Latest news with #EricAlper
CTV News
23-07-2025
- Entertainment
- CTV News
Remembering Ozzy Osbourne
The rockstar known as the Prince of Darkness, Ozzy Osbourne, has died at 76. Music expert Eric Alper joins us to honour the legend.
CTV News
04-07-2025
- Entertainment
- CTV News
Mysterious band The Velvet Sundown soars in popularity, fuelling AI music debate
A mysterious rock band that may not be a band at all has soared in popularity on music streaming sites, raising fresh concerns over the rise of artificial intelligence in the music industry. The group, known as The Velvet Sundown, amassed nearly a million listeners in just a few weeks. But many observers aren't sure the band even exists in the traditional sense. Reddit and TikTok users were among the first to flag the group's two albums, which appeared suddenly on Spotify and other platforms in June. A growing number of listeners believe the music is entirely AI-generated. In a promotional video for the band, a voice asks, 'Are you sure we're not real?' AI-generated songs have been flooding streaming services daily, but The Velvet Sundown is drawing particular attention as debate heats up over whether platforms should be required to label music created using artificial intelligence. Music journalist Eric Alper gave the music a listen and described it as 'pretty good,' with a sound reminiscent of 'generic 1970s southern swamp rock' and bands like Kansas and Creedence Clearwater Revival. 'So far, there's really no indication that the music industry cares a whit about mentioning what is AI and what's not,' said Alper, pointing to a 2023 Billboard magazine study that found 35 per cent of songs on the Hot 100 chart used at least some form of AI. Another fully AI-generated band, The Devil Inside, has also made waves. Its biggest track, Bones in the River, has more than 1.7 million plays on Spotify. Currently, Spotify has no rules preventing the upload of AI-generated music, and listeners can be unaware they're streaming content created by machines. Meanwhile, French music streaming platform Deezer has taken a different approach. In April, it reported that 18 per cent of the new songs uploaded to its service were fully AI-generated—about 20,000 songs a day. Last month, Deezer became the first major platform to launch an AI detection tool that flags such content for users. 'AI is not inherently good or bad, but we believe a responsible and transparent approach is key to building trust with our users and the music industry,' said Deezer CEO Alexis Lanternier in late June. On Thursday, Lanternier confidently told NBC News the music from The Velvet Sundown is '100 per cent' AI-generated. The explosive growth of generative AI in music has also prompted a wave of lawsuits, with musicians and songwriters alleging their material is being used without permission to train AI models. Websites like Suno and Udio now allow users to generate entire songs using only text prompts. And experts say the technology is getting better—fast. AI-generated music The band's most streamed song so far is called 'Dust on the Wind.' (CTV News) 'The quality is so high that it's almost impossible to tell that a machine created it,' said CTV News technology analyst Carmi Levy. 'It's basically the wild west across Spotify, because you can post content and you're not required to let anyone know that it is, in fact, AI-generated,' Levy added. CTV News approached people in downtown Toronto to get their opinions on the band and AI music. After listening to some of the music, many said they would like to see it identified as being machine-made. 'If I knew it was AI I probably wouldn't listen to it, even if it was good,' said Yasmin Mkalaf. 'So, I think they should definitely be transparent with that for sure.' Asked if he'd listen to AI-generated music, Paul Groche had a different take: 'If it's a good song and I like it, then sure, why not?' Others, like Mahshad Jalali, disagree. 'I do have a Spotify subscription and I kind of don't like that I'm supporting that now,' she said. 'Because I do pay for it.' Tech expert Levy said, 'I think the industry in general—whether the tech industry, the music industry and, quite frankly, all of us—need to arrive at standards for labelling content that was created using artificial intelligence. Right now, it's anything goes.'
CBC
12-03-2025
- Business
- CBC
Spotify paid over $10B US to the music industry last year. How much actually makes it to the artists?
Spotify announced in late January that it had paid out a record $10 billion US in royalties in 2024, the largest payout to the music industry in a single year. This amounts to a tenfold jump from $1 billion US in 2014. The Swedish streaming giant on Wednesday released further details in its Loud & Clear report, saying that nearly 1,500 artists earned over $1 million US in royalties from Spotify last year. The report also highlighted how artist generating royalties have tripled since 2017. And though Spotify has absolutely changed the game for artists in terms of exposure and helping them build their fanbase, that doesn't always translate to financial stability, according to music publicist Eric Alper. Spotify doesn't pay artists and songwriters directly and how much they get paid depends on their agreements with rights holders. And after all the pit stops on the revenue chain, he says what makes it into their hands could amount to a very tiny percentage. The streaming giant's report comes amid the ongoing debate about how much money artists and songwriters actually receive in royalties and whether it is actually fair. Many artists, especially songwriters, struggle to see substantial earnings from streaming, even if their songs rack up millions of plays. "While Spotify boasts a $10 billion payout in 2024, only a fraction of that ends up in the pockets of those who create the music. A typical signed artist might see only 10 to 20 per cent of their total earnings after their label takes its cut," Alper told CBC News. "Songwriters have it even worse since mechanical and performance royalties are split among multiple stakeholders. Independent artists fare slightly better, as they avoid label deductions, but they still must navigate distributor fees and publishing splits," he said. How the money flows Spotify breaks down how the money flows in its report. The music platform pays the rights holders, which are typically record labels, distributors, aggregators or collecting societies. Artists and songwriters choose their rights holders and make agreements on their music, including giving them permission to deliver it to Spotify. The streaming giant then pays the rights holders, and they then pay the artists and songwriters. Spotify has different agreements with each of these rights holders and in general Spotify pays them roughly two-thirds of every dollar made from music. "As is the case with other streaming platforms, the payout to music creators and publishers is significantly minimal, especially considering that it is the music itself which initially provided the platform with its value," said Dr. Charlie Wall-Andrews, creative industries professor at Toronto Metropolitan University. Spotify was hit with a lawsuit last year that accused it of underpaying songwriting royalties for tens of millions of songs. Several Grammy-nominated songwriters, including Amy Allen and Jessi Alexander, boycotted a Spotify awards event earlier this year after the platform's decision to cut royalty rates for songwriters and publishers on premium-subscription streams last April. "Spotify continues to announce royalty payout numbers that distort the infinitesimal amount that ends up going to songwriters. To put real Spotify numbers into perspective, in 2024 Daniel Ek cashed out $376 million in stock. In that same period, it is estimated that all songwriters in the U.S. received $320 million from Spotify," National Music Publishers' Association president and CEO David Israelite told CBC News. "To add insult to injury, just last year Spotify enacted a bundling scheme to further slash what little they pay songwriters by unilaterally combining their premium music service with audiobooks. We continue to fight back against these efforts to find solutions that give creators their fair share of the massive value they create for Spotify." CBC News reached out to Spotify for comment, but did not immediately hear back outside of office hours. Pennies per stream The Loud & Clear report also showed music publishing payouts surpassing $4.5 billion US to songwriters and publishing rights holders in the past two years — with double-digit percentage growth from 2023 to 2024 alone. "The numbers are wild — 1,500 artists made over $1 million from Spotify in 2024, and 100,000 artists generated at least $6,000. That sounds great, but when you realize that there are over 12 million uploaders, the competition is staggering," Alper said. "The vast majority of artists are still making pennies per stream, and unless you're in the top few per cent of streamers, you're probably not quitting your day job anytime soon," he added. Alper explained that major-label artists with massive streaming numbers can make substantial money, but for mid-level and emerging artists, streaming income is often unsustainable. "The industry's shift toward streaming has widened access to distribution, but it has also devalued individual streams," he said. Spotify operates on a pro-rata model, where revenue is pooled and divided based on total streams and smaller artists can often get lost in the system. Alper would rather see fees distributed based on what each listener actually plays — and that the per-stream payout be increased. He explains that if Spotify and other platforms shift to a fan-powered, user-centric model, subscription money goes directly to the artists you actually listen to which alone could significantly boost earnings for independent and niche artists. "Spotify isn't the enemy, but the system needs tweaking to ensure that more artists — especially songwriters — can thrive," Alper said.
