In today’s news and commentary, the “Big Three” record labels make a deal with an AI music streaming startup; 30 stores join the now week-old Starbucks Workers United strike; and the Mine Safety and Health Administration draws scrutiny over a recent worker death.
This week, Universal Music Group, Sony Music, and Warner Music Group—the world’s three major record labels—announced that they had struck a deal with an artificial intelligence music startup called Klay. The startup licensed the rights to thousands of songs from the three labels in order to train its large language model (LLM) and eventually allow users to remake songs in different styles through its technology. The United Musicians and Allied Workers (UMAW) criticized the deal, arguing that it will primarily benefit major label executives and AI startups, while the everyday musician gets squeezed. UMAW has vocally supported the Living Wage for Musicians Act, which would create a new streaming royalty system to more fairly compensate artists for the music they create. Currently, Spotify—the world’s largest streaming platform—pays on average about $0.003 per stream, which would require an artist to receive over 800,000 monthly streams to earn the equivalent of a $15 per hour full-time job.
As Liana reported earlier this week, Starbucks Workers United (SWU) launched a strike at 65 stores nationwide. Yesterday, 30 additional stores in 25 U.S. cities decided to join the now week-long strike, bringing the total number...
Donald Trump posted a wild set of false and misleading claims about today's Minnesota ICE shooting in a bid to distract attention from the incident. Video of the incident showed at least five agen...