NMPA Inks Deals With Udio & KLAY, Marking First Industry-Wide Licensing Pacts With Major AI Music Firms
Categoria: Musica
At the NMPA's annual meeting, president and CEO David Israelite also warned against streaming fraud threats due to the surge in AI use.
Por Billboard | 10/06/2026
At the National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA) annual meeting on Wednesday (June 10), president and CEO David Israelite announced the “first-ever industry-wide AI licensing deals” for publisher members with AI music firms Udio and KLAY, in his words. He also announced the AI Songs Summit, a gathering in Nashville this fall that will bring together songwriters, publishers, streaming services and other stakeholders to discuss the opportunities and challenges of AI. “Litigating against bad AI actors and licensing good AI partners is not in conflict,” Israelite explained. “NMPA will do both… There has been hesitancy to make mistakes in these early deals, but there has not been any deal offered across the entire market until today.” Related NMPA Reports Spotify and Amazon Bundling Cost Nearly $500M in Lost Value Since 2024 Carly Pearce Signs With BBR Music Group/BMG Nashville Clive Davis Hospitalized in New York After Respiratory Issue — UPDATE Importantly, Israelite noted in his speech that these AI deals offer publishers equal compensation to record labels on the AI training side. Whether or not publishing receives equal pay on the output side of AI licensing was not addressed in the presentation. Equal pay for masters and publishing in AI licensing has been a goal of Israelite’s for the last few years. At the Association of Independent Music Publishers (AIMP) Grammy week event in 2025, he addressed this, saying, “I believe the most important principle is that the song is just as valuable, if not more, than the sound recording in the AI model,” he said, adding, “I am fearful that as these models develop, if we do not protect our rights, we will find ourselves in a situation where we are not getting as much or more than the sound recording when it comes to revenue… That is a responsibility of this entire community to fight for that.” The NMPA annual meeting takes place each summer and acts as a state of the union for music publishers, gathering together the highest-level executives and songwriters to go over financials for the business, hand out awards to songwriters and their business champions, and have talent perform their greatest hits. This year, the company honored P!nk as its Songwriter Icon for 2026 and Julian Bunetta (“Lose Control,” “Espresso,” “Night Changes”) as its Non-Performing Songwriter Icon. Israelite also often uses the stage to debut a bombshell announcement, with this year’s being the new landmark AI deals with Udio and KLAY. The license gets the two AI music companies much closer to full music industry support. In a business in which ownership of intellectual property is often divided among several stakeholders represented by a number of different companies, it has historically been a challenging and lengthy process for tech companies to get the widespread support needed to be properly licensed. Israelite