Sony Music has revealed the scale of its battle with artificial intelligence fakes of its artists by saying it has taken down more than 75,000 examples of AI-generated material featuring its biggest stars, including Harry Styles.
The company, one of the three biggest labels in the music industry, gave the figure in a submission to a UK government consultation on copyright rules that Sony fears will worsen the damage to the music industry from AI.
Music executives say the detected fakes are probably only a fraction of the AI music fakes available online as teams working on the problem need to scour streaming services manually for them and demand their removal.
The ability of new, freely available AI software to generate vast quantities of convincing fake material has emerged as a significant concern for companies in the creative industries. Many fear the free availability of the material will undermine their ability to make money from legitimate recordings.
Sony said in its submission to the consultation, seen by the Financial Times, that AI-generated recordings in music streaming services resulted in “direct commercial harm to legitimate recording artists, including UK artists”.
Executives are concerned that any weakening of UK copyright law will only make this situation worse, especially for smaller artists who lack a large label to protect their interests.
A person familiar with Sony’s efforts said that, for most labels, the artists copied were their most popular — Harry Styles, Queen and Beyoncé, in Sony’s case.
Sony’s submission said: “Sony Music unfortunately has extensive experience with digital replicas.”
The UK government has published the proposals as part of a drive that Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has said is aimed at making the UK “the best place to start and scale an AI business”.
One proposal would allow AI companies to train their models for free for commercial purposes on a range of content in the UK — including music, film, books and newspapers. Copyright owners would need to seek a specific opt-out to be exempted.
Executives in the creative industries fear the model would impose on creators a new administrative burden of constantly defending their work online.
The proposals have sparked weeks of protests from artists, musicians, film makers and media groups, all concerned the proposed system would be unwieldy and expensive to operate.
However, ministers have insisted they are still open to different views in trying to come to a position on copyright that could help boost the UK’s technology ambitions while also protecting the creative industries.
Sony Music sought in its submission to underline the benefits of the existing system, where AI developers need to pay copyright owners for access to content to train their models. Sony said it was currently involved in “multiple negotiations” to license its intellectual property to AI companies. It said the government’s proposals were likely to “reduce, not increase, AI licensing activity in the UK market”.
The response by Sony called the proposed changes “rushed, unbalanced and irreversible”, arguing that copyright was “a right, not a regulation”. The system was a “necessary societal reward” for creating and investing in works that benefited society and enriched human life, it added.
The proposals “unfairly and unnecessarily” distorted the market in favour of AI developers, the company said.
Sony argued that the proposals would damage a major part of the UK economy, with the UK the third-largest recorded music market worldwide and the second-biggest exporter of recorded music in the world.
