LANDR have announced the launch of a Fair Trade AI programme, an initiative that has been set up to allow artists to earn recurring revenue from participating in the training of assistive AI music tools.
The company are no strangers to the use of AI in music, with their popular music production platform serving over 6 million users and since its launch in 2014, helping to distribute their music to 150 major services worldwide, including the likes of Spotify and Apple Music. With the introduction of the new programme, they aim to continue to uphold ethical practices around the use of AI, as well as creating new monetisation opportunities for musicians.
Through the Fair Trade AI programme, artists who contribute their songs for AI training will receive 20% of the proceeds generated by the resulting tools. The approach will enable artists to continuously profit from AI development, while actively participating in the evolution of music production technologies and retaining all rights to their music.
"Our mission at LANDR is to empower musicians to create, get heard and monetise their work. As we've watched the emergence of new generative AI tools over the last year, and the legal challenges ahead for the industry, we now see an opportunity to use our reach to bring that market to a place that is sound and exciting for DIY musicians worldwide, while developing assistive tools to enhance — not replace — their creativity and workflow." - Pascal Pilon, Founder of LANDR
How It Works
Artist who distribute their music with LANDR — and have full publishing rights for the material — can opt in to the programme to allow their content to be used for the training of AI music tools. The data extracted will typically include key features such as melody, harmony, rhythm, timbre and tempo, which are all used to help AI models ‘understand’ musical structure. This will allow future tools to make suggestions such as generated bass lines that suit a recorded guitar or vocal part, or virtual instrument settings that will achieve a certain sound.
The data will not be sold to a third party, and users will receive regular updates on the training process via their LANDR accounts. Rights to the music itself will be retained by the artist, and it’s also possible to opt out at any time. A portion of the revenue generated by the company’s upcoming AI-based plug-ins will then be paid to participants on a monthly basis.
More information can be found on the LANDR website.
