Everyone's talking about the AI boom in music, but is the industry's infrastructure actually ready for it?

Bjorn Lindvall, CEO and co-founder of MusicInfra, has spent his career at the intersection of music rights and finance, first as co-founder and COO of Hipgnosis Songs, where he helped build a multi-billion dollar catalog acquisition business, and now building the infrastructure to fix one of the music industry's oldest and most expensive problems: getting rights holders paid correctly and on time.

In this episode, Bjorn breaks down what it actually means to prepare the music supply chain for the AI boom. We dig into why the royalty math is about to get dramatically more complex, what the wave of generative AI licensing deals signals for publishers, labels, and everyone downstream, and why fixing the back end of the music industry might be the most important thing the industry does this decade If you work in music rights, royalties, music technology, or music publishing, this one is essential listening.

The news

• Could you tell if your favourite song was made with AI? The viral Papaoutai cover controversy suggests not

• Gaming giant Steam faces legal action from the UK's PRS over alleged music copyright infringement

• US blindsides states with surprise settlement in Live Nation/Ticketmaster trial

• YouTube now generates more ad revenue than Disney, NBC, Paramount, and WBD — combined

• Survey suggests TikTok may be losing its lustre for Gen-Z

The Music Tectonics podcast goes beneath the surface of the music industry to explore how technology is changing the way business gets done. Visit musictectonics.com to find shownotes and a transcript for this episode, and find us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. Let us know what you think!

Get Dmitri's Rock Paper Scanner newsletter.