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Daniel Bedingfield: AI Music Is Stealing. Here's What Has to Happen.

Chris Wieduwilt (The AI Musicpreneur)

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Part 2 of my interview with Daniel Bedingfield, recorded 27 April 2026. His answer on AI labeling is one sentence long: label music by how it was actually made, and make the labeling pay, because a system nobody profits from is a system nobody uses.

SIQA's 3-tier classification, in full:
https://www.aimusicpreneur.com/ai-mus...

The SIQA Verified Registry and the mid-year report:
https://www.aimusicpreneur.com/ai-mus...

Luminate's single flat AI Generated tag:
https://www.aimusicpreneur.com/ai-mus...

Spotify's AI Persona badge:
https://www.aimusicpreneur.com/ai-mus...

Suno v6, the first licensed model:
https://www.aimusicpreneur.com/ai-too...

Part 1, AI finished his 20-year song:
Daniel Bedingfield Sat on This Song for 20...

Part 3, replace the industry with AI: [Coming soon]

CHAPTERS
0:00 "It still is stealing, but I think they might be missing the point"
0:23 Suno v6, Universal's ElevenLabs deal, and the lawsuits still running
1:22 Should Spotify and Apple Music label AI tracks?
1:41 Why labeling only works if labeling pays
2:14 The 4 lanes Daniel Bedingfield describes for AI music
2:42 Imogen Heap, AI-human hybrid, and 15 years of fan-owned music
3:37 The identity layer: one node every AI model has to pay through
4:55 Suno vs Udio, and the attribution layer that pays something back
5:27 "My best friends won't use AI because it is stealing"
5:54 Letting every artist choose how much of their catalogue trains a model
6:21 "The tech bros are not musicians": the AI and Music Institute in the UK
7:19 Universal and Sony's Suno talks stalled. Who gets paid when a deal lands?
7:55 Why Daniel has never seen a royalty since he signed
8:49 Publishing pays 80%. Recording pays 20%.
9:13 Eleven Music trained on Kobalt and Merlin, and why Mozart is a dark horse
9:44 My answer: SIQA's 3 tiers, the Verified Registry, Luminate and Spotify

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He describes 4 lanes running from fully AI-generated to fully human, and puts Imogen Heap in the hybrid lane for cloning her own voice as ai.mogen. He then describes the identity layer Imogen is building, where anything that trains on an artist's data, face, lyrics or voice has to pass through one node and pay before it can go anywhere.

On tools, he uses Suno, says Udio was better until it stopped working for him, and notes that Suno's attribution layer now pays something back. He wants artists to choose how much of their own catalogue is allowed into a training set, and he recommends the AI and Music Institute in the UK for anyone who wants a say in how that gets built.

Then he gets blunt about money. He has never seen a royalty since he signed, because his label kept recoupment ahead of income for 2 decades, and he says that is by design rather than bad luck. He explains why publishing pays a songwriter roughly 80% where a recording deal pays roughly 20%.

He points to ElevenLabs' Eleven Music, trained on Kobalt and Merlin catalogues, as a model that could send money back to independents, and calls Mozart a dark horse after meeting the team.

In my outro I cover SIQA's 3 tiers: AI-Assisted, Human + AI Hybrid, and Fully AI-Generated. I explain the SIQA Verified Registry, where an artist declares AI use at the source before release and anyone can look it up at registry.thesiqa.com or scan a track with the iOS app. I set that against Luminate's single flat AI Generated tag and Spotify's AI Persona badge, which tells you an artist's identity might be AI and nothing about the music.

Disclosure, and I say it on camera at 10:23: I sit on SIQA's Creative Advisory Council. I report on SIQA and I advise it. I do not run it.

Part 1 is the song AI finished for him. Part 3 is what happens to labels and managers.

#aimusic #sunoai #musicnews

20 Comments

@LiThBaNd 2 days ago

I'm split on this one. Is it theft? Is it not? Lots of grey area here because we have been using computer to scan massive amounts of data for decades. The BIGGEST issue I have with all these lawsuits and it shows the real reason these companies are sueing.... their money, that's the only thing their protecting. Not artists, authors, publishers, or anything they claim to be protecting. Why did they wait to sue until these ai companies were multi million, billion $ companies? Why wouldn't they sue to stop them before they became mainstream? You can't tell me they didn't know about it until just now. They knew and they LET ai companies take things, build their systems, knowing they'd get their grimey little hands on more money from something they let happen.

@GeorgeLewis-q9t 2 days ago

The music business is the last group on planet earth that should accuse anyone of theft. But I wonder how many tools these artists use to produce their music.

@ReactInfo54 1 day ago

The artists who use Suno didn't sign especially as terms of service changed drastically, Suno had to pay their creative users for training on their original stuff. The music industry likes to scam the artists .

@MoraReiOfficial 1 day ago (edited)

I operate fully transparent . I never would steal, Music is threapy. I'm very vocal about people doing it correctly I have contacted researchers, People in Parliment ( I'm also in the UK ) I'm SIQA registered now thank's to your channel. I'm an AI Hybrid and I will keep speaking on this, I'm raising my voice and its needed. I use my own voice, I refuse to copy anyone , Yes I use Suno and I'm not ashamed . Yes I would love to help! I'm not in it for fame or money and I swear I'm not. I only love to create and share. Thank you for the video and highlight! Check out with one of my past shorts, It's blank for a reason, My voice is on there .You should have my contact details if you need to contact me

@jakelara9138 1 day ago

I write my own music and lyrics but can't perform, so AI does the performance generated from my demo. Can we have traditional songwriter as a designated category?

@storyray9749 1 day ago

I am a storyboard artist, illustrator and art director who has worked with all kind of images, photo and video for 30 years. One musician criticized me for using Suno. But he is posting ai images all the time on facebook. 🎉 i have basically lost all my commercial storyboard commissions the last 2 years. What about all the writing that has built all other kinds of Llm? Either all Ai must be stopped or all must be used or sued.

@jpfurner1846 1 day ago

It’s not stealing. Musicians have been “borrowing” sounds, ideas, and concepts since music was invented.

@trumansoho 1 day ago

Really enjoyed the video — great work.

I’d love to discuss a possible sponsored video collaboration with you. What’s the best way to get in touch?

@duneglow 1 day ago

Even if Suno came to term with the Major three and decided to pay up. What tools are in place to decide who’s owed what? And even if there was some type of system in place, do you actually think that the Major labels would pay up that money to those artists? Meanwhile Spotify is stealing billions from musicians around the world and no one is fighting over that. You wanna be angry as a musician? Be angry about that instead.

@PHATTrocadopelus 2 days ago

Spotify payments only benefit the record companies. AI "payments" will be even less for artists.

@JohanCardathome 2 days ago

Morally it is stealing. Whether it’s put in law or not the consciousness feels like it robbed.

@royalhotelrecords 2 days ago

@2:05 “if you make it profitable to label” - the driving force for labels to either stifle or enter into deals with AI music generators is profit - which I understand, they’re running a business after all.
WMG obtaining a significant advance from Suno in order for Suno to train their AI model,is likely to be accounted for as straight profit. I’m not sure how artists/composers can benefit unless they “opt-in” which are still very murky waters.
Same applies to UMG/Eleven Labs.
Daniel notes how he hasn’t seen a penny since signing, even though he’s been very successful.
This is standard music industry economics.
If he accepted an advance on signing,it would have been recoupable .
Apart from his recording costs all marketing including music videos, photo shoots, advertising and promotion, travel costs etc would also be recoupable.
Between him and the label they spent more than they’ve earned - this is very common.
I was fortunate enough to witness a Natasha showcase at a label conference before the first single release and believed she really had a long career ahead of her.
“Unwritten” is still a killer pop single (maybe Daniel assisted)

@Jersey1203-DEMOS-R-US 2 days ago

This is AI.

@Dontdothat5300 2 days ago

It’s not stealing.

Here’s the level of hypocrisy:

Spotify - AI Music bad. De list. No promote.

Also Spotify: If you want the book you wrote to be an audiobook we will make it an audiobook for free and out audiobook narrators out of work.

The industry ONLY cares about the industry - never about the artist.

@socialmediafrenzy 2 days ago

1. It's not stealing. Stealing is when something is taken and the rightful owner no longer has possession of that which was taken.

Infringement and stealing are 2 distinct concepts.

2. Which generative AI platforms are no longer licensed? Suno is licensed, Udio is licensed, elevenlabs is licensed. Licensing means that the copyright holders are being compensated.

@C.S.P.Entertainment 1 day ago

When an artist comes on with a voice dnd you say , yeah he dounds like tom jones or she sounds like rhianna with voice snd style Do we say theyve stolen their voices or styles or do we say they sound like ?

@DreamyWavesAmbientBliss 2 days ago

Ask Daniel if he sample from other artists songs? I believe he does. Is that not stealing?

@39GATO 21 hours ago

I am just asking What IF this AI thingy can do like open source fandom like Touhou, Or like Uta-ite and Hatsune Miku related tracks.

@IrishJoeMusic 1 day ago (edited)

Musicians scrambling to hold on to the past, like physical shops that refused to go online when the internet came out. Look what happened. Ive been listening to synthesized/sampled music since the 80’s and it was labelled “fake” back then. AI music opened the door for new musicians trapped inside a non instrument taught body, we are just a new breed of musicians taking over from traditional players. Use it or get left behind. Cars took over from horses thats life in the modern world.