Music
Industry backs US bill to outlaw AI deepfakes, in growing coalition
A bipartisan group of US lawmakers has reintroduced the NO FAKES Act – the bill designed to protect individuals from unauthorized AI-generated deepfakes of their voice and likeness.
The Nurture Originals, Foster Art, and Keep Entertainment Safe Act of 2026 was reintroduced in both the US House of Representatives and the Senate on Wednesday (May 20).
The bill has attracted a coalition of support from across the music industry, including from Universal Music Group, Sony Music, Warner Music Group, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the Recording Academy, and the National Music Publishers Association (NMPA). This marks the third time the bill has been brought before Congress – it was first formally introduced in the Senate in July 2024, and reintroduced in April 2025 – but it failed to advance out of committee on both occasions.The updated NO FAKES Act has been specifically revised to account for platforms like Spotify – distinguishing between user-generated content platforms and more curated services, and tailoring how disputes are processed and enforced accordingly.
Understanding production agreements in the music industry
“The music industry isn’t simple, and artists often lean on strategic partnerships to move their careers forward,” note Izgi and Bromley (pictured L-R, inset). “One of the most common is the production agreement, which influences not just how music gets made, but who really benefits from it. This article breaks down how production agreements work, why artists sign them, and where things can go wrong…” A production agreement is a contract between an artist and a production company, where the production company helps develop the artist’s career by providing resources such as recording facilities, management guidance, and industry connections. In exchange, the production company usually receives a share of the artist’s earnings and/or certain rights in connection with an artist’s music. Conceptually, the structure is like having a manager also act as the artist’s label, and sometimes, publisher. Production agreements can help artists get off the ground, opening doors to industry connections, money and creative support.
But they usually come with strings attached.
DistroKid Is Now Asking Creators If Their Music Is AI-Generated as ‘Self-Disclosure’ Strategy Moves Out of Beta
As Spotify tests AI credit labels in a beta rollout, DistroKid is now asking creators to disclose what parts, if any, of their tracks are AI-assisted.
Last month, Spotify launched a beta test alongside DistroKid of a new feature that exposes artificial intelligence assistance within track credits, part of a major step towards platform-level transparency. Now, DistroKid has broadly launched its own process for creators to disclose whether their music was AI-assisted, and to what extent. One important note about both sides of this launch is that it relies on creators self-reporting their AI usage—something bad actors will be less inclined to do. Unlike Deezer, where AI-assisted music is automatically tagged, DistroKid (and Spotify) provides users with a tool to disclose what, if any, aspects of their track were AI-generated or assisted.
That means that the absence of an AI credit does not necessarily confirm that AI tools were not used in the creation process, though both Distrokid and Spotify could modify their approaches down the line. At the end of the day, some action taken is better than none at all, but it will undoubtedly require more than asking users to be honest about their AI use to provide a blanket solution across
DSPs.
5 Ways to Avoid Mistakes Before You Demo Your Songs
The professional demo recording process is a necessary part of the equation for songwriters aspiring to get their material heard by music industry decision-makers and, hopefully, cut by successful recording artists. Despite the fact that hundreds of demos are recorded every week in places like Nashville, New York and Los Angeles, new songwriters often find themselves overwhelmed and a bit intimidated by the prospect of getting their songs professionally demoed and ready for prime time. By highlighting some of the mistakes I’ve encountered in my years of recording songwriter demos, I can hopefully help you avoid some of the pitfalls that result in either overly expensive or ineffective recordings.
1) Be Sure Your Song is Finished.
2)
Make a Rough Recording. 3) Understand That Demos Don’t Fix What Isn’t Working in Your Song.
4) Don’t Try to Save Money by Recording/Playing on The Demo Yourself (Unless You’re a Studio Pro).
5) Only Record a Full-Band Demo if You Have a Very Good Reason.
If you can remember the above tips as you’re getting ready to demo your song, you’ll be certain to remove a good deal of angst from the process. It’s always a little stressful getting ready to put your money where your mouth is and the better the decisions you make in advance, the more able you’ll be to enjoy the recording process and get great versions of your songs out into the world.
Texas Music Revolution Fest Reveals 2026 Lineup, New Documentary
2026 will mark 30 years of the Texas Music Revolution Fest in McKinney, TX, hosted by radio station 95.3 KHYI in Dallas that shirks the same tired pop country format that has infected the airwaves coast to coast to focus on Texas music, bluegrass, and and just about everything else that’s great. Also as part of this year’s festival, they’ve announced the release of the “Texas Music Revolution” documentary that chronicles the 25th anniversary of the festival that took place in 2021 right after the pandemic. Directed by filmmaker Troy Paff (Emmy-nominated cinematographer for Dirty Jobs), and featuring Kiefer Sutherland, the documentary showcases some of the biggest names in Texas music like Charley Crockett, Ray Willie Hubbard, Joshua Ray Walker, and Zane Williams.
The full film is planned to be available for streaming around the time of the 2026 festival. For tickets to the 2026 festival and more information, visit
tmrfest.com.
‘They Called Us Outlaws’ charts how Texas artists heralded a new movement in country
music
Fifty years ago, an album came out with a title and a lineup of artists that seemed calculated to capture and capitalize on a moment. They were country artists, giving a kind of musical middle finger to the polished Nashville scene.
On the cover of the album were the faces of Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Jessi Colter and Tompall Glaser. Printed in western typeface across the top: “Wanted!“
While the album would go down as the first in country music history to go platinum, selling one million copies, it was in a sense just a sampler of a much bigger musical movement behind it — centered mostly in and around Austin, a community of like-minded musicians who refused to play by the industry’s rules.
A new docuseries, “They Called Us Outlaws,” chronicles the birth of the outlaw country genre. It premiered last month at South by Southwest with sold-out crowd. Filmmaker Eric Geadelmann joined the Standard to talk about the project. Listen to the interview in the player above or read the
transcript
here. This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity:
The Music Industry Has a Growing Data Overload Problem.
The music industry of 2026 is exploding everywhere all-at-once, with catalog investments, creative outputs, and AI-generated mayhem part of a pedal-to-the-metal growth expansion. On the ground, that means more companies are battling an avalanche of data overload and disconnected processes, though systems and experts are quickly adapting and figuring out solutions. What’s the path towards achieving ‘data nirvana'? The answer to that question could start to differentiate winners and losers across a number of exploding industry sub-categories in the coming years, including distributors, DSPs, ticketing platforms, ISP/catalog mega-owners, DAWs, publishers, and labels. Click here to read the full article.
A Few Lessons Co-Writing a Song Can Teach Us (Cliff
Goldmacher)
It’s no exaggeration to say that I owe the lion’s share of my songwriting success to co-writing. I can - and do - write songs on my own from time to time but these serve as the exception that proves the rule. For me, collaboration has been the key to building a career that has lasted over thirty years and continues to reward me with new creative insights and deep friendships. I thought I’d take a moment to elaborate on a few of the many lessons that co-writing can teach us, which we can then apply far beyond the writing room. Co-writing a song is as old as songwriting itself. The beauty of this kind of collaboration is that each individual brings their own set of strengths and perspectives to the process in a way that - while it might appear obvious to them - is unique. I have a catalog of over a thousand songs, which are almost all co-writes and I can say with absolute certainty that I couldn’t have written any one of them better on my own. I could have written them differently, perhaps, but I don’t think I’d have enjoyed the process as much. There is a shared fearlessness that leads to powerful results when we take the time to open up our creative process to others. I’ve seen this in my own work and in the countless times I’ve led organizations through the process of co-writing a song. Haven’t co-written yet? Take a deep breath and jump in. You’ll be glad you did.
The MLC Launches New ‘Music Registration 101’ Micro-Course
The Mechanical Licensing Collective (The MLC) has launched its new online micro-course, “Music Registration 101: Registering Your Music.”
The course is designed to help music creators, industry professionals, and others better understand how music rights work and how to properly register them in order to ensure royalties are distributed to the appropriate rightsholders. “Music Registration 101” provides a practical overview of registration across key organizations involved in copyright, publishing administration and distribution.
Available at no cost, the course is designed to make foundational music rights information more accessible. It is also included as part of The MLC’s Member Benefits program, giving Members of The MLC access to educational tools and resources that support their careers. The course takes approximately three hours to complete, and upon completion, participants receive a personalized certificate for academic or professional use. Those who choose to take the optional final assessment and score 80% or higher also earn a digital badge. More information on enrollment can be found
here.
The US Copyright Office is hiking registration fees by 43%. Independent music orgs say many artists won’t be able to afford it.
A group of ten music industry organizations formally opposed a proposed 43% average increase to copyright registration fees, arguing the hike would lock out independent creators out of the registration system.
The American Association of Independent Music (A2IM) led the filing of the opposition with the US Copyright Office on Monday (May 4), joined by the Artist Rights Alliance, Music Managers Forum–US, The Recording Academy, the Society of Composers & Lyricists (SCL), Songwriters of North America (SONA), the Songwriters Guild of America (SGA), Music Artists Coalition (MAC), the American Federation of Musicians (AFM), and the Future of Music Coalition.
The groups collectively represent more than 600 independent record labels and tens of thousands of musicians, songwriters, and artist managers.
Sorry, AI artists. Spotify’s not letting you become ‘verified’ on its platform.
Spotify is introducing a new verification badge for artist profiles.
It goes beyond simply confirming whether a profile is claimed, and instead attempts to signal something the streaming platform says has become harder to establish in the age of generative AI: the authenticity of the artist behind the music.
The new “Verified by Spotify” badge, announced on Thursday (April 30), will appear on artist profiles and next to artist names in search, marked by a light green checkmark icon.
Spotify said in a blog post published today that “at launch, profiles that appear to primarily represent AI-generated or AI-persona artists are not eligible for verification”.
The post added: “In today’s music landscape, the concept of artist authenticity is complex and quickly evolving, and we’ll continue to develop our approach over time”.
