Prof Snyder's Music Biz News

Ticket Scalpers for a Charles Dickens Reading Tour were called 'Sidewalk 'Men'.The term scalper was first used in a book about the railroad.The first bot scalper was used for U2's Vertigo Tour.Now Ticketmaster/Live Nation are in court (now settled) because of the Taylor Swift Eras Tour ticket fiasco, the first time AI was used to scalp tickets for resale. AI Scalping Bots have learned, and continue to learn, how to imitate humans. CHAPTAs aren't effective anymore, as AI Bots can even mimic frustrated humans trying to solve the puzzles. AI Ticket Scalpers have changed the ticketing industry forever as they constantly learn how to overcome obstacles, and there isn't anything (yet) that can stop them.(As a sidenote...CHAPTAs collect more information about you than you're probably aware of!)sources: https://snydersmusicbiznews.blogspot.com/2026/03/live-nationticketmaster-go-to-court-ai.html

While AI detection tech is improving, SONY announced it has the tech that can identify the original music in AI generated songs by percentages...“30% of the music used is by the Beatles and 10% is by Queen.” Should artists begin the celebration? It may be too late!The Internet is being divided up by the record labels into 'walled gardens,' charging tech companies to slip into the gardens and train AI on the music. It may be too late.A nonprofit company you probably haven't heard of, Common Crawl, has been silently crawling and archiving the Internet for decades, and allows free access to the data. It is now the source of 80% of the data used to train AI, there wouldn't be a ChatGPT without it. I.E., everything on the Internet has already been gobbled up by AI. Can you name a song that hasn't been on the internet? Is walling off their existing IP and charging for AI access to the data, that AI probably already has, a way to provide legal cover for the AI tech companies? Does this mean there will be less 'free' Internet available after it is carved up by big corps?And if you're not signed to a label, you're music is outside the walls and is open game for AI!Sources: https://snydersmusicbiznews.blogspot.com/2026/02/carving-up-and-raising-walls-on-web.html

A historical dive into the demise of live local music. (Note: This is not an endorsement of drinking) Looking back to the glory days when band's were prolific and there were plenty of venues to play in, packed with fanatical music lovers. Small local venues were a proving ground for emerging artists, where they could build a following from high school age, and expand the boundaries of music performance. Label A&R reps prowled local clubs looking to sign the next big band. Most live local acts now mostly consist of singles or duos starting and ending early for early-to-bed boomers, tribute cover bands playing for those same boomers, and lounge troubadours playing for non-locals. There are three primary reasons that the venue habitats, and thus bands to play in them, have all but disappeared: - The National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984 - Now six Performing Rights Organizations demanding payment by local venues - Covid Epidemic As Mary Hopkins sang: Those were the days, my friend We thought they'd never end We'd sing and dance forever and a day

I ask anti-AI musicians if they had ever had actually checked out what it's capable of, most say no. So I decided to demonstrate how over 70+ million Alexa subscribers can now ask Alexa to write a song, by just talking to an Alexa enabled speaker. You'll hear the conversation between me and Alexa as we discussed creating a Valentine song for my cat, Jonesy. Listen to the song. Do you think it's AI slop? Personally, I think it's scary good. (It also created the artwork). When Amazon announced the new Alexa +, it's integration with Suno was barely featured, but now that it's open to any Prime member, they are beginning to publicize it. “Using Alexa’s integration with Suno, you can turn simple, creative requests into complete songs,” “Looking to delight your partner with a personalized song for their birthday based on their love of cats, or surprise your kid by creating a rap using their favorite cartoon characters? Alexa+ has you covered.” Instead of streaming typical songs played at weddings, now a couple can ask Alexa to create original love songs for each other. It will be interesting to see Suno membership grow as Alexa points users to Suno to download or see the lyrics of the song. I do this not to promote AI music. There is definite copyright infringement. But I encourage musicians to at least check out what somebody, with no musical abilities, can instantly create. Tik Tok is next. Ignore this at your own peril! Sources: https://snydersmusicbiznews.blogspot....

After music publishers lost the 1st round against Anthropic and Claude last year, they're back with a vengeance! Anthropic failed to reveal it had used BitTorrent to download millions of lyrics, songbooks, etc. Even though they did inform the book publishers who had also sued and won 1.5 Billion dollars. The judge wouldn't let them bring that into the case though. They had sued for a paltry $75 Million before. This time it's a whopping $3+ Billion dollars! Anthropic is now worth $350 Billion. Assuming they settle like the book publishers, when can songwriters and lyricists expect to cash in? Previous Anthropic Podcast: Sources: https://snydersmusicbiznews.blogspot.com/2026/02/let-biggest-baddest-copyright-lawsuit.html

ElevenLabs and Spotify just released an album, The 11 Album featuring Liza Minnelli, Art Garfunkel, and others all using AI in some way. "This is the first known direct deal between Spotify and an AI company to easily and directly distribute AI songs on the streaming platform" ...and it won't be the last. This led to my learning more about ElevenLabs (created 2023), the large cloned voice market, and the surprising web of AI partners: ElevenLabs is known for cloning voices of celebrities that can be licensed. It created a Voice Market Place.ElevenLabs licenses the actual voices, pre-cloning, from CMG Worldwide that represents the estates of dead celebritiesElevenLabs partnered with Meta (Facebook)ElevenLabs, has partnered with Merlin, et.al that represents multiple artists and record labels, providing the music to train AIMerlin has partnered with UDIO, expanding its AI contentUDIO has partnered with Universal Music Group Without a lot of studio editing, easily using a clone of your voice, or that of the dead to sing your song, is probably the next big step in music AI...it's already begun. sources: https://snydersmusicbiznews.blogspot....

Bandcamp is be promoted as the first major music company to ban AI music. While Humans rejoice, there's more here than meets the eye. I do a deep-dive into Bandcamp's recent history, Songtradr - its owner, questions about the new policy, and what the CEO actually thinks about AI and music (you'll be surprised)!

This is for anyone who records music, and is looking for a tax write-off. The HITS (Help Independent Tracks Succeed) Act was passed last summer (2025), but it hasn't been publicized like No Tax on Tips. (Side note...the tips you get at gigs don't count!). This Act allows you to write-off any recording costs, up to $150,000, you may have had in 2025, but only 2025. So if you need a tax write-off, start digging for those receipts! Be sure your recording friends are aware and share this podcast...the TAXMAN is coming!

Music historians will note that 2025 was the year of another major change in music production and composition. The official beginning of musical 'slop.' When Artificial Intelligence began to elbow its way into music (and every other thing), and replaced songwriters playing guitars, with music designers writing prompts.2026 will probably be the year when the shift in the Matrix will settle, and the new music world order is established.So much happened that looking back at the totality of it all, can be overwhelming.So here is a quick list of 2025 firsts. (Most referred to in my previous podcasts...check out the playlist for 'deep dives.')Talking Heads - Once In A Lifetime (Isolated Vocals) • Talking Heads - Once In A Lifetime (Isolat...

Merriam-Webster made the word 'slop' the 2025 Word of the Year. It refers to AI music as being garbage, but "Every Media Revolution Breeds Rubbish and Art." EDM, Rap, Hillbilly, Rock, Bubblegum, all have been considered to be trash...the slop of the day. 97% of people can't differentiate what is and isn't AI generated. One writer wrote that while 90% of AI music is garbage, but 10% is 'tolerable.' Hasn't that always been the case with popular music? Before AI, only 5% of released music broke even, another 5% were hits that made up for the 90% that didn't break even. All of the distributors like YouTube, ASCAP, Spotify, and even the Copyright Office use the honor system asking content creators to voluntarily admit using AI. I.E. Don't ask don't tell! Forget the US government helping. It tried in 2023, but was revoked this year and is now 'guided' by the very tech companies it sought to regulate. Since AI generated content can't be copyrighted, which can affect royalties, can we trust musicians to be honest when submitting? An industry described by Hunter S. Thompson as "...a cruel and shallow money trench"? Is SLOP the new genre? Sources: https://snydersmusicbiznews.blogspot....

A snapshot, using data, comparing the worlds of traditional musicians and AI designers. The number of people using AI music tools is immense, far outnumbering traditional musicians by millions. 3 types of Music Creators: Traditional MusiciansAI Music DesignersHybrids There is a lot of tension between trad musicians and AI designers. But, though probably a lot of traditional musicians like myself will disagree, I've come to realize that those using AI to create music for the first time in their lives, are not the enemy. And that AI is already very entrenched in trad music making, regardless of what trad musicians say. We should continue the fight against the very small minority of AI users who are corrupt and are gaming the system, and corporate exploitation, but for the most part, we should welcome the humans behind the AI music, and draw them into understanding the music they create, and maybe show them how to play guitar (which trends show gen-zers are doing). Sure they'll continue to make bad music, I.E slop, but a lot of people think the music of the 80s was also slop, to which I contributed with my synths and mullet haircut ;) Slop has always been around. Links to surveys and other sources at https://snydersmusicbiznews.blogspot....

The frequency of music companies + AI announcements is increasing exponentially, daily. It's overwhelming and almost impossible to keep up. The Big Question: How will musicians be paid?! These are my guesses, hypotheticals, and conjectures based on what I've read. We're starting to get hints how the pennies might trickle down. The labels say don't worry kid, we'll take care of you.The only certainty being labels are excited and beginning to "envision how they’ll get their beaks wet" "But as for the dry, chapped beaks of powerless copyright stakeholders—small-time artists, writers, and creators—concerned that their work will simply be made redundant or irrelevant in this weird new content universe, it’s still not at all clear how those beaks benefit from any of this." Mike Pearl Sources Sources https://snydersmusicbiznews.blogspot....

Here are 10 misconceptions I've read in comments across social media. These are my observations and opinions. You can jump to the part you'd be interested in. 00:00 Intro 00:30 There are established laws, passed by Congress, that regulates ai. 01:29 The government of the US cares about artists and musicians and is working on laws regulating AI and copyrights. 03:34 What is stated in the copyright office reports is permanent and binding. 04:19 The law states that only human created parts of a song can be copyrighted…any parts generated by AI isn’t protected. 05:07 Copyright law states you can’t copyright a song if you use AI for any of the parts. 05:36 Music created by only using prompts can’t be copyrighted 07:13 There are specific guidelines about AI and fair use. 07:40 Composers will be paid if AI is trained on their music. 09:31 Music companies are only looking out for their artists when it comes to AI music. 10:23 The courts conclusion about the generative AI case of Thaler v. Perlmutter, is fixed law. 11:15 Congress needs to get off its ass! Sources:https://snydersmusicbiznews.blogspot.com/2025/11/10-misconceptions.html

AI Creep: "AI has now slipped into everyday life and we seem less guarded about its use" Performance Rights Organizations, ASCAP, BMI, and SECAN have updated their policies to accept “compositions partially generated.” They will now register and pay royalties for partially AI-generated music, provided it involves a human-led creative process. Composers are trusted to voluntarily reveal how much AI was used during composing the music. Everyday, we wake up to learn AI has silently become a part of the eco-system of the music business. As you read this, behind the curtain, corporations are deciding not if they will incorporate AI, but rather how they will. AI is in the musical bloodstream, and there is no going back. Sources: https://snydersmusicbiznews.blogspot....

Udio wants to be the music industry's "AI good guy". UMG and Udio settled their lawsuit, and the Udio subscribers are pissed off! "Udio will now be a 'walled garden' in which users can only stream their AI creations on the platform, with no ability to export and distribute their works. In response, Udio opened a 48 hour window, ending today 11/4/25, for subscribers to download their music. Otherwise, all of those AI created songs might never be heard (is that a bad thing?), humans who downloaded Udio tracks to then build on will probably jump to Suno, and it will be interesting to see what the new UMG/Udio service will be. Meanwhile, SONY, UMG, and WMG, use the same lawyers, while Suno and Udio are also represented by the same lawyers...and subscribers are looking into suing Udio. It's good to be a lawyer! Sources: https://snydersmusicbiznews.blogspot.com/2025/11/udio-joins-umg-and-deserts-subscribers.html

YouTube Link: https://youtu.be/CrUlIezY7ugThe music biz has always blurred the lines between the real and the fake, like KISS dubbing in the audience on their live album. Will Smith has gotten some brutal press for his use of AI to 'enhance' his audience in a video of him performing. The controversy is exposing some much deeper realizations about the use of AI. "AI fatigue is hitting hard." "AI-generated content isn’t just underperforming; it’s triggering active resentment." "Public backlash against AI-generated content is growing." "Gen Z is turning away from AI-generated content, loudly." Is it just showbiz, or are there real cultural cracks in the use of AI? (and yes there are cats at the end of the podcast) Sources: https://snydersmusicbiznews.blogspot.com/2025/10/its-easy-to-build-your-audience-with-ai.html

Halloween Issue: Stream ripping has been part of music piracy for decades, from copying songs on the radio to cassette, to now when an individual rips music or video from a streaming platform and coverts it into a downloadable file that any user can use offline. If you haven't heard of stream ripping, it's probably because the labels have had some success regulating it. But now it's back in the headlines. The AI companies like Suno and Udio are accused of stream ripping to train their AI models. Of course the labels have already been suing Suno and Udio for copyright infringement, and now they've adding ripping to the claim. Suno and Udio warn that this could lead to all YouTube video downloads being determined to be illegal, even if under fair use. Scary Stuff!Sources: https://snydersmusicbiznews.blogspot.com/2025/10/suno-and-udio-rip-streams-to-feed-ai.html

"...labels to quietly consider licensing arrangements rather than risk exposing gaps in ownership or registration in court." For the discovery process between Udio and UMG, the court agreed that Universal Music Group must: 1. Provide copies of all of the music they claim was infringed, I.E., prove it! 2. Provide all of the record agreements between the label and the artists to determine if UMG actually owns the recordings. If the agreement specifies that the record was Made Work For Hire, the label owns it forever. If not, it's possible that at 35 years, the artist could reclaim ownership from the label. This has been so effective that Suno and other AI companies are making the same demands for discovery. Meanwhile nothing stops Suno and Udio from scraping up any music not represented by the labels, such as by indie artists and independent labels. BUT..."Underlying compositions and lyrics, the lifeblood of songs... have not been part of the current licensing discussions." So even if the labels settle with Suno and Udio, it's not over. Sources: https://snydersmusicbiznews.blogspot.com/2025/10/udio-takes-lead-in-record-label-lawsuit.html

"Fans may soon follow virtual personas with the same passion as human celebrities." An AI Musician with millions of streams gets a 3 million dollar contract. An AI Actor worries human actors. Both are seen as threats by human musicians and actors, but does the common person care? This is a case in which a human and AI successfully 'collaborate.' Are there times when AI can be your creative partner? Sources: https://snydersmusicbiznews.blogspot....

• The internet is no longer “for humans, by humans.” • "82% of listeners cannot distinguish AI-made music from human-created music" • "The Internet Will Be More Dead Than Alive Within 3 Years, Trend Shows. All signs point to a future internet where bot-driven interactions far outnumber human ones" • 38 percent of (mostly) human-made webpages from 2013 no longer exist, which is the result a process known as “link rot.” • "A growing number of tech users now believe that AI is God." • "AI SLOP MIGHT FINALLY CURE OUR INTERNET ADDICTION?" Sources: https://snydersmusicbiznews.blogspot.com/2025/09/we-are-in-age-of-ai.html