AI Music is Everywhere. Is it Legal?

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AI Music is Everywhere. Is it Legal? Podcast Episode · Machines Like Us · 2025-10-21 · 1h 3m

Apple: podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/m...

AI Music is Everywhere. Is it Legal? (Ed Newton Rex) YouTube video by Machines Like Us

Youtube: youtu.be/ORTbtScn6w8

If you care about music, copyright, or the future of creative work, especially as Canada heads into its own copyright debate, I think you’ll find this one useful.

And perhaps more importantly, what happened to the young people deciding whether it’s worth learning an instrument, writing a song, or drawing every day?

Our conversation covers the practical fixes (licensing, transparency about training data) and a bigger question I can’t shake: if we flood the world with decent, cheap, machine-made culture, what happens to human creativity?

That gap isn’t just legal hair-splitting; it’s about whether we want an information (and culture) economy that compensates the people whose work trains the machines now competing with them.

This week on Machines Like Us, I spoke with Ed Newton-Rex, a composer and former head of audio at Stability AI, who walked away when he realized the industry wasn’t going to pay the artists it was training on. He calls that theft. AI companies call it fair use.

Velvet Sundown’s “Dust on the Wind” sounds like it came straight out of a 70s playlist—Lynyrd Skynyrd meets CCR with a hint of Tom Petty. It’s also entirely synthetic. And the unsettling part isn’t the fakery; it’s that the song isn’t bad, and millions are listening.

In the lead-up to recording this episode of Machines Like Us, my producer Mitch shared a song with me from a band that doesn’t exist.

And we're off. Two days with a remarkable group: www.attentionconferences.com/conferences/...

The event is invite-only, but videos of all sessions will posted online soon. @maxbellschool.bsky.social @meo-cdmrn.bsky.social @mediatechdemocracy.bsky.social

The Attention Forum: October 23/24th 2025

the full agenda is below, and here: www.attentionconferences.com/conferences/...

Speakers include: Maria Ressa, Yoshua Bengio, Jim Balsillie, Beeban Kidron, Michael McGrath, Frank McCourt, Cory Doctorow, Shoshana Zuboff, Minister Evan Solomon, Gary Marcus, and many many others.

This week in Montreal we are hosting some of the top digital governance experts and practitioners in the world to discuss how to ensure that AI and digital technologies serve the interests of democratic societies. Agenda below.

The Attention Forum: October 23/24th 2025

the full agenda is below, and here: www.attentionconferences.com/conferences/...

Speakers include: Maria Ressa, Yoshua Bengio, Jim Balsillie, Beeban Kidron, Michael McGrath, Frank McCourt, Cory Doctorow, Shoshana Zuboff, Minister Evan Solomon, Gary Marcus, and many many others.

AI is Upending Higher Education. Is That a Bad Thing? (Niall Ferguson & Connor Grennan) Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

This debate isn't just about classrooms, it's about the future of how we think.

Watch season 2 episode 1 here: tinyurl.com/muvw84hu

Season 2 of Machines Like Us is out now!

AI has thrown universities into turmoil. This week's episode: should educators embrace AI or ban it outright?

#MachinesLikeUs #Podcast #AI #HigherEd

Raisa Patel, Federal Politics Reporter, Toronto Star. Photo by Lindsay Ralph.

Taylor Owen, Director, Centre for Media, Technology and Democracy. Photo by Lindsay Ralph.

Elissa Strome, Executive Director of the Pan-Canadian Artificial Intelligence Strategy at CIFAR. Photo by Lindsay Ralph.

With a new ministerial mandate and growing political momentum, Canada has an opportunity to chart a new course. This final panel looked to the next phase of digital policy – featuring @raisapatel.bsky.social, @taylorowen.bsky.social and Elissa Strome (CIFAR).

Learned a lot at this event from
@mediatechdemocracy.bsky.social. Watch our panel with @taylorowen.bsky.social and CIFAR's Elissa Strome on the future of digital policy and governance here: www.cpac.ca/public-recor...

I'm just glad one of these men has the nuclear codes and the other has all our personal data.

Are Canadian Voters Vulnerable to Online Disinformation? | The Agenda YouTube video by TVO Today

In a high-stake federal election, accurate campaign information is essential, and the line between what's real and what isn't is blurry. @spaikin.bsky.social asks @taylorowen.bsky.social (@meo-cdmrn.bsky.social @mediatechdemocracy.bsky.social) how vulnerable Canadian voters are to disinformation?

The Paul Wells Show: Election week 4: it's a jungle online How concerned should we be about election interference online? Taylor Owen and his colleagues at the  keep a close eye on who's trying to sway our elections, and whether or not they're succeeding. He…

“How do you separate the signal from the noise,” asks @taylorowen.bsky.social , “when the noise is just a baseline of really bad content?” Our team is tracking when online chaos crosses the line into strategic, manipulative, or malicious: sites.libsyn.com/434604/elect...

A wide ranging conversation with @spaikin.bsky.social @tvotoday.bsky.social about our work @meo-cdmrn.bsky.social this election: youtu.be/Ipe6udE0eEE?...

Taylor Owen from McGill’s Centre for Media, Tech & Democracy | Get Fact by Kevin Newman | Episode 1 A deep dive into how disinformation is evolving—and what it means for Canada’s democracy and elections.

“News” ≠ journalism anymore. @taylorowen.bsky.social says Canadians are losing their ability to distinguish between reliable reporting and random info online, and it’s reshaping our democracy. The Meta news ban? “Radical.” 11M journalism views a day, gone: share.transistor.fm/s/f862a48d

Election week 4: it's a jungle online Podcast Episode · The Paul Wells Show · 2025-04-16 · 51m

"We're in a pretty big reset moment with two potential governments that have very different views of what the state's role in governing our digital technologies is," says director
@taylorowen.bsky.social on the Paul Wells Show with @inklesspw.bsky.social. Listen: podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/e...