We’ve written a lot about China-headquartered music streaming company Tencent Music Entertainment’s AI-related endeavors.
In May, for example, we told you about the company’s AI-powered tech, which it claims can “predict the next hit song”.
And in July, we reported on Tencent Music-owned Kugou Music’s AI singing technology called KUGOU AIK, which is claimed to be the world’s first multi-lingual AI singing technology.
Most recently, in its inaugural Environmental, Social and Governance report, the company revealed that it is “strategically deploying advanced AI tools” to crack down on copyright infringement on its platforms amid the rise of AI-generated music.
TME operates the QQ Music, Kugou, and Kuwo platforms and the karaoke app WeSing. It had 117 million paying users of its online music platforms at the close of June, according to the firm’s Q2 report released in August 13.
In the section of the ESG report dedicated to Intellectual Property Rights, TME addressed the rise of AI and noted that “as AI technology rapidly advances,” the company has “strengthened” its “IP rights protection standards” to deal with what it calls “the increasing use of AI-generated content”.
“We believe AI should be a supportive tool rather than a substitute for musicians creating original works.”
Tencent Music Entertainment
According to TME: “We believe AI should be a supportive tool rather than a substitute for musicians creating original works. We implement compliance assessments and continuous monitoring of AI products and operations to ensure that AI-generated musical content is properly licensed and musicians’ creative works are fully protected.”
Additionally, TME said in its ESG report that it aims to “minimize copyright infringements by strategically deploying advanced AI tools to automatically identify and compare content suspected of infringement”.
In April, TME revealed in its annual report, filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, that it was facing 695 copyright infringement lawsuits as of the end of 2023.
“As of December 31, 2023, there were 695 lawsuits pending in connection with alleged copyright infringement on our platform against us or our affiliates, with an aggregate amount of damages sought of approximately RMB281.3 million ($39.6 million),” the annual report states.
“The [TME] Group is currently not a party to, and we are not aware of any threat of, any such legal or administrative proceedings that, in the opinion of our management, are likely to have any material and adverse effect on our business, financial condition, cash flow or results of operations.”
The numbers provided by TME suggested that many of these lawsuits were fairly small, with $39.6 million on the line across all 695 cases, which implies an average of just under $57,000 in damages sought per case.
Elsewhere in its new ESG report, published at the end of September, TME said that it is “committed to intellectual property rights protection and continues to take a leadership role in improving China’s music and audio copyright environment.”
The company noted that it “respects and reinforces creators’ rights to their intellectual property” on its platform.
TME said that it has formulated an “IP infringement blacklist” and that any new content that ends up on its blacklist is “subject to a review to determine whether it infringes on any copyright”.
Infringing content is then permanently removed from its platforms. “These methods effectively minimize infringement upon other parties’ copyrights at the source,” according to TME.
“We implement compliance assessments and continuous monitoring of AI products and operations to ensure that AI-generated musical content is properly licensed and musicians’ creative works are fully protected.”
“We implement compliance assessments and continuous monitoring of AI products and operations to ensure that AI-generated musical content is properly licensed and musicians’ creative works are fully protected.”
Tencent Music Entertainment
TME’s ESG report also revealed stats about its own IP, protected via a vast global trove of patents and trademarks.
According to the report, Tencent Music Entertainment had applied for 4,768 patents as of the end December 2023.
Of those applications, 2,564 of them had been granted by the China National Intellectual Property Administration and by overseas patent offices as of the end of last year,
TME had also applied for 6,111 trademarks as of the end of last year, 4,295 of which were registered with the China National Intellectual Property Administration and overseas
Tencent Music also had 694 “software copyrights” registered with the Copyright Protection Center of the People’s Republic of China
Music Business Worldwide