Lowering the Bar

[jackson white]

https://boomy.com/

From the related BBC article;

"If you have ever dreamed of earning money from a stellar music career but were concerned you had little talent, don't let that put you off"

In league with the devil;

"The Boomy website and app even allows people to submit their tracks to be listed on Spotify and other music streaming sites"

 

It gets better;

"While Boomy owns the copyright to each recording, and receives the funds in the first instance, the company says it passes on 80% of the streaming royalties to the person who created the song."

Careful there Jethro, who exactly is the "person" that "created" that masterpiece?  A lawyer could make a case for the AI, given the recent litigation over copyright violations. 

Doesn't sound like the business model was subjected to any meaningful due diligence. "80% of the streaming royalties" is pretty much 80% of nothing based on what my peeps are seeing.

And to think people had issues with MIDI/loops/samples/BIAB...  On the plus side, this could address the shortage of available content due to problems with the supply chain. 

(The BBC article.)

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-59878572

[craigb]

 

It's ok to lower the bar.  Midgets need drinks too, ya?  ?

[slartabartfast]

Some confusion in the article about what constitutes the "song." If the AI creates the music, then arguably there would be no legitimate claim to copyright:

306 The Human Authorship Requirement

The U.S. Copyright Office will register an original work of authorship, provided that the work was created by a human being. The copyright law only protects “the fruits of intellectual labor” that “are founded in the creative powers of the mind.” Trade-Mark Cases, 100 U.S. 82, 94 (1879). Because copyright law is limited to “original intellectual conceptions of the author,” the Office will refuse to register a claim if it determines that a human being did not create the work. Burrow-Giles Lithographic Co. v. Sarony, 111 U.S. 53, 58 (1884). in U.S. COPYRIGHT OFFICE, COMPENDIUM OF U.S. COPYRIGHT OFFICE PRACTICES § 101 (3d ed.) Jan 28, 2021

Note that the AI is not the owner of the copyright, it is the Boomy legal entity that will own it, as the EULA to which you agree  specifies that any music to which you  contribute to by using "filters" will be considered a work for hire, in which you have no copyright as the "author." Ironically, it is precisely the changes that you make by "filtering" the output of the computer generated music that would give Boomy a potentially legitimate copyright claim, not just to your work in selecting the modified versions, but to anything at all. To the extent that you add a lyric or vocal part, the EULA does not make a specific claim to ownership, although the broad interpretation of the work for hire phrase might give them a shot at sole ownership of that as well.

You are limited to a portion of streaming revenue only from songs coming via the Boomy service itself, which is unlikely to rival Spotify in the foreseeable future. You can only use it otherwise for non-commercial use, although the apparently separate permission to synchronize it to YouTube video of which you are the primary (sole?) author, might be a loophole, as some YouTube posts can be monetized.  You can purchase rights to the song you created (at the price set by Boomy), which would allow you to create derivative works (which might include setting a poem to it, modifying it in some way etc.) or claim copyright registration. The extrication of the song from a clear work for hire contract to enable you to claim authorship as author might be a little sticky. The cleaner method would be an assignment of the copyright that already exists once the song has been saved by Boomy to you, although this would be one of the clearest examples of the actual author of a song getting an author's registration. It is not uncommon in the business to register as authors people who had not authorial input at all. In any case your purchase of your song does not give you sole control, as Boomy will retain an unrestricted license to use the song, which presumably would give them the right to stream it or sell recordings in competition with you or another publisher.

[jackson white]

Apparently aliens are not fans of AI...

or Spotify subscribers, but gotta give this clip props for the use of "quavers" ...