Believe has unveiled a significant update to its Generative AI policy – one that simultaneously hardens the company’s stance on unlicensed music AI platforms, while deepening its investment in other AI tools.
On the first front: Believe and its global platform for self-releasing artists, TuneCore, are automatically blocking the distribution of AI-generated tracks partly or fully produced on unlicensed “pirate studios”.
Speaking to MBW, Believe founder and CEO, Denis Ladegaillerie, reveals that Believe (including TuneCore) has deployed Gen-AI detection technologies whose capabilities have become “99% reliable” – enabling them to identify the specific AI model and platform that spawned any given track.
When said model/platform is identified as originating from an unlicensed service, Believe and TuneCore will block distribution of any content.
Meanwhile, Believe has also confirmed to MBW that it has inked new music licensing agreements with two notable Gen-AI companies: ElevenLabs and Udio.
These deals add to a growing list of significant music industry licenses for both ElevenLabs (inc. Kobalt, Merlin) and Udio (inc. Universal, Warner, Merlin, and Kobalt).
Believe’s definition of “pirate studios” includes Suno, which remains the target of active copyright litigation from Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment – and also remains unlicensed by Believe.
“Two or three months ago, everyone still thought Suno, and some of the other still-unlicensed studios, might yet get licensed [by the industry’s biggest rights-holders],” Ladegaillerie tells MBW.
“The reality now is it’s unlikely, at least for the models they’ve already trained on. Which means the Gen-AI content made on those models is illegal, and is going to stay illegal, for the foreseeable future.”
“We do not understand why streaming services aren’t blocking tracks that create significant potential copyright liability, pollute the user experience, and are essentially used to enable streaming fraud.”
Denis Ladegaillerie, Believe
Adds Ladegaillerie: “TuneCore has already taken a bit of a hit on some [DIY artist] forums for doing this. But it’s the right thing to do. We have implemented full blocking of Gen-AI tracks created by unlicensed studios.”
Believe has additionally written formally to all major DSPs, calling on music streaming platforms to deploy similar AI-detection tools.
Indeed, Ladegaillerie has a warning for DSPs and indie distributors who continue to duck the issue on illegal AI content: they risk leaving themselves exposed to “a litigation time bomb.”
On Believe’s outreach to music streaming services, Ladegaillerie says: “We do not understand why they’re not blocking these tracks — tracks that are creating real potential liability for them down the road.
“Contracts already allow them to decide what to distribute or not. We do not understand why streaming services aren’t blocking tracks that create significant potential copyright liability, pollute the user experience, and are essentially used to enable streaming fraud.”
He adds: “Anyone distributing copyright-infringing content is liable for copyright infringement [action]. I think people sometimes forget that.”
“Anyone distributing copyright-infringing content is liable for copyright infringement [action]… I would encourage all content providers to think twice about their policies.”
Denis Ladegaillerie, Believe
Addressing rival distributors who continue to push out unlicensed AI content, Ladegaillerie comments: “The distributors who are not acting responsibly here are creating a litigation time bomb for themselves.
“You might drive a decision that is positive for your business in the short term, while creating a very significant amount of risk for yourself in the medium term. I would encourage all content providers to think twice about their policies.”
(Not irrelevant: A credible review of 1,551 AI-made recordings recently concluded that 90%+ of the most popular AI tracks uploaded to DSPs are created on Suno, and over 75% of them are distributed by DistroKid.)
Today’s announcements from Ladegaillerie represent a maturation of Believe’s “Responsible AI Principles” — a memo first published by the company in 2023.
Those principles set out the company’s two-sided framework in Gen-AI: combining a commitment to artist and copyright protection, while investing in “value-creative AI” designed to enhance artist creativity/promotion.
“Our conviction is stronger than ever,” Ladegaillerie tells MBW. “These technologies will enable the music industry to enter a new age. But it needs to be approached very responsibly.
“We need to work with artists and make sure they understand that using unlicensed Gen-AI tools carries significant risks, from content being taken down to legal liabilities.”
On the flip side, Ladegaillerie tells MBW: “The adoption of Gen-AI is going to enhance human creativity. It’s going to help people make better music, and train themselves to make better music.
“I genuinely believe that Gen-AI will democratize creativity. And out of that democratization will come new forms of very powerful music.”
Music video creation is another priority “value-creative” Gen-AI investment area for Believe, Ladegaillerie adds.
“Gen-AI is going to help us create better music videos, faster, and cheaper. It’s an area where we’re investing seriously.”
In October, Believe was named as one of five music industry partners co-developing Spotify’s new AI music products, alongside the three major record companies and Merlin.
“Everyone’s talking about ‘AI slop’. My view is simple: we should kill the illegal AI slop.”
Denis Ladegaillerie, Believe
Some in the industry – most vocally Universal Music Group – have advocated for so-called “walled garden” policies around AI, which would prevent music produced on Gen-AI platforms from being downloaded and distributed to third-party services like Spotify and Apple Music.
For Ladegaillerie, this approach pales in importance to a more fundamental question: whether the underlying AI model for any track was trained on properly licensed music.
“Everyone’s talking about ‘AI slop,’” Ladegaillerie tells MBW. “My view is simple: we should kill the illegal AI slop.
“Walled gardens are fine for users wanting to experiment with AI on artist work, but not for artists who are using AI in their creations,” Ladegaillerie adds.
“We think ‘open’ AI platforms [that allow downloadable content] are great — they can create value for artists.
“But they need guardrails: they need to be properly licensed, and they need to compensate artists fairly for training.”
Earlier this month, Deezer revealed that approximately 75,000 fully AI-generated tracks are now being uploaded to its platform every day — 44% of all daily deliveries.
Yet Ladegaillerie argues that AI-generated content still accounts for “less than 0.5%” of total streams across the industry.
“Numbers like that are the best illustration I have ever seen of the real role of the music industry: curation and artist development first and foremost,” he says, noting that the subject is having a disproportionate influence on investor sentiment regarding the value of publicly traded music companies.
“Everyone seems focused on the fact that over 40% of uploaded content is Gen-AI, and is being used to drive streaming fraud, as we know from Deezer,” he says.
“But in reality, it’s largely a non-issue – in stream share, it’s less than 0.5%. At the same time, the industry clearly needs to tackle it, because it’s creating a distraction from real issues, and from real opportunities.”
Despite the current noise around illegal AI content, Ladegaillerie believes Gen-AI will ultimately prove a meaningful commercial accelerant for the wider music business.
“Ten years from now, is most of the music being produced in some way going to be leveraging Gen-AI technologies? Yes, no doubt,” Ladegaillerie tells MBW.
He continues: “What matters for the music industry is how important music is in people’s cultural lives – how much of people’s attention music attracts, versus games, versus sports, versus other verticals. Music is in competition for attention.”
“Gen-AI is being used to drive streaming fraud, as we know from Deezer. But in reality, it’s largely a non-issue – in stream share, it’s less than 0.5%.”
Denis Ladegaillerie, Believe
That commercial perspective also informs Ladegaillerie’s view on activist investor Bill Ackman’s recent public takeover proposal for Universal Music Group, in which the Pershing Square boss argued UMG is undervalued.
While insisting it remains “always better to be a private company than a public one,” Ladegaillerie says he agrees with much of Ackman’s thesis: “What he’s essentially saying is that UMG – and music companies more broadly – can be better operated, that there are efficiencies to drive, plus a number of other things. I think he’s absolutely right there.”
Ladegaillerie disagrees, however, with a wider analyst narrative, attributing a decline in value for public music stocks to the rise of Gen-AI: “In my view, Gen-AI is only a minor reason for the recent de-rating of the music industry. The number one reason the market is de-rating music is that the paid-subscriber growth is slowing, which is very natural at this stage of maturity.
“The likelihood that music company [valuations] re-rate [upwards] in two to three years, once we’re past the perception of AI slop flooding the market? I think that’s super high.”
Today’s blocking announcement comes weeks after TuneCore settled a lawsuit led by Universal Music Group over the alleged uploading of manipulated audio.
Ladegaillerie tells MBW the settlement had no influence on the direction of Believe’s Gen-AI policy: “No link at all, honestly. On the Gen-AI side specifically, our thinking has been consistent since the start.”Music Business Worldwide