The labels are litigating their share. Nobody is litigating the artists'.
Sony Music has moved to expand its copyright infringement lawsuit against artificial intelligence music platform Udio, alleging that the company trained its AI systems on more than 30 000 recordings without authorisation.
Sony's aggressive pursuit of Udio over 30,000 unauthorized recordings exposes the colonial extraction mindset that has long plagued the music industry, but this time, African artists whose work likely trained these AI systems without consent or compensation remain invisible in the legal theater. While major labels fight over their slice of the AI pie, the continent's creators who've been sampled, borrowed from, and outright stolen from for decades still lack the institutional power to demand their due from these tech platforms. The real question isn't whether Sony will win, but whether African musicians will ever see a cent from the AI revolution built on their cultural labor.
Sony's aggressive pursuit of Udio over 30,000 unauthorized recordings exposes the colonial extraction mindset that has long plagued the music industry, but this time, African artists whose work likely trained these AI systems without consent or compensation remain invisible in the legal theater. While major labels fight over their slice of the AI pie, the continent's creators who've been sampled, borrowed from, and outright stolen from for decades still lack the institutional power to demand their due from these tech platforms. The real question isn't whether Sony will win, but whether African musicians will ever see a cent from the AI revolution built on their cultural labor.
SUMMARY BY STRATA-AF™ · ORIGINAL REPORTING BY MUSIC IN AFRICA
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