March 2025 Updates

Best view from a railway station platform? Well, in London anyway. Yes, I’m heading back to Brighton for another day of Pathways Into Music planning with Phil – we’ve got some exciting announcements coming up soon!

Most of the copyright lawsuits filed against AI companies in the US make claims about both the input and the output of the defendant’s AI model. The AI company then starts by trying to get the output claims dismissed, aiming to focus on the input claims and the good old ‘fair use’ defence. Which is what’s been happening in the music industry v Anthropic litigation. Here is my CMU update on the latest developments.

Thank you to ECSA for inviting me to join their Creators Conference at the European Parliament today. It was great to revisit the streaming debate on stage, and to hear about the latest developments around AI, buy-outs and the copyright directive within the European Union.

Few lawsuits we report on make it to trial, but if just one goes the distance this year, can it be this one? UMG’s arguments for dismissal did seem quite strong, but surely the judge should factor in entertainment value when deciding whether cases go to a full court hearing? Read my CMU report on last week’s developments.

Heading to Manchester tomorrow for some meetings and then, on Saturday, I’ll be hosting an Artist:Entrepreneur Day as part of English Folk Expo with FAC and Sound Roots. Looking forward to discussing how artists build businesses around their music, with Ellen Beth Abdi and Riya providing insightful case studies about their artist businesses, plus we’ll have practical advice galore from a team of industry experts. More info here.

Applications are now open for joining the ThreeWeeks review team at this year’s Edinburgh Festival in August. If you – or anyone you know – is interested in applying, all the info is here.

I had a quick chat with BBC Radio Ulster’s ‘Consumer Fight Back’ programme this morning about how streaming has changed the way we consume music – and how that impacts on artists. It’s on BBC Sounds (at the very end of the show).

Now that the confusing collection of Hipgnosis companies have relaunched as a single entity called Recognition Music Group, I no longer need to remember that it’s Songs plural when writing about the Fund, Capital and Group, but Song singular when writing about Management. Not sure what to do with the freed up memory space.

Patrick Moxey and Sony Music released a lot of great records together during their ten year partnership, but the lawsuits since they parted company have been pretty entertaining too. Moxey’s Ultra Music Publishing filed an amended copyright lawsuit against the major yesterday and it’s full of the customary forthright statements. Here’s my CMU report.

For the last three years I’ve done a little assessing as part of the Keep It Fringe initiative, which provides grants to 180 Edinburgh Fringe performers to help them realise their professional ambitions. The assessing bit involves reading through a stack of show outlines, which is always an early-in-the-year reminder that I’ll never have enough time to see all the brilliant shows happening in Edinburgh this August! The recipients of this year’s grants were announced earlier this week – well done one and all.

We don’t get so many lawsuits from the somewhat less talked about world of lyrics licensing, but when they do come along their usually super interesting. OK, this one doesn’t have the sneaky apostrophe watermarking trick of the Genius v Google case, but LyricFind still makes some big bold claims against its main rival Musixmatch. Read my CMU report.

Looking forward to being back in Manchester later this month to host an Artist:Entrepreneur Day on 22 Mar with FAC and Sound Roots during English Folk Expo – learn how to build a fanbase and a business around your music. Info here.

Slightly misty in London this morning, although – oddly – not around The Shard where it was glorious sunshine. On my way to Brighton for a day of Pathways Into Music planning with Phil.