Focus on Music. The timing does seem perfect. With streaming services reporting record royalty payments while simultaneously dealing with AI-generated content flooding platforms, there was a lot to unpack. The balance between embracing new technology and protecting creativity and innovation is a crucial conversation right now.
It is also why AI runs as an undercurrent through many of the arguments in the music edition. Just as file-sharing disrupted the industry in the early 2000s, AI-music once more requires multifaceted adaptation and led to an exclusive contribution asking whether the music industry was potentially experiencing “another Napster moment". Other questions around AI systems generating music and whether machines could help ensure fair royalties in turn seem equally important to consider.
AI aside, the magazine maintains a global perspective, featuring artists from Grenada and Cabo Verde discussing IP navigation, and examining different systems like China's collective management approach, MENA music’s record growth, and India's use of geographical indications for traditional instruments.
Another edition first is a guest essay reaching back to the birth of the musical work into copyright law and how the law may remain flexible enough to incorporate and reflect changes and innovations. Considering this width of perspectives, it is a bit of a “bumper issue” – of 78 beautiful pages – yet the urgency of current developments and the passionate engagement of our many contributors seemed to deserve such a focus on music.
Which aspects of the music IP landscape do you find most interesting or concerning? We’d very much welcome your feedback and hope you’ll enjoy diving into this Music Special of WIPO Magazine.
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Physical copies will be made available at WIPO Headquarters in Geneva this summer.
Happy reading!
