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Will AI Make Pop Stars Richer or Kill the Working Musician?

ended 20. November 2025

Bloomberg reports the litigation between Warner Music Group (WMG) and the AI music startup Udio has been resolved. This settlement ends the copyright infringement lawsuit between the companies.

As part of the agreement, the companies have established a framework for a licensed AI music creation service that Udio plans to launch in 2026. The generative AI models that power this new platform will be trained exclusively on music that is legally licensed and authorised from WMG's recorded music and music publishing businesses.

The agreement aims to create new revenue streams for WMG artists and songwriters. Artists and songwriters who choose to opt-in will be credited and paid when users of the new subscription service create remixes, covers, or new songs using their voices or compositions. WMG CEO Robert Kyncl stated that the collaboration aligns with the company's broader efforts to protect creators while responsibly "unlocking AI's potential".

We want your views:

  • Do working musicians genuinely have the option to say 'no' to this AI licensing model, or is it mandatory for commercial survival?
  • If your voice or composition is used by an AI to create a new hit, how do you fairly calculate your percentage of the revenue, and who should monitor it?
  • Do you make music? Have you dabbled with AI music tools yourself? What is the creative difference between composing with an AI and having the AI trained on your own work?
  • What does this WMG/Udio deal mean for commercial collaborations with AI? Will brands now bypass artists completely and licence AI models trained on a label's catalogue instead?
  • Does this settlement encourage labels to invest in AI-based revenue streams over traditional A&R (Artist and Repertoire) and human development?
  • If the AI is trained only on licensed music, does that limit innovation and creativity by forcing all new AI music to stay within established corporate catalogues?

1 responses from the Newspage community

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Colette Mason
AI Ethics Consultant at Clever Clogs AI
The WMG/Udio deal isn't a victory for artists; it's a corporate takeover of the creative revenue stream. They've formally shifted the copyright fight into a paycheck model, guaranteeing themselves a slice of every AI-generated track. This system establishes human art as licensed data, a mandatory input for a corporate machine. The 'opt-in' payment clause looks like a choice, but for working creators, it's just the new, unavoidable price of admission to the modern music market.