Artificial intelligence
The music AI attribution problem
April 03 2023

Generative music AI models may be upending attribution as we know it in the music business.

Gaming
The Score: Mapping Epic Games’ future music strategy
March 28 2023

It took nearly one whole year for the independent music community to see some initial fruits from Epic Games’ acquisition of Bandcamp.

Artificial intelligence
Voices “R” Us: The future of voice models in the music business
March 08 2023

Several tools exist today that allow artists and brands alike to generate high-quality, convincing AI voices with just minutes of training data.

Artificial intelligence
What musicians REALLY want from creative AI tools
March 01 2023

Hint: Yes, it really is about the music.

Artificial intelligence
AI and music copyright: A field guide for artists and developers
February 16 2023

Addressing artists’ legal questions about creative AI and ownership, through the lens of AI tools’ terms of use.

Artificial intelligence
The state of music AI tools

A comprehensive, first-of-its-kind framework for understanding the music AI tooling landscape, including greater transparency into tech stacks, use cases, and business models for all stakeholders in the music AI value chain.

Gaming
The Score: More game studios experimenting with virtual K-pop groups
February 15 2023

Following the growing interest in music and gaming, we’re excited to announce a new format for The Score: A monthly newsletter distributed for free to all Water & Music newsletter subscribers. Each issue will round up and analyze the biggest music and gaming stories of the month, through Water & Music’s unique industry lens — forever curious about the latest tech innovations and eager to dive into the weeds, while also pulling out actionable insights grounded in music-industry needs and challenges.

Artificial intelligence
A field guide to the latest music AI tidal wave
February 01 2023

10 new AI models for music and audio generation have been unveiled in the last month alone. Some of these are home-grown models from anonymous contributors; others are part of master’s theses; still others have come from AI research groups at big-tech juggernauts like Google and ByteDance.

Artificial intelligence
Breaking down the music AI tech stack
January 25 2023

Last week, our community got an inside look at bleeding-edge music AI tools from Harmonai, the open-source music AI arm of Stability.ai, and Pollinations, a company focused on creating more accessible interfaces for existing AI models.

Artificial intelligence
Why music AI companies are not flirting with copyright infringement
January 18 2023

After interviewing several music AI startup founders, key differences have emerged in how music AI companies are building out their tech stacks compared to companies building visual- or text-based AI tools.

Web3
Web3 and music rights: Our community weighs in
January 15 2023

2022 closed with a dynamic debate in the #web3 channel of the Water & Music Discord server about the role of aggregation and traditional IP law in the music NFT landscape.

Marketing
Request for support: The unexpected labyrinth of music marketing ROI
January 05 2023

Outlining the challenges we’ve faced in attempting to build a public database of music marketing ROI benchmarks, and what they reveal about the way the music industry measures growth and success.