3 Trends in Digital Media Being Forced by AI
How Budgets are Shifting and How SmarterLicense Can Help You Stay Ahead
The Copyright Wars Are Heating Up
Sony recently sent 700 startups and AI companies letters stating they didn’t have rights to train their models. This is a wake-up call for all social media users, creatives, journalists, content creators, musicians, and developers.
3 Trends in Digital Media and How Budgets are Shifting (and How SmarterLicense Can Help):
1. From Copyright Takedowns to Takeovers: Release of the Bootlegs
In a world where platforms thrive on volume, a single song, IP, posts or creator gains value through remixes and memes.
The days of copyright takedowns will shift to controlled mass bootlegging. More distribution and remixes mean the underlying catalogs generate more revenue. When a piece of content goes viral, it creates a ripple effect, drawing attention back to the original work and increasing its value. Remixes and memes act as promotional tools, driving engagement and encouraging new audiences to explore the original content. This can lead to increased sales, streams, and licensing opportunities.
For instance, a song that becomes the basis for a popular meme or remix can experience a resurgence in popularity, leading to higher streaming numbers and more downloads.
A recent example of this can be seen in Metro Boomin's AI-generated track "BBL Drizzy," which he sampled from comedian King Willonius, who made the song using an AI tool during the rap beef between Drake and Kendrick Lamar. The track went viral with more than 5 million views on SoundCloud and numerous renditions from fans on social media, some of which were praised or reposted by the rapper who promised a “free beat” to whoever writes the best verse. The beef between Kendrick Lamar and Drake coincided with a 49% increase in Kendrick Lamar’s back catalog following the weekend of their beef.
While the legal rights remain a legal minefield, the concept of mass bootlegging is becoming more akin to compulsory and retroactive rights. What are creatives to do after the fact? They can use SmarterLicense to set a price, list and license their creations, ensuring they receive fair compensation and control over their work.
2. The Need for Retroactive Additional Agreements Controlled by Rightsholders
With billions poured into ad deals and prior agreements, there is a growing need for retroactive additional agreements. This need is becoming increasingly apparent as companies expand their terms of service (ToS) to include broader uses of user data without explicit consent. For example, Slack’s recent update to their ToS outraged users as they realized Slack can now use their activity to train AI models on previously sent messages, highlighting the urgent need for these agreements. Such practices, where user content is repurposed without direct permission, are unacceptable and erode trust between users and service providers.
Opt-out options are often insufficient and place the burden on users to protect their data retroactively. This situation underscores the necessity for clear, fair, and enforceable retroactive agreements that provide proper compensation and control for the original content creators. Addressing this issue is not just a matter of compliance but a critical step in maintaining trust and fairness in digital interactions
Retroactive additional agreements offer a new form of value by ensuring that creators are recognized and compensated for their contributions, even after the content has been widely distributed or used in ways not initially agreed upon. These agreements can cover various aspects, including the use of content for AI training, advertising, and other derivative works. They provide a structured way to manage rights and compensation in the ever-evolving digital landscape.
SmarterLicense plays a crucial role in this ecosystem by providing the tools and frameworks needed to implement these retroactive agreements. By listing and licensing creations, creators can ensure that their works are used ethically and that they receive fair compensation for their contributions, even after the fact, while developers and businesses have piece of mind and legal protection no matter where regulation is headed. This approach protects the rights of creators while fostering a more transparent and trustworthy digital environment, benefiting all stakeholders involved.
Practical Example
SmarterLicense provides a streamlined and efficient way for creators to manage retroactive rights, ensuring they get paid for their work even after it has gone viral and been used by brands or organizations.
For example, Metro Boomin's "BBL Drizzy" goes viral, and Planet Fitness starts playing it in their gyms. King Willonius, the original creator, wants compensation for this use. Assuming King Willonius owns the rights to his own AI creation based on the TOS of the tools used, owning the underlying lyrics, voices and the like. Using SmarterLicense, he sets a price for public performance rights and sends a licensing link to Planet Fitness. Planet Fitness reviews the terms, agrees to them, and completes the payment through the link. The transaction is recorded, and King Willonius receives his rightful compensation.
This streamlined process works similarly for photos, videos, and other rights, ensuring fair compensation and control over all types of creative content.
3. New Versions of IP, New Forms of Derivatives and More Ways to Make Money on Datasets
AI ingestion teams require content, data, and more to meet strict technical requirements outside of underlying files. This opens up new revenue streams for rightsholders and creates a new buyer market of companies looking to harvest and license data for their AI tools.
With SmarterLicense, anyone can set up a private shop for their work and IP, including new forms of IP. Setting up secure environments for managing and licensing various content types ensures controlled distribution of high-value assets.
This includes:
Data Licensing: A creator can license their data to AI companies for training models. By setting specific terms and conditions, they ensure that their data is used ethically and they are compensated fairly. For example, a user with a large following can tag, export and license their social media analytics to an AI company developing a new content recommendation system.
Rights Holders/Creatives: Sell licenses for data, likeness, tone, style, in addition to underlying content to be utilized on your own terms. The buyer market for ethical training data for AI creativity tools and AI-driven projects to offer indemnification for their subscription users will be crucial.
Creatives: Sell prompts for AI applications, providing unique inputs for content generation. A novelist could license a set of writing prompts to an AI startup working on a creative writing assistant tool. A social media executive could provide unique inputs, best practices and directions for different social media creation tools. GPT users can sell their knowledge center files and directions for buildable, remixable GPT use.
Digital Artists: Sell licenses for themed artwork to be used in digital media, VR environments, or AI-generated projects. For example, a photographer can license their extensive collection of tagged images to an AI company developing a new image recognition system.
Software Developers: License code snippets and software libraries for AI development.
Benefits of SmarterLicense
Secure Distribution + Management: SmarterLicense provides a secure environment for managing asset access and licenses, ensuring that rightsholders retain control over their content and buyers can leverage files across AI tools.
Flexible Terms: Creators can set their own terms and prices, tailoring agreements to fit their needs and ensuring fair compensation.
Automated Splits: The platform supports automated payout splits, allowing creators to include collaborators in the agreement and distribute earnings transparently.
Private or Public: Agreements can be managed privately or made public, depending on the creator's preference and strategic goals.
If you are a rights holder or creator and need assistance transforming your catalog to meet the technical requirements for AI ingestion, please contact me at liz@smarterlicense.com. I have been helping facilitate the organization of content and catalogs for licensing deals and have the tools needed to support you.
This Is My Life's Work
With over 15 years in media, including work at Twitter and selling the largest pseudonymous meme network on Instagram to a record label, SmarterLicense was born from a vision to empower new IP by helping buyers, artists, creators, and rightsholders with transparent, user-friendly licensing tools that foster trust and collaboration. Through our suite of tools, we're enabling creators, brands, and platforms to come together, innovate, and generate value faster than ever before.
Join our beta and see for yourself: smarterlicense.com :)
Liz