$64 Billion on the table and the hope for a fair AI revenue structure for Artists Just Got Harder.

The AI conversation may be shifting to America. Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square has bid to buy Universal Music Group and this could move the world’s largest music company from Brussels/Amsterdam to a Wall Street/Nevada jurisdiction.American governance with shareholder led rules.

Let’s be blunt, American standards historically are worse for artists than European. Look at the documented pattern of 70 years of American music contracts.

The European Commission has been the backstop, the regulator that artists and independent labels could appeal to. Earlier this year the commission forced UMG to divest key assets when it tried to acquire Downtown Music, because the independent sector organised and made noise. That kind of protection weakens significantly when UMG answers to Wall Street instead of Brussels.

The AI rulebook for the global music industry may now effectively be written by Universal.

Pro:- Globally all on one AI page.

Con:- Artists have historically never fared well in America.

Money continues to pool at the top. Regulation and stakeholder interests shrink which means there are smaller parameters in which unfair matters can be disputed without significant funding.

The “artist-centric” language continues with the takeover announcement, though its wait and see what it means in practice.With the changing parameters the words are beginning to sound more functional to a royalty led organisation model, than devising fair revenue threads in collaboration with artists.

The hope that a monetary deal that could bolster artists income would finally be a possibility may have been achievable in European jurisdiction. Historically community led alongside profit has been an ethos.

The US doesn’t pay artists for radio play at all. Europe does. European moral rights are constitutionally embedded and non-transferable. American ones barely exist in music. European collecting societies operate under law. American equivalents operate under market negotiation. The regulatory oversight is stronger in Europe, the baseline protections are deeper, and the cultural funding models are more supportive of mid-tier and independent artists.

Think about ‘national hero’ music acts. 40 years of music. Sell out tours internationally. A real loyal fanbase. Though making meaningful royalty money via streaming is difficult because the streaming waterfall and label economics mean the income never reaches them.

Their catalog is now training AI (currently without permission). Artists right to be compensated fairly for collaborating in the virtual automated studio will now have different over arching parameters to revise how the compensation model looks. A Nevada move means shareholder led rights to rise and stakeholder rights to lessen. Profit certainly over people.

Tastemakers face the same question. 50,000 AI tracks are being uploaded to streaming platforms every single day.The human selector, the one with twenty years of hardcore digging, of knowing which record lifts a room, of championing artists because the music deserves it, is now more valuable than ever in that flood. Though there is no formal royalty recognition for what DJs/Tastemakers do.

There are so many threads that need pushing, before the new structures get locked in. Will these continue to be overlooked into the future if there are lesser impetus to consider stakeholders?

If the deal continues without protections from the European commission, smaller artist may have to continually rely on global superstars, PRS, ASCAP, SACEM and artist rights organisations to carry this conversation forward.

As we devise the new plan for the future of AI music revenues the time is up for artists to be on the blunt edge of the deal, the existing model needs moving permanently.

It is factual that the whole industry would benefit enormously if income became more fairly distributed and didn’t pool so greatly at the top. Future Artistry’s expansion into unknown exciting realms is relying on it. The European Commission review of this deal before it closes; before the rules set, is certainly the highest leverage and last backstop we have.

A fairer royalty system is still possible. Though It may have just got harder.

-If you are in the music world and want to shift the historically broken strings pulling away from global corporations to a true and fairer Artist led system in collaboration with the big music corporation’s get in the room and get your megaphone out.