☕ Facing the music

Record labels are coming for AI music generators... June 25, 2024 [View Online]( | [Sign Up]( | [Shop]( [Morning Brew]( PRESENTED BY [Eli Electric Vehicles]( Good morning. Today, June 25, is Half Christmas, marking the midway point until actual Christmas. You can buy a gift, but you don’t half to. —Sam Klebanov, Molly Liebergall, Cassandra Cassidy, Abby Rubenstein, Neal Freyman MARKETS Nasdaq 17,496.82 -1.09% S&P 5,447.87 -0.31% Dow 39,411.21 +0.67% 10-Year 4.248% -1.0 bps Bitcoin $59,920.36 -6.05% Nvidia $118.11 -6.68% Data is provided by *Stock data as of market close, cryptocurrency data as of 6:00pm ET. [Here's what these numbers mean.]( Markets: Stocks were [mixed]( yesterday with the Dow advancing while other indexes retreated as Nvidia fell for the third trading day in a row. But don’t feel too bad for Nvidia’s investors because the AI chipmaker is still up 145% year to date.  ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE [Record labels come for music-making AI]( [AI music]( Anna Kim, Photo: Getty Images If you’ve ever made an AI-generated pop-rock anthem for a darty with lyrics reminding guests it’s a BYOB potluck that starts at one, record labels aren’t amused. Convinced their IP was used to train the music bots, they’re now saying the scariest phrase in the business: “See you in court.” Suno and fellow AI song generator startup Udio (of [“BBL Drizzy”]( fame) were each [sued]( yesterday by a group of copyright-holding giants, including Universal Music Group, Sony Music Group, and Warner Music Group. Legal diss track The lawsuits, filed on the labels’ behalf by the powerful trade group the Recording Industry Association of America, accuse Udio and Suno of being “evasive” about the contents of their AI training datasets, allegedly to conceal that they are lifting songs from the labels’ catalogs to generate tracks that are eerily similar to the originals. - The labels claim AI knockoffs could crowd the songs they’re based on out of the soundscape, leading to financial losses. - They’re demanding damages of up to $150,000 per instance of copyright infringement, potentially adding up to billions of dollars. In response, Suno said its algorithms are designed to produce “completely new outputs.” In court, the defendants are expected to retort that the “fair use” doctrine that allows copyrighted content to be used for things like parody, news reporting, or scholarship also applies to AI algorithm training. Does Big Music hate AI? This isn’t the first labels vs. AI lawsuit. Earlier this year, Universal Music and others sued AI company Anthropic, accusing its AI chatbot Claude 2 of spitting out barely changed lyrics by artists like Katy Perry and the Rolling Stones. But the labels assure they’re not anti-AI luddites, stressing that they are open to collaboration through licensing deals to compensate them for the use of songs they own. It’s not just the music biz…taking issue with copyrighted content feeding AI. The New York Times is taking OpenAI and Microsoft to court, while visual artists filed a [class action suit]( against the developers of AI image generators Midjourney and Stable Diffusion.—SK PRESENTED BY ELI ELECTRIC VEHICLES [Is this the “Tesla of micro-EVs?”]( [Eli Electric Vehicles]( 3,700+ people already investing in Eli Electric Vehicles think so. If you missed investing in Tesla while it was private, now is your chance to [invest in what people are calling the “Tesla of micro-EVs.”]( Micro-EVs are the “next big thing” in urban mobility. With a [$470b untapped market]( Eli Electric Vehicles is poised to potentially dominate. Having sold hundreds of EVs in Europe, they’re scaling up production and launching in the US this year. Eli isn’t like other EV companies—they’re rethinking urban transportation with their compact and affordable EVs. Their vehicles are 70% smaller than sedans and twice as energy efficient as regular EVs. You now have an opportunity to [become a shareholder before their current round closes in two days](. Don’t miss out—you have until June 27. WORLD [Tour de headlines](#) [Julian Assange]Julian Assange in 2017. Jack Taylor/Getty Images Julian Assange will go free after pleading guilty. The WikiLeaks founder, who’s been pursued by the US since publishing a trove of sensitive classified documents in the 2010s, has agreed to [plead guilty]( to a single felony charge of illegally obtaining and disclosing national security material. And if all goes to plan, Assange will be sentenced to the time he has already served in a British prison while fighting extradition to the US and allowed to return to his native Australia, ending a saga that’s created political headaches for the government. He’s scheduled to appear in a US federal court in the Northern Mariana Islands tomorrow morning to enter the plea and is then expected to hop a flight to Oz. SCOTUS to review ban on gender-affirming care for minors. The Supreme Court will weigh in on the Biden administration’s [challenge]( to the constitutionality of a Tennessee ban on doctors providing gender transition care, including hormone therapy and puberty blockers, to people under age 18. Agreeing to hear the case puts the court at the center of a hot-button political issue: Over 20 states have passed laws to curb gender transition care for minors since 2021, per the Washington Post. The high court will take up the case next term, which starts in October. Shein considers the London look for its IPO. With its plans for a New York stock debut seeming to fall apart like a pair of $5 pants, Shein has reportedly [filed confidential paperwork]( for an IPO in London. The China-founded fast-fashion behemoth faced pushback on its plans for a New York listing from US lawmakers, including concerns about possible forced labor in its supply chain. The potential move to London for what’s likely to be a major listing underscores the business difficulties for China-linked companies as geopolitical tensions with the US simmer—though Shein could still pull off a US listing. BIG TECH [Apple is in trouble with the EU (again)]( [An Apple store in Europe]( Gallup/Getty Images Regulators across the pond yesterday charged the iPhone-maker with [violating]( a broad new “online gatekeeper” law. This marks the first time the European Union’s fresh digital competition rules have bared their teeth at Big Tech. The EU says…Apple has run afoul of the Digital Markets Act (DMA) by anti-competitively making it difficult for developers to [steer]( customers toward non-Apple App Store purchase methods, e.g., third-party websites or app stores that don’t take a hefty cut of digital sales like Apple. Regulators will also open an additional noncompliance investigation into other fees that Apple recently started charging EU developers. Apple says…it’s “confident” that it’s complying with the new rules because it started allowing third-party app stores and downloads in the EU ahead of the enactment of the DMA in March. Separately, the company announced last week that due to regulatory caution, it won’t release the new iPhone’s signature AI feature in the EU. The EU will keep investigating. Yesterday’s charges are regulators’ initial findings, but if they’re confirmed and Apple doesn’t adequately respond, the tech giant could be fined 10% of its global revenue. That IOU would trounce the $2 billion that the EU fined Apple in March for violating other anti-competition rules (Apple plans to appeal). Release the Kraken. The EU has been dying to sic the DMA on Big Tech, the Financial Times [reported](. Regulators are still probing Meta’s and Alphabet’s compliance with the new law.—ML FOOD & BEV [Now serving: the $5 meal deal that started a price war]( [McDonald’s drive thru]( Greenberg/Getty Images There’s a new $5 meal deal on the block—but this one doesn’t involve a cutesy jingle or a footlong sandwich. McDonald’s rolls out its new value offering today, aiming to lure back cost-conscious customers who turned away from the chain amid increasing prices. The deal [includes]( four items—a McChicken or McDouble, four-piece nuggets, small fries, and a small drink—but will only be available for a month. Why is Mickey D’s doing this? People aren’t flocking to the Golden Arches like they used to. - McDonald’s missed sales expectations in Q1. - It’s also battling a perception fueled by viral social media [posts]( that the once-reliably affordable chain has gotten too [expensive](. McDonald’s is hoping the $5 meal deal will bring back customers. Coca-Cola contributed $4.6 million to subsidize the promotion after some franchisees said it would eat into their profits. Racing to the lowest price: McDonald’s may be the largest fast-food chain by sales volume, but it has [competition]( tougher than a day-old fry. Last month, shortly after Bloomberg reported the chain’s intentions to bring out the deal, Burger King debuted its own $5 meal deal, Wendy’s dropped a $3 meal deal, and Starbucks jumped in with a $5 coffee and pastry combo.—CC STAT [Prime number](#) [A worker on a camera on Zoom call]Luis Alvarez/Getty Images Your overly chipper coworker who always wishes you a happy hump day and insists Zoom meetings are better with cameras on might have a point (though not about the hump day thing). Research published in the Harvard Business Review that analyzed 40 million meetings from 11 organizations found that going camera-on [correlated]( with sticking around at your job, finding that people who left their companies within a year enabled their cameras during meetings 18.4% of the time, compared to 32.5% of the time for employees who stayed at their company longer. While the researchers stressed that the relationship isn’t causal, they did say employers with lots of camera-shy workers might want to look into staff engagement issues. NEWS [What else is brewing](#) - [Infowars]( Alex Jones’s conspiracy media platform, would be shut down and liquidated under a plan being drafted by the trustee overseeing Jones’s assets in the wake of his bankruptcy filing to pay the massive defamation verdict he owes to families who lost loved ones in the Sandy Hook school shooting. - [Target]( has made a deal with Shopify in an effort to bring trendier sellers to its third-party marketplace. - [Novo Nordisk]( plans to spend $4.1 billion to build a facility in North Carolina to boost its ability to make Wegovy and Ozempic. - [Louisiana]( has been sued by civil rights groups that claim its new law requiring the Ten Commandments to be displayed in public school classrooms is unconstitutional—a development the law’s backers expected. - [Actor Tamayo Perry]( best known for roles in Pirates of the Caribbean and Hawaii Five-0, died in a shark attack Sunday at age 49. - [The Florida Panthers]( denied the Edmonton Oilers 2–1 in Game 7 to win their first Stanley Cup. - [Dave Grohl]( of the Foo Fighters appears to be fighting with Taylor Swift as they both perform in London, which you probably didn’t have on your 2024 bingo card. RECS [Tuesday To Do List] Travel tips: If you’re looking to go the distance, Qatar Airways topped this year’s [best airlines]( list. If you want to stay closer to home, here’s a ranking of the [best towns]( to visit in the US. Know when to leave the bar: Here’s how long it takes [different types of alcohol]( to go bad. Watch: This [rotating boat lift]( is an engineering marvel. Cheer up: Why hot days put you in [a bad mood](. Daily market update: For a brief (and fun) rundown of everything that happened in the stock market, check out Brew Markets—hitting your inbox every day right after the bell rings. [Sign up here](. Money machine: PayPal’s batting a homer when it comes to the cash-back game. With [400m+ active accounts]( and an awesome points system, PayPal is your MVP. [Check it out]( Quick question(s): What’s your main career obstacle? And how can you overcome it? Find answers to both questions in [this quiz]( we created with Delta and The Female Quotient. [See what you discover]( *A message from our sponsor. GAMES [The puzzle section](#) Brew Mini: One of the best Disney songs of all time gets a clue in today’s Mini. [See which one it is here](. Name game Since the 1970s, one letter has been the most common ending for men’s names. These days, this ending letter so thoroughly dominates the others that more than 25% of all men in the US currently have a name ending in this letter. So, which letter is it? SHARE THE BREW [Share Morning Brew]( with your friends, acquire free Brew swag, and then acquire more friends as a result of your fresh Brew swag. We’re saying we’ll give you free stuff and more friends if you share a link. One link. Your referral count: 0 [Click to Share]( Or copy & paste your referral link to others: [morningbrew.com/daily/r/?kid=4904f90a]( ANSWER The letter N [Source]( Word of the Day Today’s Word of the Day is: causal, meaning “expressing or indicating cause.” Thanks to Elena from San Diego, CA, for giving us a reason to use the suggestion. Submit another [Word of the Day here](. ✢ A Note From Eli Electric Vehicles This is a paid advertisement for Eli Electric Vehicles’ Regulation CF offering. Please read the offering circular at [invest.eli.world](. Written by [Neal Freyman]( [Abigail Rubenstein]( Sam Klebanov, [Molly Liebergall]( and [Cassandra Cassidy]( Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up [here](. Get smarter in just 5 minutes - Money & Career: [Money With Katie](  [Bossy](  [Brew Markets](  [The Playbook]( Interested in podcasts? - Check out ours [here]( [ADVERTISE]( // [CAREERS]( // [SHOP]( // [FAQ]( Update your email preferences or unsubscribe [here](. 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