Following is an internal email from Sir Lucian Grainge to UMG staff describing the company’s new TikTok license. For context, I think it’s critically important to understand that this is not just about the money, although the money is important. It’s just as much about AI protections and Universal’s continued support for the principles of the Human Artistry Campaign. These principles are now being incorporated into commercial deals with licensees like TikTok who I am convinced would run roughshod over artists if left to their own devices. Those principles are now promises for TikTok, and promi ..read more

Reuters/Ipsos conducted a two-day poll of US adults in the wake of the divestment legislation signed into law by President Biden last week. (See Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act.). The poll concluded that 58% of respondents agreed with the poll’s statement that the Chinese government (i.e., the Chinese Communist Party) uses TikTok to “influence American public opinion.” 13% disagreed, and the balance of respondents were unsure or didn’t answer. The Reuters/Ipsos poll found 50% of Americans supported banning TikTok, while 32% opposed a ban and the re ..read more

If you are a fan of the investigative reporter Bob Woodward, historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, biographer Walter Isaacson, action writers Jack Carr and Brad Thor, or classic authors like F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ray Bradbury, and even Britney Spears, what do all those writers have in common?  They are all published by Simon & Schuster. They also nearly became more deposits for Meta’s AI landfill.  You don’t have to have grown up surrounded by books for that bit of news to make you heave or at least despair.  But it highlights two indicia of cultural collapse:&nbs ..read more

Here’s a quote for the ages: MICHAEL BURRY One of the hallmarks of mania is the rapid rise and complexity  of the rates of fraud. And did you know they’re going up? The Big Short, screenplay by Charles Randolph and Adam McKay, based on the book by Michael Lewis I have often said that if screwups were Easter eggs, Daniel Ek would be the Easter bunny, hop hop hopping from one to the next. I realize that is not consistent with his press agent’s pagan iconography, but it sure seems true to many. The Bunny’s Bundle This week was no different. Mr. Ek evidently has a “10b5-1 agreement” in place ..read more

It finally happened–the US government has recognized the danger of TikTok in the narrowly tailored, content neutral, time, place and manner national security regulation brought about because of the national security concerns about TikTok I described at the Music Business Association conference in 2020. (See Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act.) TikTok will fight the legislation in court, of course, and use their dopamine injection algorithms to put susceptible users in motion to do their bidding. TikTok’s CEO has already started that drumbeat having failed s ..read more

Yes, the rich do get richer and no broadcasters still do not respect music. The latest evidence is the vicious irony of yet more legislation pending in Congress to protect broadcasters and extend their free ride over music deep into the electrified 21st Century. Because what we really need in every Tesla is an AM radio that does not pay artists for playing their recordings. We need AM radio so much that we need to disrupt the automotive manufacturing base yet again with added government mandates. I’m talking about Senator Edward Markey’s AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act of 2023 (S. 1669). As the ..read more

Precisely pic.twitter.com/mbnnpIHVbD — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 10, 2024 This is an incredibly simple but crucial thought that Steve Jobs expresses in this interview. I would suggest it’s one of the reasons that most artists, certainly artists who knew him, loved Steve. He made them part of the team. I would also suggest that the failure to include artists as part of the team is an equally crucial explanation for why most artists cannot abide Daniel Ek. I make that comparison because Daniel Ek is obsessed with Steve Jobs. There’s no comparison. Why is that? I think it comes down to this ..read more

By Chris Castle Ever wonder how the Music Modernization Act’s reach back safe harbor could be legal? The Department of Justice has filed the government’s position on why they can get away with screwing you to help Spotify. Of course they don’t put it quite that way. Readers will recall that Eight Mile Style (which publishes some songs written by Eminem) is suing Spotify and the Harry Fox Agency for various species of copyright infringement in federal court in Nashville before the distinguished judge District Judge Aleta A. Trauger. Judge Trauger correctly balanced the public’s right to know wi ..read more

Car theft is up again according to Market Watch: By the time you’ve finished reading this article, nearly 20 cars will be stolen nationwide: Indeed, a motor vehicle is stolen every 32 seconds in the U.S., as reported by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). The number of vehicle thefts has increased significantly in recent years, leaving many car owners wondering how to protect their vehicles — even in this technologically advanced era.  After reviewing new data regarding car thefts in the past few years, we at the MarketWatch Guides team share our findings abo ..read more

A scrupulous writer, in every sentence that he writes, will But you are not obliged to go to all this trouble. You can shirk it by simply throwing your mind open and letting the ready-made phrases come crowding in. They will construct your sentences for you — even think your thoughts for you, to a certain extent — and at need they will perform the important service of partially concealing your meaning even from yourself.”  George Orwell, Politics and the English Language Orwell was prescient again. All writers have a grave responsibility that is entirely absent when the machines take ove ..read more