New audio fingerprinting tech could change how the industry tackles copyright in AI-generated music.

A big step for copyright in the AI era

Universal Music Group and Sony Music have teamed up with SoundPatrol on a new tool designed to spot copyright infringement in music, including tracks partly or fully generated by AI. The technology, described as the “first-of-its-kind”, aims to protect creators and their intellectual property. 

For a music industry grappling with the rise of AI music generators like Suno, this could be a turning point. Artists have long worried about their work being scraped without permission to train AI models, only for their style and sound to pop up in AI-generated tracks. SoundPatrol’s system is built to detect copyright infringement, keep artists in control, and hopefully the revenue too.

“We’re constantly focused on enabling AI- bringing to market the many commercial and creative opportunities that will benefit our artists while establishing effective tools to protect them. Bringing solutions to the table that support the entire industry…”

Sir Lucian Grainge, UMG’s Chairman and CEO

How does the tool actually work?

At its core, SoundPatrol’s system uses what it calls a “forensic AI model for audio-video fingerprinting”. Rather than relying on traditional methods that match exact audio, this tool goes deeper. It uses neural embeddings- essentially the DNA of a track. By looking at the semantics of a piece, it can detect whether human-made content shows up in AI output, and even includes remixes, covers, or derivatives. 

In fact, it appears to work in a similar way to a tool that the Swedish collecting society STIM are working on for effective AI music licenses.

Collecting society, STIM launches pioneering AI music licence for creators

The bigger picture

Generative AI is reshaping how we create and consume music, but it comes with copyright law complications. Many AI music tools like Suno are facing lawsuits left, right, and centre for training their models on copyrighted material without permission or compensation. 

At the centre of it all lies two main issues:

  • Unlicensed use of music: AI models often use rights holders music without their knowledge or permission.
  • Zero revenue sharing: The AI-generated outputs don’t even pay back the artists whose work shaped the AI’s output.

This is where SoundPatrol’s tool steps in. By detecting traces of original artists’ works inside AI tracks, it gives the industry a way to enforce copyright and ensure artists get compensated. SoundPatrol wants to work alongside third party platforms to make this happen, and could become standard for protection across the industry if it’s widely adopted.

“Generative AI is transforming music in extraordinary ways, but if we abandon copyright, we risk severing artists from ownership of their work… eliminating copyright to accelerate AI is like changing the speed of light to advance physics – it misunderstands the fundamental laws that sustain creativity.”

Walter De Brouwer, SoundPatrol Co-Founder and CEO

Final thoughts

AI isn’t going anywhere. Some platforms are trying to build ethically, licensing music for training or creating compensation schemes for artists. So far progress has been slow, but a practical detection tool backed by two of the world’s biggest record labels could finally give the industry the way forward. 

For artists, the detection tool can help ensure that copyright laws are upheld, artists stay in control of their work, and hopefully more money flowing back to the people actually making the music.

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