Who Owns THIS? AI, Copyright and the Fight for Music’s Future
PanelThe legal fight between GEMA and generative AI companies may become one of the defining battles over the future of music.
At its core is a deceptively simple question: can AI companies build commercial systems on copyrighted music without meaningful consent, transparency or compensation? But the implications go much further — into artist identity, licensing, metadata, cultural diversity, discoverability and Europe’s ability to protect human creativity while still encouraging innovation.
This conversation uses the GEMA cases as a starting point to examine where the music industry is heading as generative AI moves from experiment to infrastructure.
What does the law currently protect, and where are the gaps? Can collective licensing become part of the solution? What happens when AI-generated music begins competing directly with the works it was trained on? And how do we make sure artists and rights holders are not asked to surrender their work first and negotiate the terms afterwards?
For Europe, there is another layer. Smaller languages, local repertoires and underrepresented music markets already struggle for visibility in an ecosystem dominated by global platforms and centralized recommendation systems. If AI is trained on culture without context, attribution or accountability, those inequalities could become even deeper.
This is a conversation about copyright, consent, compensation and cultural sovereignty — and about who gets to shape the rules of the next music economy: creators, lawmakers and the music sector, or the technology companies building on their work.
Eva Maydell’s participation is to be confirmed.
