With AI titles hitting the market in droves, performing rights organizations (PROs) ASCAP and BMI have set up a “joint task force” to “tackle suspicious registrations related to musical works across the collective rights management ecosystem.”
ASCAP (which still operates as a not-for-profit organization) and BMI (which, while also subject to a consent decree, now aims to make a profit) introduced their task force in a brief note emailed to DMN . According to the companies’ succinct announcement message, the new entity will feature a “cross-functional team of copyright, technical, sales, legal, business and product experts” from BMI and ASCAP.
And those individuals, the PROs said, will focus on “curbing and preventing fraud or erroneous activity,” most notably “the registration of musical works that may result in financial loss or operational inefficiencies.”
“One of the areas that the team will focus on is maintaining data integrity at the scope of registration requests and logs surrounding identity verification and validation,” said ASCAP and BMI, who have partnered on the initiative as the role of AI in the industry continues to grow grows. “In addition to raising awareness of suspicious activity and machinations, the task force will work with other partners around the world to share best practices and information that is not considered competitive.”
Mike O’Neill, President and CEO of BMI, addressed the AI point, emphasizing “the explosion of music being uploaded to digital platforms” in describing the rationale and goals of the task force partnership.
“The integrity of our data is paramount and we invest a tremendous amount of time and effort to protect it,” said O’Neill, whose organization celebrated a “massive” tariff decision in late March. “Given the explosion in music being uploaded to digital platforms and the speed at which this information is being linked to databases around the world, we thought it made sense to work with ASCAP to address these concerns. Bad actors are not limited to just one company or one territory, and the more we can work together on this issue, the better for everyone involved.”
Meanwhile, ASCAP director Elizabeth Matthews, in her own remarks, addressed the perceived need for “all collecting societies and DSPs” to fight fraud “increasingly.”
“Fraud is a complex global challenge that all collecting societies and DSPs are increasingly confronted with,” said Matthews, whose PRO reported “record high” sales and payouts for 2022. “Building on the strength of our Songview partnership and leveraging our.” With their expertise in building a connected data platform, ASCAP and BMI are uniquely positioned to lead this collaborative and proactive approach to improve data integrity in the music industry and to protect the rights and royalties of music creators.”