Opinion: 𝗕𝗲𝘁 𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗲𝗰𝗵 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗻𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝘀𝘂𝗲𝗱 𝗯𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗰 𝗶𝗻𝗱𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘆

I am proposing a new investment thesis:

𝗕𝗲𝘁 𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗲𝗰𝗵 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗻𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝘀𝘂𝗲𝗱 𝗯𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗰 𝗶𝗻𝗱𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘆

Below is a small sampling of my reasoning:

✅ Myspace (Acq. NewsCorp) — Sued by Universal Music Group

✅ YouTube (Acq. Google) — Sued by National Music Publishers’ Association (+Viacom)

✅ Twitch (Acq. Amazon) — DMCA takedown lawsuit from major labels

✅ Pandora (Acq. Sirius XM) — Sued by major music publishers

✅ TikTok — Not sued….but, ya know (Universal took major action)

More recently, we have seen Suno + Udio sued.

The major record labels filed a lawsuit on Tuesday accusing them of using copyrighted music to train their AI models.

History has shown that it’s better to ask for forgiveness than permission when it comes to dealing with the music industry.

Note: this is not to say that Suno and Udio don’t need to figure out a way to fairly compensate musicians for their role in training their models…they 𝗮𝗯𝘀𝗼𝗹𝘂𝘁𝗲𝗹𝘆 𝗱𝗼‼️ (and should look to examples like Jen Music AI for how best to do this)

🤔 That being said — anytime an entire sector says ‘𝗜’𝗱 𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝘀𝘂𝗲𝗱, 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝗻 𝗱𝗲𝗮𝗹 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗻𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻’….you might want to take a cold hard look in the mirror and ask “Am I the problem?”

So until the music sector wakes up — I’ll be continually betting on tech companies that bring the lawsuits.

-jack