Top Music Body Says AI Firms Guilty Of 'Wilful' Copyright Theft

A 2024 study by the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers forecast that artists could see their incomes shrink by more than 20 percent in the next four years as the market for AI-composed music grows (Credit: AFP)

AI companies have sucked up the world's entire music catalogue and are guilty of "wilful, commercial-scale copyright infringement", a major music industry group told AFP.

"The world's largest tech companies as well as AI-specific companies, such as OpenAI, Suno, and Udio, Mistral, etc. are engaged in the largest copyright infringement exercise that has been seen," John Phelan, director general of the International Confederation of Music Publishers (ICMP), told AFP.