The Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN) announced Tuesday a collaboration with Musical AI, a Canadian rights management technology company offering consent management and attribution infrastructure for generative music.
Focused on protecting music creators as artificial intelligence changes how music is used and monetized, the collaboration will see SOCAN work with Musical AI to explore appropriate uses and guidelines for attribution technologies in Canada, including ways Musical AI can support SOCAN’s efforts to provide attribution from AI outputs to fairly compensate songwriters, composers and music publishers.
“The collaboration is founded on two principles: First, all music creators should decide how their work participates in AI. All AI use should occur on an opt-in basis. Second, music creators must receive credit and compensation when their work influences an AI-generated output,” reads a SOCAN press release.
Musical AI’s attribution technology “analyzes AI generated outputs and separately assesses influence connected to sound recordings and musical compositions, creating reporting that can support accountability, licensing and compensation,” the press release explains.
As part of their partnership, SOCAN and Musical AI will explore other product offerings, including Musical AI’s consent management tools “that help make music creators’ choices to opt-in to AI uses clear, structured, and scalable,” the release says.
“As AI reshapes the music industry, music creators must have transparency, credit and fair compensation,” Jennifer Brown, CEO of SOCAN, said in the press release. “SOCAN’s role is to protect the rights and livelihoods of songwriters, composers and music publishers. This collaboration with Musical AI establishes a foundation for attribution and compensation, to ensure that music creators are paid when their music is used by AI.”
“Artists and songwriters should always retain control over their work as AI systems evolve,” Sean Power, CEO of Musical AI, said in a statement. “The first step is consent. The next step is attribution that can show how music contributes to an output and how value should flow to artists and songwriters. Working with SOCAN helps place music creators at the center of a rights respecting model for AI and music.”
The largest music rights management organization in Canada, SOCAN collects license fees for the public performance and reproduction of music on behalf of its more than 200,000 members, which include songwriters, composers and music publishers.
