Michael Nash, EVP and Chief Digital Officer at Common Music Group, delivered a keynote presentation on the UN’s AI for Good summit in Geneva on Tuesday (July 8).
This summit, which counts over 13,000 registered delegates, gathers UN resolution makers, politicians, ambassadors, and different stakeholders to debate AI within the context of the UN Sustainable Improvement Objectives.
The occasion is organized by the UN’s ITU along with 40 UN organizations and the Swiss authorities.
Throughout his speech, Nash supplied insights into how the world’s largest music rights firm is approaching synthetic intelligence, and why he believes “market-based options are the reply” to AI’s challenges in music.
He added that UMG has “enabled quite a few entrepreneurs” and is “working with a variety of main tech platforms in introduced partnerships and with important licensing offers within the works”.
UMG has been a key advocate for the accountable and moral use of AI in music and the corporate has already inked numerous partnerships within the AI house.
In October, it teamed up with AI firm KLAY Imaginative and prescient Inc., with plans to work on “a pioneering business moral foundational mannequin for AI-generated music that works in collaboration with the music business and its creators”.
Amongst its varied different AI-related offers over the previous couple of years, UMG has additionally partnered with YouTube on an “AI incubator,” and with ProRata.ai, an attribution startup targeted on Gen AI.
UMG has additionally been a distinguished determine within the combat towards the unauthorized use of songs and recordings for coaching AI platforms, becoming a member of lawsuits towards AI platform Anthropic, in addition to AI music mills Suno and Udio. (Bloomberg reported final month that the majors are in licensing talks with these latter two platforms.)
Elsewhere in Nash’s presentation, he additionally touched on Common’s broader business involvement, noting that the corporate “helped launch the Human Artistry Marketing campaign” in 2023, which “now has greater than 170 supporting organizations from over 40 international locations” working to “shield creators’ rights within the age of AI.”
Nash concluded the keynote by reiterating his perception that “AI could be instrumental to our future, and that it’s the artists who will proceed to form international tradition, channeling disruption into transformation, as they’ve all the time executed”.
He added: “In our artist-centric imaginative and prescient, AI innovation can drive music tradition, and in so doing, generate even better advantages to the standard of life on this planet.”
“In our artist-centric imaginative and prescient, AI innovation can drive music tradition, and in so doing, generate even better advantages to the standard of life on this planet.”
Michael Nash
Nash was launched to the stage by Don Was, the musician, report producer, and President of the long-lasting UMG-owned jazz label Blue Word Data.
Was famous that “one of many largest modifications we’re going through is the introduction of synthetic intelligence” and that “a few of us are excited, some are nervous, and everybody questions [what this] means for creativity? What does it imply for originality? What does it imply for profound creative communication?”
He added: “At UMG, we’re very fortunate to have somebody main that dialog with readability and with goal, and that’s Michael Nash. He’s the man who oversees our international digital technique, working with platforms and dealing with companions and coverage makers to ensure our artists can thrive in these evolving instances.
“Greater than that, Michael understands that creativity isn’t simply information, it’s emotion, it’s connection, it’s humanity. He sees AI as not as a menace to humanity, however as a software that, if used the appropriate method, can assist artists, shield their rights and even assist unfold their voices additional.”
Listed here are 4 issues that stood out from Nash’s presentation…
1. NASH ARGUES THAT ‘COPYRIGHT IS NOT THE ENEMY OF INNOVATION’
One of the vital placing moments in Nash’s keynote got here when he straight challenged what he known as “the anti-copyright premise of some AI business commentators,” arguing that this attitude is “deeply flawed.”
“Copyright shouldn’t be the enemy of innovation, fairly the other,” Nash instructed the viewers. “Media tech convergence predicated on respect for copyright has produced a multi-trillion Euro financial system, and that began with Apple marrying iPod with iTunes in 2003 as a crucial early step embracing licensed music [to] create the primary trillion greenback firm.”
“Copyright shouldn’t be the enemy of innovation, fairly the other.”
Nash pointed to Steve Jobs as having “[written] the blueprint” for tech corporations working with the inventive group, noting that “Google, Amazon, Meta and lots of different corporations are following in varied methods, with their very own music and content material methods.”
The UMG government emphasised that “tech collaboration with the inventive group, respecting the worth of artists’ work and harnessing their innovation has produced monumental cultural and financial profit.”
2. UMG’S AI STRATEGY IS BUILT ON A SIMPLE PHILOSOPHY: ‘CENTER THE CONVERSATION ON ARTISTS’
Nash outlined Common’s strategy to AI improvement, which he mentioned relies on a simple precept of placing artists first.
“Common’s technique on AI relies on a easy philosophy: middle the dialog on artists, defend their rights and pursuits, and from that basis, forge new inventive and business alternatives,” Nash defined.
“Common’s technique on AI relies on a easy philosophy: middle the dialog on artists.”
He burdened that whereas “the scope of technological disruption could also be unprecedented with AI, that doesn’t change a basic reality” – that “it’s artists who’ve all the time formed international tradition”.
Nash argued that profitable AI implementation in music requires beginning “from a basis that’s constructed on copyright and related rights,” warning that “you possibly can’t forge new enterprise fashions with no rights. When you don’t declare a seat on the dinner desk, you would possibly wind up on the menu.”
The manager emphasised that “the way forward for AI music is not going to be the regurgitation of spinoff knock-offs of artists’ music to cannibalize their present market. Will probably be activated by placing new instruments within the fingers of artists to allow them to broaden the market and create new experiences for his or her followers.”
3. UMG SHOWCASED THREE MAJOR AI PROJECTS: THE BEATLES’ ‘NOW AND THEN,’ SOUND THERAPY, AND KEITH URBAN’S LATEST MUSIC VIDEO
Nash used his keynote to spotlight particular examples of how Common is already implementing AI expertise in collaboration with artists, demonstrating sensible functions fairly than theoretical potentialities.
Essentially the most high-profile instance was The Beatles’ Now and Then, which Nash described as “the final tune from The Beatles, written after which sung by John Lennon virtually 50 years in the past.”
He defined that “utilizing subsequent era AI supply separation expertise, Lennon’s voice was excavated from a cassette recording that had been fully unusable for many years, ready for this second within the evolution of AI to reach.”
Nash famous that the monitor, launched in November 2023, “received the [2025] Grammy for Greatest Rock Efficiency” – marking “the primary time any recording using AI expertise has been so honored in a significant class.”
The second challenge Nash highlighted was Common’s collaboration with Apple Music on its Sound Remedy initiative, which he mentioned “employs our personal ethically developed, patented Gen AI system.”
This expertise “seamlessly integrates scientifically calibrated audio dietary supplements into the recording for a few of our largest artists, together with Think about Dragons, Katy Perry and Kacey Musgraves,” creating “immersive artist-approved remixes that ship a variety of wellness advantages to subscribers.”
Lastly, Nash supplied an unique preview of an upcoming Keith City music video for Straight Strains, created utilizing “Moon Valley Gen AI and different ethically educated instruments.”
4. NASH DOWNPLAYED THE IMPACT OF AI BAND THE VELVET SUNdown AND SHARED NEW CONSUMER RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTING AUDIENCES’ PREFERENCE FOR ‘REAL ARTISTS’
Throughout a panel dialogue following his keynote, Nash addressed considerations about AI-generated music by citing information from streaming platforms and new client analysis that implies human artists stay central to viewers preferences.
Referencing information from Deezer, Nash famous that whereas practically “20% of the uploads to the platform are pure AI-generated,” these uploads characterize solely “half of 1% of the consumption,” highlighting the restricted viewers urge for food for purely AI-generated music.
Nash particularly downplayed the importance of The Velvet Sunset, an AI-generated band that has attracted a number of media consideration over the previous week. “A variety of novelty will come alongside,” mentioned Nash. “Individuals are speaking about Velvet [Sundown], which is that this faux AI artist [project], you already know, possibly a conceptual challenge,” he added.
“There’s been a number of publicity about that. Due to all of the publicity, they’ve 1 million listeners on Spotify. That might not break them into the highest 10,000 acts by way of the scale of the month-to-month [listening], as a result of these are big platforms which have super quantity.”
Nash then shared new client analysis from Common, revealing that “about half of shoppers are enthusiastic about AI and music, however that’s principally by way of the utility of the service. They need to have higher discovery. They need to have higher group suggestions, higher interplay with the content material.”
“About half of shoppers are enthusiastic about AI and music, however that’s principally by way of the utility of the service.”
Crucially, amongst these shoppers enthusiastic about AI in music, Nash famous “an articulation of what we might name an ethical code. The overwhelming majority, 70-75% say actual artists matter essentially the most. It’s the story of the artists, who they’re. It’s expression of their identification. That’s what I join with.”
Nash mentioned: “I believe that {the marketplace} is confirming what [was said earlier], which is that individuals are connecting by means of music, understanding the expression of the human expertise. You already know, individuals connecting by means of that precept that’s nonetheless the driving pressure.”
Reservoir (Nasdaq: RSVR) is a publicly traded, international unbiased music firm with operations throughout music publishing, recorded music, and artist administration. Music Enterprise Worldwide
