Online Reporter
Ngqabutho Boaz Gumede
THE music industry is facing a new battle, and this time the enemy may not be a record pirate sneaking into a bedroom with a laptop.
It could be artificial intelligence.
The latest moves by Google demonstrate why creators need to pay more attention to their increasingly complicated relationship with the company.
Copyright issues need to be at the centre of every artist’s dealing with the global internet giant.
Google wants rights holders to buy into two irreconcilable thoughts at once: “We value copyright; there are billions in royalties.” “But copyright shouldn’t apply when we train our AI on your music.”
When music generates revenue, copyright matters. When music trains AI, copyright becomes inconvenient. That’s not balance. It’s asymmetry: a system where creators are protected only when it benefits the corporation.
Rights holders’ earnings from royalty cheques may dwindle if they ignore the silent extraction of their creative labour into machine intelligence. AI models don’t train themselves. They learn from your songs, your voice, your style, your cultural identity.
And they learn without permission, payment, or transparency. This is the second time Google has submitted a formal policy document, the “AI Action Plan”, to influence how AI laws are written.
Tech oligarchs are not waiting for creators to catch up. They’re shaping the rules early, aggressively, and strategically to their advantage.
Meanwhile, artists are passive observers on the very issue that poses the single biggest threat to their livelihood. If this continues, creators will be negotiating their future from a position of weakness. The danger is that if AI training becomes permanently exempt from copyright, creators lose control over how their work is used and how they are compensated.
This isn’t just about royalties. It’s about ownership, identity, and the future of human creativity. If artists don’t organise, lobby, and shape policy now, the rules will be written without them and possibly against them. It’s high time creators educated themselves on tools, legal frameworks and companies that control their creations.
As far back as 2019 the EU’s Copyright Directive sought to protect creators from data mining under Article 4(3). Creators had an option to opt out of data mining; most artists did not know about this until recently.
Even big companies like Warner Music Group and Sony Music have withdrawn consent for their recordings and lyrics to be used by AI companies.
Creators need to understand that AI is not the enemy but unregulated AI absolutely is. Africa seems to be oblivious to the implications.
Meanwhile, the European Union is leading in formulating legal frameworks that regulate AI. For example, from August 2026 providers and deployers are obligated to be transparent by tagging the use of an AI system, from chatbots to creative platforms like SUNO. Article 50 of the European
Artificial Intelligence Act (EU AI Act) will see streaming platforms tagging AI-generated music.
While these regulations have come long way creators still need to understand them and also contribute meaningfully to how these laws are shaped. Collective Management Organisations in Africa need to be following these developments and relay this information to the creators.
Otherwise, the future of music will be decided by those who see culture as data, not as a creative art form.
