Warner Music has entered into a licensing deal with the AI song generator Suno, following the resolution of a copyright infringement lawsuit against the service from a year prior.
As the third-largest music label globally, representing artists like Coldplay, Charli XCX, and Ed Sheeran, Warner becomes the first major record label to officially collaborate with Suno.
Under the terms of the agreement, users can create AI-generated songs on Suno by using simple text prompts, which may include the voices, names, and likenesses of Warner artists who have opted into the service.
Robert Kinkle, CEO of Warner Music Group, emphasized that this partnership demonstrates how artificial intelligence can develop into “professional artists” while showcasing “the values of music.”
“This innovative agreement with Suno is a win for the creative community that will benefit everyone involved,” he declared. “As Suno’s user base and monetization rapidly grow, we recognized this opportunity to create a revenue model and enhance fan experiences.”
As part of the agreement, Suno, often dubbed the ChatGPT of music, committed to modifying its platform to introduce a new, more strictly licensed model next year, including download limitations for users.
Suno announced that only paying members will be permitted to download its AI music creations, and even these members will be subject to extra fees for downloads, as well as a cap on the number of creations they can produce.
This initiative aims to tackle the proliferation of AI tracks generated on Suno, moving toward discontinuing the current version and avoiding an oversupply on streaming platforms.
This agreement comes shortly after Warner Music reached a settlement and partnership agreement with rival AI music generation platform Udio.
Previously, the world’s largest record label sued both Suno and Woodo for copyright violations, asserting their technologies misappropriated music and churned out millions of AI-generated songs without artist consent.
Universal Music, the leading label worldwide, was the first to announce settlements with these companies when they concluded an agreement with Audio last month. While Universal continues to pursue legal action against Suno, Sony Music has filed lawsuits against both Suno and Woody.
In conjunction with the deal with Warner Music, Suno has also acquired live music and concert discovery platform Songkick for an undisclosed figure.
The UK government is currently consulting on a new intellectual property framework for AI, which was initially expected to enable AI firms to use the creative community’s work without approval for model training.
This issue has ignited significant backlash from creators, who advocate for an opt-in system that would enable companies to identify and license their work while ensuring creators receive compensation when their work is utilized.
Technology Secretary Liz Kendall indicated last week her intention to “reset” the discussion, expressing support for artists’ appeals to prevent their work from being exploited by AI companies without remuneration.
A court in Munich has determined that OpenAI’s ChatGPT breached German copyright laws by utilizing popular songs from renowned artists to train its language model, which advocates for the creative industry have labeled a pivotal ruling for Europe.
The Munich District Court supported the German music copyright association GEMA, stating that ChatGPT gathered protected lyrics from well-known musicians to “learn” them.
GEMA, an organization that oversees the rights of composers, lyricists, and music publishers with around 100,000 members, initiated legal action against OpenAI in November 2024.
This case was perceived as a significant test for Europe in its efforts to prevent AI from harvesting creative works. OpenAI has the option to appeal the verdict.
ChatGPT lets users pose inquiries and issue commands to a chatbot, which replies with text that mimics human language patterns. The foundational model of ChatGPT is trained on widely accessible data.
The lawsuit focused on nine of the most iconic German hits from recent decades, which ChatGPT employed to refine its language skills.
This included Herbert Groenemeyer’s 1984 synthpop hit manners (male), and Helen Fischer’s Atemlos Durchi die Nacht (Breathless Through the Night), which became the unofficial anthem for the German team during the 2014 World Cup.
The judge ruled that OpenAI must pay undisclosed damages for unauthorized use of copyrighted materials.
Kai Welp, GEMA’s general counsel, mentioned that GEMA is now looking to negotiate with OpenAI about compensating rights holders.
The San Francisco-based company, co-founded by Sam Altman and Elon Musk, argued that its language learning model utilizes the entire training set rather than retaining or copying specific songs, as stated by the Munich court.
OpenAI contended that since the outputs are created in response to user prompts, the users bear legal responsibility, an argument the court dismissed.
GEMA celebrated the ruling as “Europe’s first groundbreaking AI decision,” indicating that it might have ramifications for other creative works.
Tobias Holzmuller, the company’s CEO, remarked that the verdict demonstrates that “the internet is not a self-service store, and human creative output is not a free template.”
“Today, we have established a precedent to safeguard and clarify the rights of authors. Even AI tool operators like ChatGPT are required to comply with copyright laws. We have successfully defended the livelihood of music creators today.”
The Berlin law firm Laue, representing GEMA, stated that the court’s ruling “creates a significant precedent for the protection of creative works and conveys a clear message to the global tech industry,” while providing “legal certainty for creators, music publishers, and platforms across Europe.”
The ruling is expected to have ramifications extending beyond Germany as a legal precedent.
The German Journalists Association also praised the decision as a “historic triumph for copyright law.”
OpenAI responded that it would contemplate an appeal. “We disagree with the ruling and are evaluating our next actions.” The statement continued, “This ruling pertains to a limited set of lyrics and does not affect the millions of users, companies, and developers in Germany who utilize our technology every day.”
Furthermore, “We respect the rights of creators and content owners and are engaged in constructive discussions with various organizations globally that can also take advantage of this technology.”
OpenAI is currently facing lawsuits in the U.S. from authors and media organizations alleging that ChatGPT was trained on their copyrighted materials without consent.
The Cicadidae family is among the most diverse insect families today. However, the fossil record of Cicadidae is notably sparse compared to the number of extant species. The recently discovered species, Eoplatypleura Messelensis, is not only one of the earliest Cicadidae fossils found on the Eurasian continent, but it also represents the oldest record of the subfamily CICADINAE globally.
Reconstruction of Eoplatypleura Messelensis. Image credit: Dinghua Yang.
Eoplatypleura Messelensis thrived in Europe approximately 47 million years ago during the Eocene period.
“The Cicada family is one of the most diverse groups of insects today,” states Dr. Sonja Wedmann, a paleontologist at the Senckenberg Forschungsinstitut und Naturmuseum Frankfurt/Main.
“Despite this, the fossil record is quite limited compared to the many modern species.”
“The Platypleurini group within this family is particularly noteworthy, containing numerous species with wide distributions and unique traits.”
“For the first time, we have described a fossil from this Cicada group.”
Two fossil specimens of Eoplatypleura Messelensis were found at Messelpit, an open-cast oil shale mine located 10 km northeast of Darmstadt in Hesse, Germany.
“The new Messel fossil showcases a compact head with a subtle composite eye and a broad forewing featuring a distinctly curved tip,” notes Dr. Hui Jang, a paleontologist at the Senckenberg Forschungsinstitut and a doctoral researcher at the University of Maine and Nanjing University.
“The fossils are female, but their classification implies that males in this group may produce loud mating calls.”
Eoplatypleura Messelensis, an adult female. Image credit: Senckenberg Forschungsinstitut und Naturmuseum Frankfurt/Main.
These ancient insects measure 2.65 cm in body length and have a wingspan of 6.82 cm, notable for their expansive, intricately patterned wings.
“These patterns resemble those of contemporary Cicada species in the Platypleurini group, which inhabit wooded and scrub areas,” explains Dr. Jang.
“Considering the subtropical vegetation of the Messel region approximately 47 million years ago, these color patterns may have served important ecological functions, such as camouflage.”
Eoplatypleura Messelensis is one of the oldest known representatives of today’s true cicadas in Eurasia and signifies the earliest records of the subfamily Cicadinae worldwide,” Dr. Wedmann remarks.
“This is also the Cicada that has been first described from the Messel Pit.”
“This discovery not only enhances our understanding of the fauna at Messelpit but also fills a crucial gap in the history of Eocene cicadas.”
“In the future, Eoplatypleura Messelensis may serve as a reference point for significant time series in genetic research regarding the evolutionary history of these insects, providing new insights into the origins and dispersal of Platypleurini.”
The team’s paper was published in the journal Scientific Reports on April 29, 2025.
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H. Jiang et al. 2025. Sound from the Eocene: The first singing Cicada from Messelpit, Germany. Sci Rep 15, 12826; doi:10.1038/s41598-025-94099-7
IT is easy to be a little troubled by his recent fate. Last week I saw a video of Trump Gaza generated by a vicious AI, and was so appalled that I made the kayak guide book an impulse. It felt like the only sane response was to bring it into the water and let go of the paddle.
While video games are a reliable antidote to existential fate, layoffs, corporate homogenization, and AI slops all have invaded my safe haven, making it even more difficult to get a simple reprieve from what's happening in the outside world. And I would like to thank you for your nominations for the BAFTA Games Awards.
2025 picks have been announced Last week (as many readers know, there is a tradition now). In my opinion, BAFTA events are the most exclusive and most commercial shows of the Game Awards show, and its judging panels are a mix of video game industry experts and post-BAFTA membership experts, typically with the widest range of picks. I've always seen a lot of what I personally like about video games with these nominations: their pure creative variations and vitality. (Disclosure: Over the years I have been involved with these screening panels in a variety of abilities, but not 2025.)
There will be no appointments for SuperB Indiana Jones and The Gread Circle, as the eligibility period runs from November 2023 to November 2024. (I feel very sorry for the amazing game that came out in December.) One of my favorites I played was making the cut. A magical, authentic game about ramming through the Scottish mountains, Highland Song appears in Best British games along with another Scottish set game that wakes deep, a space horror thriller set on North Sea oil rig. Yorkshire-ish comedy is grateful you're here! It also won this award, as did LEGO Horizon Adventure, Paper Trail and Hellblade II.
Hellblade II is actually the most nominated entire game and appears in 11 categories. Meanwhile, I awaken deep things and thank you for appearing at the age of 8 and being here at the age of 7. If I could be forgiven for a very gentle patriotism, the UK gaming industry should be very proud of last year's production. This was generally scary for people working in the play business.
Personal favourites… The game about Neva, Warrior and Her Wolf is nominated for the Artistic Achievement Award. Photo: Neva
The fun is appreciated that you are here! Astro Bot, Black Myth: Wukong, Balatro, Helldivers 2, and Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, have become the best game category, the game I liked more than most others. There are a lot of big games here in different categories, but what I like about BAFTAS is that indie games aren't relegated to their own specific categories. Anywherebringing you a fun, unpredictable slate. Stop motion submarine puppet adventure game Harold Halibrib and Warrior and Wolf environmentalist action game Neva (My Personal Favorite) has been awarded the Artistic Achievement Award, adjacent to large titles such as Astro Bot and Wukong.
The vague “Games Beyond Entertainment” category has always been my favorite due to its vague definition. These are all games with a broader meaning than what is meant to be. We have kind words. There, you can send a wonderful message to strangers or send your worries to the world. There is a botanical mansion about exploring the Victorian botanist's home. The Story of Kenzera: Zau is informed by the director's grief after his father's death. Tetris Forever is a fascinating interactive documentary about block-drawing games and insight into the wild times of video games history. Perhaps because of the portrayal of life with mental illness, Hellblade is there as well. And then there is a vampire therapist. You are a cowboy who speaks immortal undead through their emotional baggage. I've never heard of this game so I'll download it right away.
Last year's awards were so comprehensively dominated by Baldur's Gate 3, the show usually lacked a surprising trend, but many categories this year are far more demanding. The show will be held on April 8th at 7pm on BST at 7pm, with comedian Philwan re-running, making almost all of this nomination list worthwhile winners. That being said, if Lipentagio doesn't get the best story, I'm a fummie if it's a brilliantly smart and greatest roleplay game metaphor: Lipentagio doesn't get the best story.
What to do
Wonderstop. Photo: Ivy Road/Anapurna
Wonderstop The game is a formerly terrifying warrior and forced to run a whimsical tea shop in the fantasy forest, and she is not happy about it. It's also a game about burnout. Co-authored by Davey Wreden (The Stanley Paraable, The Beginners Guide) and Karla Zimonja (Hone Home) discover that he had invested too much in his work and was suddenly taken away from meaning when he couldn't function like he used to. (I don't know what you're talking about.)
Available at:PS5,Xbox,PC Estimated playtime: 10 hours
What to read
Landmarks in the world of explorable 3D games… The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina Era from 1998. Photo: Nintendo
Inspired by the BAFTA investigation, I asked a lot of interesting and prominent people for them The most influential video game ever. No two chose the same game. Most of their choices were very beautifully esoteric and I found it obviously boring to choose something relatively predictable.
Sony is experimenting AI-driven game characters: That's what the AI version of Aloy on Horizon was It leaked to the bargespeak to the player in a synthesized voice. Important Reminder: Horizon is the story of how greedy technocrats destroyed the Earth with the help of AI.
there is New “official” trailer for Our Last In season 2, Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsay returned as Heroes Joel and Ellie. Those of us who have played the game will know there are plenty of trailers it's not Show it…
Speaking of trailers, there is a 10 minute (yes, 10) trailer Death Scheme 2It will be released on June 26th. As it's a game of Kojima Hideo, it looks like equal parts are creative and confusing And it's totally weird.
Trigger warning for vegetarians…Monster Hunter: The World. Photo: Capcom
leader Robin We provide questions for this week:
“Here's the question I can't get out of my head: How can I play Monster Hunter! ? I'm not creaking at all, but I was able to barely pass a training session that involved in hurting harmless creatures trapped in the arena. I was tired and my son was scared. Then some innocent creatures were about to die, and I was pulling on my stupid face and taking pictures of the poor the last time it breathed. And what prompted you to leave the game if Monster Hunter didn't do that for you? ”
This is such a valid question! I was a vegetarian for 12 years, but throughout, I was willing to cut off the majestic creatures. Monster Hunter And I was proud of my achievements. I'm so fascinated by this dichotomy that I wrote an entire article about it when Monster Hunter: World came out in 2018. Quote yourself.
Whether it's Monster Hunter or Game of Thrones, one of the features of fantasy violence is to reflect the role that violence plays in the real world and in the human nature. Monster Hunter may involve murder, but it also restores humans to the hierarchy of nature… pretending to fight hunters in my spare time is probably the outlet for slave carnivorous animals.
I'm no longer a vegetarian, but I fully acknowledge the dissonance between respecting and admiring these incredible virtual creatures and killing them to make flashy helmets. The latest game has many cognitive somersaults in its story, as killing these dangerous beasts does it to protect people and ecosystems. But at the base level, it's fun so I'm doing it, and that teeth It's quite gloss on one level. Another thing: it's fantasy. I personally feel more comfortable killing virtual dragons than killing virtual people, as I have no judgment for first-person shooters at all.
To Part 2 of Your Question: One Instant Grand Theft Auto v It made me uncomfortable and I had to take my partner to play through the scene for me. A scene from the story involving a hillbilly psycho capturing and torture a Middle Eastern man. You have no choice but to be active and it made me feel nauseous. It is clearly intended to be a satirical commentary on the immediate torture of the US government after 9/11,
An international team of researchers analyzed moans, moans, whistles, bark, screams, and creaks in recordings of humpback whale songs collected over eight years in New Caledonia.
Arnon et al. We have revealed the same statistical structure of humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) Songs are characteristic of human language. Image credits: Christopher Michelle / CC by 2.0.
“I found something really fascinating,” said Dr. Emma Carroll, a marine biologist at Auckland University.
In this study, Dr. Carol and colleagues apply quantitative methods that are usually used to evaluate infantile utterances, and that this applies to culturally evolved learning songs in human languages. I found it. Humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae).
In human language, structurally consistent units exhibit frequency distribution that follows the law of power. Zipfian distribution – Attributes that are likely to promote learning and enhance accurate conservation of language across generations.
The Humpback Whale Song is one of the most complex vocal displays in the Animal Kingdom and is passed down through cultural transmission, providing something compelling in parallel with human language.
These songs are highly structured, consisting of nested hierarchical components. The theme is combined with the sound elements that form the phrase, the phrases that are repeated in the theme, and the song.
If statistical properties of human language arise from cultural transmission, similar patterns should be possible to detect in whale songs.
The study authors analyzed recorded humpback whale song data over eight years using infant-inspired speech segmentation techniques.
They discovered a hidden structure in the whale song.
Specifically, these songs contain statistically coherent subsequences that fit the Zipfian distribution.
Furthermore, the length of these subsequences follows ZIPF's Law of Suspicion, an efficiency-driven principle found in many species, including humans.
This striking similarity between the two evolutionarily distant species emphasizes the deep role of learning and cultural communication in shaping communication across species, with such structural properties being exclusive to human language. It challenges the concept of being.
“The Whale Songs” at Griffith University, Dr. Jenny Allen, a leading expert on whale songs, said:
“This is why it offers such an exciting comparison.”
“These results provide unique insight into the importance of cultural communication in interspecies learning processes, particularly for learning complex communication systems.”
“A more interesting question is, rather than trying to adapt animal communication to holes in the form of “human language”? I think so. ”
“Using insights and methods from how babies learn languages allowed us to discover structures that were previously undetected in whale songs,” says Professor Inval Arnon of Hebrew University. Ta.
“This work illustrates how learning and cultural communication can form the structure of communication systems. Find similar statistical structures when complex continuous behaviors are culturally transmitted. You can do it.”
“It raises the interesting possibility that humpback whales can track the transition odds between sound elements, like human babies, and learn songs by using dips to segment those odds. Masu.”
study It was published in the journal today Science.
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Invalanon et al. 2025. The whale song shows a language-like statistical structure. Science 387 (6734): 649-653; doi: 10.1126/science.adq7055
I
The song is only 17 seconds long and sounds like 80’s Genesis playing at the bottom of a pool. But this bouncy but sonically degraded snippet of pop has become one of the internet’s biggest and most enduring musical mysteries.
This clip was uploaded in 2021 by a person named Carl92 who wanted to see if anyone could identify it. “I don’t remember its origins,” he wrote on his site called WatZatSong, adding, “I found it among a bunch of very old files on a DVD backup… it feels kind of nostalgic.” But even after this 17-second sample of his was posted on his Reddit, a powerful pop culture spirit is rarely lost, not a single person was able to identify the song or the artist.
This quest captured people’s imaginations. Last June it was my own subreddit – Named after the song’s unofficial title “Everyone Knows That (Ulterior Motives)”, or EKT, and currently has approximately 27,000 members. And recently, TikTok has become popular, with predictable results. Users flooded me with unhelpful comments like “Have you tried Shazaming?” which is like telling someone who lost their keys to check their pockets.
Bass, a music journalist from the Netherlands, is one of the subreddit’s moderators. He attributes the explosion in this exploration to a cultural shift. “We live in an age where knowledge is freely available and music can be consumed with few restrictions,” he says. “Music that was lost in the pre-internet era can be very interesting to young people because it’s something very foreign to them and they can’t easily look up songs.”
20 year old content creator with fame kylie bogley is one such convert. “We’re in the prime of a lost medium that will be viewed with great fondness in the future, and I’m grateful to be a part of it,” she says.
She is EKT. “Lost Wave” This movement collects dusty and forgotten songs, perhaps recorded from the radio or buried in folders of old MP3s, and attempts to give them names and artists. “There is another unconfirmed song and it is called “The most mysterious song on the internet‘ The mystery has remained unsolved for nearly 20 years. But I think EKT has outgrown its popularity,” says Bogley. “I don’t think it’s possible that we can’t find an artist.”
One obstacle is that the sound quality is so poor that no one can fully agree with the lyrics. There is even some doubt as to whether the singer is male or female. However, internet sleuths have identified the drum machine and synthesizer used for this song, most likely a LinnDrum and a Yamaha DX7. This narrows down the release date to his 1983 years and beyond. They also analyzed the background frequencies and figured out the format of the DVD. Apparently Carl92 was playing. Beyond that, forensic analysis was unable to locate it.
Dozens of similar-sounding artists (Roxette, Savage Garden, the one who sang the theme song for the Pokémon TV series) have all been asked if it’s their song, but no luck was. Unsurprisingly, misinformation also spread. Bass recalled a Redditor he claimed to have heard at a McDonald’s in Poland. “This person fabricated an email from a company to trick the search community into believing we were trying to find a song,” he says. “I think that’s the point of creativity.”
This song may have been an unreleased demo or an advertising jingle. Bass’ theory is that the piece was created in the United States for a movie or advertisement and “ended up on his VHS tape.” Someone had been recording audio in his room with his VHS tape playing in the background, backed up the file to his DVD, and forgot about it. ” Some think it may have come from Japan. Searchers are now trying to contact an unknown singer named White Mike Johnny Grove, who has a “strikingly similar voice,” Bogley said. Please pay attention to this column.
As for Carl 92, he disappeared, probably out of fear that online detectives would search him for clues. Some say he must have staged the whole thing, but maybe it’s some of the music he generated using his AI? If so, he could have directed tens of thousands of people. You’ve succeeded in destroying it. However, there is no evidence that he was not real. The despondent tone of his near-final message, which came just a few months after he posted EKT, certainly rings true. “It’s a dead end,” he wrote. “I just lost interest in that song.” But the rest of the world is just getting started.
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