Sony Group Launches New Tech to Track Copyrighted Material in AI-Generated Music

Sony Group, the parent company of Sony Music Group, has reportedly developed new tech that can recognize when original music is used in AI-generated songs. The application can find the use of copyrighted material, whether AI developers decide to cooperate for analysis or not.

How it works:

• If AI developers cooperate with Sony, the tech extracts training data directly from the music.

• If AI developers do not cooperate with Sony, the tech compares original music and AI-generated music to discern if copyrighted material was used in the creation.

• Sony aims for both methods to open opportunities for rightsholders to claim royalties.

• The tech is not currently available for commercial use.

• Sony’s goal is for the tech to be standard for AI developers and content companies.

Background:

• Sony remains involved in litigation against major AI music companies Suno and Udio.

• The other two major labels, Warner Music Group (WMG) and Universal Music Group (UMG), settled their portion of the lawsuit against Udio. WMG also settled with Suno.

• WMG and UMG have also entered licensing agreements with Udio.

• Sony partnered with SoundPatrol, a company that uses “neural embeddings” to detect copyrighted works in AI-generated music.