This music registration can protect musicians from having their work stolen by AI

SoundExchange is taking steps to protect musicians in the AI ​​age.

The nonprofit music and tech collective rights organization revealed during a session at the Fast Company Innovation Festival on Thursday that it is developing AI registration for audio creators and copyright holders.

As artists are increasingly concerned about AI and similar models infringing their work and affecting their income, the SoundExchange registration “will provide a much-needed resource for creators and rights holders to protect and preserve their rights regarding the use of their content in AI models. ,” according to a company statement.

SoundExchange CEO Michael Huppe announced the news during an interview with Timbaland, the Grammy-winning producer and singer.

SoundExchange is expected to launch in early 2025 and will operate as a system for collecting and distributing royalties using a registered international codec database. That stored data is used to identify audio recordings to ensure that copyright holders know when and how their work is being used. The subscription is supported by “all major labels and the independent recording community,” according to a SoundExchange release.

Essentially, companies that build and train AI models by importing audio recordings will be able to refer to that database and verify that their use is authorized and that copyright holders are informed. The registry is intended to prevent alleged theft of intellectual property to train AI—something many companies involved in the development of AI are already facing numerous lawsuits against.