs and podcasts
- YouTube announced an upgraded Ask Music and a new Your Podcast Lineup feature at Made on YouTube on September 23, 2026.
- Ask Music lets listeners describe what they want in plain words and searches more than 300 million songs plus podcasts.
- It can build a custom queue, answer questions like who played bass on a song, and dig into an artist's backstory.
Frequently asked questions
Where can I find AI music copyright news and lawsuit updates?
The AI Music Lawsuit Tracker follows every major AI music case: RIAA v. Suno, RIAA v. Udio, GEMA v. Suno, Concord v. Anthropic, and AFM v. Universal and Warner. Each tracker lists the filings, key events, and current status. Major rulings land in this news feed the day they break.
How often is AI music news published on The AI Musicpreneur?
New stories go up most weekdays, and this feed updates daily. Every Friday, the AI Music Briefing newsletter rounds up the week's biggest industry stories, and the weekly Top 5 recap covers what mattered and why.
What is the difference between AI music news and AI music tools news?
This page covers the industry: lawsuits, label deals, streaming policy, and artist stories. AI music tools news covers the products: launches, feature updates, reviews, comparisons, and tutorials. A story about a single tool lives there; everything else lands here.