GEMA and AI:
For the music industry, AI represents innovation – but also disruption. So how does GEMA see AI? As a work of the devil, or a welcome saviour? What rules should major AI service providers follow? How does GEMA go about protecting its members’ rights? We explain the relationships, shed light on the background, and share real-world examples – for anyone wanting to know more about AI and music.
Our position on AI
AI has enormous potential for both individual artists and the music industry as a whole. As a membership organisation representing over 100,000 music creators, GEMA supports the use of AI where it adds meaningful value to the creative process.
At the same time, GEMA is fighting the unfair business practices adopted by generative AI platforms. Quite simply, they should not be using music created by humans to train their AI systems without paying fair compensation. Nor, once trained, should they use these systems to generate music that competes directly with the works of – among many others – our copyright holders.
GEMA is committed to ensuring that even the providers of generative AI services respect copyright and remunerate creative artists appropriately, based on fair, transparent policies and legislation.
We are a partner to AI service providers
GEMA is actively seeking to engage in dialogue with providers of AI technologies. We have explicitly positioned ourselves as a dependable partner to AI service providers who are interested in finding joint solutions and would like to use music repertoires without incurring legal risk.
Together with multiple music-industry partners, GEMA has launched PLAI by GEMA: a curated, customisable music dataset for AI tool providers. Developed specifically for training AI applications, the dataset combines high-quality music data with all the legal rights required to use it. PLAI by GEMA is the first product of its kind in Europe, bundling sound files, comprehensive metadata, copyright and music rights into a scalable, all-in-one solution.
Covering the repertoires of several GEMA partners, the contents of this unique dataset are not available to the public, but only and exclusively to customers. The full repertoire can be flexibly expanded to include other publishers, collecting societies and copyright holders. PLAI by GEMA can be scaled to match the needs of different customers and a wide variety of use cases.
The product is aimed at providers of AI music tools for assisting music creators through the production process. Unlike generative AI, such AI tools and their output do not compete with the works used to train them, because they don’t generate new audio content or AI-generated compositions. Instead, they assist music creators with musical analysis, transcription and other steps in the production process.
With PLAI by GEMA, AI tool providers can ensure that their business success is based on a legally sound foundation, while at the same time paying fair compensation to the copyright and other rights holders whose works are helping to sustain their business model.
Our two-pronged licensing model
What’s more, GEMA has developed a two-pronged model setting out a licensing framework for generative AI services. Based on this model, providers of generative AI services can use the GEMA repertoire both to train their AI models and to license the resulting AI-generated music output.
We campaign for our members’ rights
If we’re unable to find an amicable solution, GEMA will also take legal action to assert our members’ rights. The resulting test cases help to clarify unresolved legal issues and benefit all rights holders concerned.
We champion fairness and transparency
As far as we’re concerned, fairness is non-negotiable. Creative artists whose works are used as the “raw material” for AI systems must receive a fair share of the value created by the training process, by the resulting AI output, and by the latter’s subsequent use. Where musical works form part of a business model, it is only fair that their creators should be adequately remunerated for their vital contribution.
Transparency is also vital: providers of AI services must disclose the content they use to train their models, the legal safeguards covering the use of this content, and whether users interact with the resulting AI output.
This is why GEMA is seeking to negotiate with AI service providers on equal terms and insisting that they exercise their market power responsibly – without circumventing European regulations, usage restrictions and royalty obligations.
Articles on AI and music
Stellungnahme der GEMA zum Umsetzungspaket der Europäischen Kommission zur praktischen Anwendung des AI Acts
EU muss Vorreiterrolle bei künstlicher Intelligenz ernst nehmen: Gastbeitrag von Europaabgeordneten Hannes Heide
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