It’s time for AI vendors to face the copyright music, says a 21st century champion who's 'crossed the floor'

As debate rages over copyright theft in AI training, Ed Newton-Rex has emerged as a champion of artists’ rights. But unlike other creatives who have voiced outrage at vendors’ actions, or slammed proposals to opt artists’ work into training AI models, the Stanford-affiliated composer comes from the technology sector.

While some protestors against unlicensed content scraping, such as music legends Sir Paul McCartney and Kate Bush, could be seen as representing 20th Century media interests, Newton-Rex has walked out of the 21st Century AI world. He was formerly VP of Audio at Stability AI, and VP of Product at Harmonai. Plus, he worked for more than two years at TikTok, including a stint as Product Director in its AI Lab, and before that was founder and CEO of AI music start-up, Jukedeck.

Make no mistake, Newton-Rex has ‘crossed the floor’, which makes him a valuable ally to creative professionals. But ...