Three major North American music performing rights organizations, or PROs, have decided to allow registration of musical compositions that are “partially generated using artificial intelligence tools.” ASCAP, BMI and the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN) have agreed to accept direct registration within their individual societies. For registration purposes, all three PROs define a partially AI-generated musical work as “one that combines elements of AI-generated musical content with elements of human authorship.” Musical compositions that are entirely created using AI continue to be ineligible for registration in these groups.

Variety describes the policy updates as responsive to the fact that “songwriters and composers increasingly incorporate a variety of AI tools into their creative process and workflow,” emphasizing as ongoing the trio’s “disapproval of AI technology companies ingesting and training models on copyrighted musical works without permission from, compensation for or credit to creators.”

The latter remains in their view “not fair use, but theft,” per the group announcement. “Songwriters and composers have always experimented with innovative tools as part of their creative process, and AI is no exception,” ASCAP CEO Elizabeth Matthews said in the official statement, adding that “AI can be a powerful tool for our members, as long as the law puts humans first and technology companies play fair and respect the rights of creators.”

The PRO trio continues to “endorse meaningful AI legislation” and “support lawsuits filed on behalf of music creators against illegal use of their work by AI companies around the globe,” the group says.

The three PROs share their new policy 10 months subsequent to the U.S. Copyright Office’s similar findings. In a USCO report issued in January, the branch determined that “a work created solely through AI is not copyrightable, but a work that combines human creativity with AI can be copyrighted, so long as there is a ‘sufficient’ amount of human expression in that work,” reports Music Business Worldwide.

In the music world, there is disagreement between the majors and indies — and “even within these factions” —  as to the place for responsible use of generative AI in the creative process, MIDiA Research writes, detailing “many independent artists and smaller labels are firmly against any use of Gen AI in music,” with “larger independent companies and label representatives” seeking to accommodate AI use.

Kobalt and Merlin are working with GenAI platform Eleven Music, while Merlin and Believe have partnered with Spotify “to develop ‘artist-first AI music products,’” even as other small companies have sued, according to MIDiA.