Bulletin YOUR DAILY ENTERTAINMENT NEWS UPDATE AUGUST 19, 2021 Page 1 of 32 INSIDE SESAC Buys Royalty • Can Holly+ Solve Collection Agency Audiam the Problem of Deepfake Vocals? BY STEVE KNOPPER • Tencent Music Audiam, an eight-year-old collection agency that Price is critical of the sale partly because SESAC Expects Setback From Regulations, helps rightsholders “license, police, audit, research, also owns Harry Fox, which works with publish- Says Subscriptions collect and distribute” unpaid royalties from You- ers and labels to distribute mechanical royalties to Are Safe Tube and other services, was sold Wednesday to the publishers. Price, who accuses Harry Fox of a “lack performance-rights organization SESAC. of payments to copyright holders,” viewed Audiam, • How Risky Are Concerts? We Asked “This is another brick in the wall of the strategy of which competed with it in some ways, as providing a an Infectious Disease finding businesses to deliver superior value to right- kind of unofficial check on its work. As long as there Expert sholders,” says John Josephson, CEO of SESAC, were two entities with a significant amount of data which also owns the Harry Fox Agency. “Our plan is to about mechanical rights, rightsholders could compare • California to Require Proof of continue broadening the scope of services we offer.” their ability to identify and collect on the uses of their Vaccination for Large The sale allows Audiam’s longtime owner, the Ca- work. Indoor Events nadian rights-management group SOCAN, to re- “With this acquisition, HFA neutralizes the sole tain a 15% stake in the company, according to a source entity that exposes its own actions,” he says. • Sonos vs. Google: The Smart Speaker close to the deal. Audiam, whose clients include Josephson says that Audiam is moving away from Patent War Is Metallica, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Jason Mraz, the publishing side of the business, with an emphasis Heating Up represented more than 1.2 million copyrights and had on working with artists and labels to collect recorded- collected $120 million for songwriters and publish- music royalties. Harry Fox has only ever collected ers as of 2019. publishing rights. “I don’t see that as a conflict,” MARKET WATCH Last year, Audiam’s outspoken founder, Jeff Josephson says. PAGE 29 Price, left the SOCAN-owned company, tweeting In any case, he adds, Price originally hired Au- SONGWRITERS that he remained “committed to the mission Au- diam’s current management team, which works as “an & PRODUCERS diam was founded to pursue,” but added, “Ultimate- autonomous business unit” and will continue to do so CHARTS ly the interests of SOCAN were allowed to dominate under SESAC’s supervision. PAGES 30 - 32 that mission.” (continued) TOTAL IMMERSION ESSENTIAL ANALYSIS of the latest business topics and trends formulated to give industry players the competitive advantage in a rapidly changing market. EXCLUSIVE QUARTERLY REPORTS that deliver in-depth, holistic reporting; case studies; and custom data designed to serve the industry. A DEEP DIVE LIBRARY stocked with intelligence on fan data, SUBSCRIBE TO BILLBOARD PRO FOR song catalog sales, TV synchs, Africa’s burgeoning music ACCESS TO NEW REPORTS business and the gaming industry’s embrace of artists. AND THE ARCHIVE Page 3 of 32 IN BRIEF “I love the management team, I love the covered under copyright law and the under- don’s voice recordings, the Holly+ instru- mission of the company,” Josephson says riding technology is so novel, this places AI ment solves a few of the biggest challenges of Audiam. “There’s an opportunity for us to vocals in a state of legal limbo, leaving artists with AI voice renderings, most notably, the really drive growth in the business.” vulnerable to identity theft and with no ownership and monetization of one’s digital compensation for the use of their likeness. likeness. “We’re really trying to figure out Though there is evidence to suggest robust, foundational logic for how to deal Can Holly+ Solve “publicity” or “personality” rights may with this technology through Holly+,” says provide some pathway to legal recourse for Dryhurst. the Problem of the commercial use of a public figure’s voice Instead of sticking a price tag to Hern- (like Tom Waits v. Frito Lay, a 1992 lawsuit don’s vocal likeness, the team decided to Deepfake Vocals? in which the singer sued Frito Lay for the make the instrument available and free to unauthorized impersonation his voice for all and to monetize the project in a way that BY KRISTIN ROBINSON a commercial and won), these rights vary wouldn’t exclude any users in the process. from state-to-state and still have yet to ad- “We truly want people to play around with hat would it sound like dress a case specific to the new frontier of it,” Herndon explains. “Because I feel like if Billie Eilish explained AI-rendered vocals. for a lot of people, it’s kind of mysterious the GameStop short But for experimental electronic musician how this works. Of course, it still is some- squeeze? What if Bob Holly Herndon, who has been working at what mysterious, but people can at least get DylanW sang Britney Spears’ “...Baby One the intersection of music and artificial intel- a better sense of the technology.” More Time”? Using artificial intelligence ligence for years, including a doctoral stint The groundbreaking monetization process and machine learning, these bizarre queries at Stanford University, she sees this space as of Holly+ has already begun. For the past are becoming a dystopian reality as fans, a brave new world for musicians. Instead of week, users of Holly+ have been able to hobbyists and scammers mimic the voices of fighting to destroy the inevitable behemoth upload creations made with the tool to be their favorite stars. of AI, Herndon is showing others how to considered for the official Holly+ NFT (non For singers and rappers, these so-called control it and even use it to their advantage fungible token) collection. This will be the “deepfake” vocals also present a looming by releasing her new AI voice instrument, first of multiple Holly+ NFT collections, threat as the technology rapidly improves, Holly+. and the submission process closes tonight and the line becomes less discernible Created with start-up Never Before Heard (August 18). Like a digital gallery of AI-based between re-creation and reality. Currently, Sounds and longtime collaborator Mat musical works, Herndon and other team most musical deepfakes are created in jest Dryhurst, Holly+ is a cloud-based instru- members will sift through submissions and or homage by music fans, but however ment that allows users to upload up to five choose their favorites to showcase in the col- well-intentioned, deepfake vocals are almost minutes of audio and map a rendering of lection which will be sold on the NFT mar- always unauthorized uses of an artist’s Herndon’s voice over top. Programmed ketplace Zora. This allows Herndon and the voice. Because the human voice is not through the amalgamation of hours of Hern- team the power to choose which songs are AUTHORITATIVE INTELLIGENCE. DELIVERED DIGITALLY. CLICK HERE FOR FREE DELIVERY DIGITAL NEWSLETTERS WE’RE BACK, LIVE IN MIAMI #BILLBOARDLATINWEEK WWW.BILLBOARDLATINMUSICWEEK.COM FOR SPONSORSHIP INQUIRIES: MARCIA OLIVAL, [email protected] | MIKE VAN, [email protected] BILLBOARD COUNTRY UPDATE APRIL 13, 2020 | PAGE Page 4 5 OF of 1932 ON THE CHARTS JIM ASKER [email protected] IN BRIEF SamHunt’s Southside Rules Top Country givenA officiallbu value,ms; something Brett that Dryhurst Young Although ‘Catc this modelh compensates’-es Fifth Hern- Airplay compares to the current practice of authoriz- don for the attribution of her voice and the Tencent ing remixes.Lea “A similarder; model already Travis exists creatorDenning using the instrument, Makes it still does Historynot there. The official remixes made, authorized remunerate Never Before Heard Sounds or Music Expects by the artist themselves, are more valuable Dryhust directly for their contributions to Sambecause Hunt they’s second are recognized. studio full-length, I think andthis first will in overthe fiveproject. years, Southside“We’re still salestrying (up to 21%) figure in the out tracking Setback week. On Country Airplay, From it hops 18-15 (11.9 mil- (MCAbecome Nashville/Universal the standard.” Music Group Nashville), debutswhat at No. the 1 onbusiness Billboard model’s lion is,” audience admits Chrisimpressions, up 16%). Top Country Albums chart dated April 18. In its first week (ending April 9), it The NFT collection also offers a rare op- Deaner, co-founder of Never Before Heard earned 46,000 equivalent album units, including 16,000 in album sales, ac- TRY TO ‘CATCH’ UP WITHRegulations, YOUNG Brett Youngachieves his fifthSays consecutive cordingportunity to Nielsen for users Music/MRC to be supported Data. by the Sounds. “A lot of this projectand total is proof Country of Airplaycon- No. 1 as “Catch” (Big Machine Label Group) ascends artistSouthside who created marks Hunt’s the tool. second “It’s No. a market 1 on the- cept and gaging what the appetite is from Subscriptions2-1, increasing 13% to 36.6 million impressions. Are chartplace and provided fourth topby the10. Itartist follows themselves. freshman LPI users. With Holly+ we’ve found there truly Young’s first of six chart entries, “Sleep With- Montevallothink that ,could which alsoarrived be atan the interesting summit in future No - is a lot of interest.” Safeout You,” reached No. 2 in December 2016. He vembermodel for2014 fan and engagement,” reigned for nine says weeks. Herndon. To date, Instead, for now, the music tech up start followed with the multiweek No. 1s “In Case You Montevallo has earned 3.9 million units, with 1.4 Didn’t Know” (two weeks, June 2017), “Like I Loved millionCovering in album the costs sales.