TL;DRThe music industry faces four converging crises: AI licensing deals are going live, publishers are challenging performing rights organisations, AI-powered streaming fraud is surging, and a royalty rate-setting showdown with the Copyright Royalty Board looms. NMPA has struck deals with Udio and Klay, Spotify partnered with UMG on AI remixes, and the first AI streaming fraud case ended in a guilty plea.
The music industry descended on New York this week for Indie Week and a flurry of parallel gatherings. The conversations kept circling back to the same handful of anxieties: generative AI, streaming fraud, underpaid songwriters, and the organisations meant to protect them.
Four issues, in particular, dominated the agenda. Each one carries the potential to redraw the economics of recorded music for years to come.
AI licensing is no longer theoretical
Major labels have now signed deals with generative AI platforms including Udio, Suno, and Klay. Universal Music Group settled its copyright lawsuit against Udio in October 2025 and agreed to build a licensed AI music-creation platform, while all three majors inked a licensing agreement with Klay the following month.
