The US National Music Publishers Association used its annual meeting in New York to announce licensing deals with the AI music platforms Udio and Klay. Independent publishers among its members can opt into a standard agreement rather than negotiate their own.
The headline term, according to NMPA chief David Israelite, is parity: money from AI use will be split equally between songs and sound recordings. In streaming, recordings earn more than three times as much as songs, and songwriter groups such as IMPF and ECSA have been demanding a 50/50 split for AI licences. Israelite called the Udio agreement the first industry-wide licence with a major AI music company.
The two platforms reached the table by different routes. Udio launched without licences, claiming fair use, then began signing with Universal, Warner, Merlin and Kobalt after the majors sued. Klay secured deals with all three majors before launching. Publishers could see the Udio template the following week, with the Klay one due later in the summer.
CMU points out how much remains unclear. AI services use music in training, in generating derivative tracks and in streaming them, and it is not known how payments will be divided between those uses or passed on to individual writers. Deals with collecting societies, which control the relevant rights in many countries, are also still being negotiated.
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