Future of Music Coalition

Getting to good public policies that protect music fans is hard enough without dishonest lobbyists purporting to represent fans but actually pushing the proposed policies of Stubhub, Seatgeek, and Vivid Seats.

But no lie can live forever. Policymakers aren't falling for these tactics anymore.

Obviously, that means any recent increase in fraud can't be blamed on resale cap laws. But of course, they neglected to tell lawmakers how old those laws are.

(The increases likely result from improved reporting, aggressive foreign platforms, and Meta turning a blind eye to scams on its platform.)

There is evidence that those three nations experienced recent upticks in ticketing fraud reports. But here's the problem: Belgium's resale cap dates back to 2013. Poland's dates back to 1971. And Denmark has had a resale cap on the books since 1911!

Rather than say this themselves, sometimes reseller lobbyists recruit willing consumer groups that they fund. As DC's city council considered a price cap on ticket resale, National Consumers League was happy to step up, and claim that price caps led to fraud in Belgium, Denmark, and Poland.

Artists want lawmakers to cap ticket resale at or near face value in order to keep our shows fairly priced for fans. But resale-industry lobbyists want to stop this, because it would jeopardize these companies' profits.

So they lie and say that caps encourage fraud.

Good news: congressional efforts to cram an AI regulation moratorium into the NDAA (a must pass defense bill) have been abandoned. This is a win for musicians, who've wanted state govts to protect them and their fans from abusive practices by AI firms.

There’s lots in here that’s inaccurate.

Most people have no problem with using AI to help predict the weather or screen for cancer; this kind of nuance makes sense. But because most people don't have a ton of familiarity with recording technology, it might not be as intuitive to distinguish between different uses of AI in the studio.

There's a big legal, technical, and ethical difference between a generative AI tool that repurposes existing work into something new (with or without a license) and a tool that uses AI for noise reduction, beat matching, EQ analysis, etc.

Part of the problem is that the term "AI" is applied so broadly that it encompasses vastly different technologies, some of which have been part of standard studio workflow for years (they used to just be called machine learning)!

Liz's book probably permanently changed the conversation around Spotify this year. Her year-end reflections are absolutely worth reading.

Seeing some misinformation circulating about what unions can do in contracts to combat AI. Unions can bargain over the use of AI by signatory companies but they can’t bargain to forbid licensing deals with licensing companies.

It is going to be interesting to see whether Ticketmaster tries to use the same line of argument in the FTC’s separate but related case against them.

This motion to dismiss will probably fail. But musicians will keep fighting for fans to be able to attend shows at a fair price the artist sets, and working to cut out predators and grifters.

Saying the Better Online Ticket Sales (BOTS) Act only applies to bots is like saying the PATRIOT Act only applies to patriots or the DREAM act only applies while you're asleep. It's a weirdly literal willful misreading of the law based on the silly convention of giving bills punny acronym titles.

But the BOTS act was not limited to bots! The BOTS Act aimed to prevent ticket brokers from buying large numbers of event tickets and reselling them to interested customers at inflated prices by circumventing access controls. The only direct mention of "bots" is in the title of the bill!

Federal Trade Commission, Key Investment Group aim to toss cases A ticket broker has reportedly asked to throw out the US Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) case that accuses it of bypassing Ticketmaster limits to buy and resell hundreds of thousands of concert ticke...

This summer, the FTC brought a BOTS Act enforcement action against ticket reseller Key Investment Group, but Key Investment Group's trying to get the motion dismissed, by saying that the law only covers bots-- which they say they don't use.

🔵 How Suno poses as a third-party to try and hype its product Is it wrong? Not technically... but it certainly suggests desperation.

networknotes.motiveunknown.com/p/how-suno-p...

Interesting! Would be interesting to try and figure out what “interests” on FB etc are driving it for those who are getting the ads!

If you’re not a music creator, you might not be able to see the aggressive use of targeted ads to try and promote Suno to music creators—both pro and hobbyist. It looks like a desperate attempt to both normalize the tech and drive adoption in the absence of organic demand.

Shoutout to small venues & promoters, small studios & pressing plants, small labels/publishers, small booking/ management firms, small publicists, small record shops, small instrument/gear shops & manufacturers, LPFM stations, and small music publications. Small is beautiful! #SmallBusinessSaturday

It can be confusing to keep track of all the lawsuits against Ticketmaster. There are at least four!
1)DOJ antitrust case (could lead to a breakup)
2)FTC BOTS act case (probably just big fines)
3)Heckman class action (faces steeper odds)
4)Swiftie class action (same)

We’ve been advising impacted artists to talk to their label/publisher reps. There may be substantial settlement money involved too.

Once again, very frustrating that there's so little detail about what's in this, but too much detail would raise legal concerns about illegal coordination between various labels. Opt-in is an important guardrail, but certainly not enough to ease many artists' fears.

It has been pointed out to me that this means 2.5 billion-dollar AI music company Suno has spent less money on music than many individual music fans

Could a New Ticketing Law in the U.K. Finally Curb Scalpers? The U.K. said it plans on banning reselling tickets above face value in an effort to stop fans getting gouged for in-demand shows on the secondary market.

“Fixing the dysfunction in live entertainment requires looking at all the pieces,” he said. “We must cap resale, create and enforce strong rules of the road to protect fans and workers, and we must break up Live Nation.”

And meanwhile, a renewed congressional effort to preempt state AI regulation (including regulation that protects musicians like Tennessee's ELVIS Act) has failed!

A regulation moratorium was going to be attached to the defense authorization bill, but that's been scrapped.

It's important to note these victories because in some important ways, despite digital music feeling kind of dystopian, the musician community is scoring some important wins on AI, as is the broader movement for AI regulation.

Growing the Value of Music for Artists and Songwriters - Warner Music Group AI is still in its early days. Investment is surging, talent is. . .

Warner is saying that any AI deals they'll agree to as a company will be opt-in only. That's consistent with the principles we all agreed to via Human Artistry Campaign. Even if you think gen AI music sucks, that's an important guardrail. www.wmg.com/news/growing...

Paul Allen foundation will gift $7 million to this Seattle arts hub On Wednesday, Allen Family Philanthropies announced that it will give nearly $7 million to eight arts and cultural organizations on the Seattle Center campus.

Almost $1M to the all-ages DIY venue, The Vera Project!!…