Monetising content in a GenAI world

Tony van den Berge at Cloudflare explains how technology gives content creators control over AI access and a path to monetisation 

 

The market for AI-generated music and AV content is set to skyrocket in the next couple of years growing from around €3 billion today to €64 billion in 2028. While this may be good news for those dancing to Gen AI’s tune, it’s likely to hit a bum note for content creators. 

 

Despite providing the “creative fuel of the Gen AI content market”, these human creators could be about to see their income drop by around a quarter.  

 

That amounts to a cumulative loss of €22 billion over the next five years – €10 billion in music and €12 billion in audiovisual – according to a new report commissioned by the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC) which represents some five million people in the creative industries.   

 

The report – Study on the economic impact of Generative AI in the Music and Audiovisual industries – is touted as the first-ever global study of its kind to tackle the subject. 

 

It warns that unless this situation changes, content creators will be squeezed on two fronts – the loss of revenues because of the unauthorised use of their works by Gen AI models and the loss of income by people buying AI-generated content. 

 

"For creators of all kinds, from songwriters to film directors, screenwriters to film composers, AI has the power to unlock new and exciting opportunities – but we have to accept that, if badly regulated, generative AI also has the power to cause great damage to human creators, to their careers and livelihoods,” said CISAC President and ABBA frontman Björn Ulvaeus. 

 

“Which of these two scenarios will be the outcome? This will be determined in large part by the choices made by policy makers, in legislative reviews that are going on across the world right now. It’s critical that we get these regulations right, protect creators’ rights and help develop an AI environment that safeguards human creativity and culture," he said. 

 

Existential threat to content creators

While there is clearly a role for legislation, technology can also help provide a solution not only to help protect content from gen AI creators, but also to provide an avenue to monetise it too. 

 

With so much content online – everything from those who make a living from art and animation to filmmakers and wordsmiths – it’s a problem that extends far beyond the music industry. 

 

In most cases, site owners have had little control over how AI services use their content for training or other purposes. Recently, though, new tools have been developed that make it easier for site owners, creators, and publishers to take back control of their content. 

 

To understand how these new tools work, it’s worth stepping back to understand how AI models are accessing digital content. 

 

It’s well known that bots scuttle around the internet looking for content. “Good bots” – such as search engine crawlers – are useful because they help people discover sites and drive traffic. “Bad bots”, on the other hand, can pose a security threat. 

 

But the rise of Large Language Models (LLMs) and other generative tools has created a murkier third category. Unlike malicious bots, the crawlers associated with gen AI platforms are simply looking to hoover up content to train new LLMs. And that’s the problem for content creators. 

 

New tools in the battle to monetise content 

That’s why there’s so much interest around the development of these new tools. Not only do they allow content providers to identify who – or what – is scraping their content, they also allow them to block access to particular bots. 

 

The result is two-fold. First, content creators are able to stop scrapers from accessing their intellectual property. Second, it allows content creators to negotiate access deals directly with AI companies. In other words, it gives content creators the chance to be paid for their output. 

 

And in a sign that the balance of power may already be shifting in terms of control and ownership, many of those contracts include terms about the frequency of scanning and the type of content that can be accessed. 

 

That said, it’s still early days. There is still some uncertainty about the value of content used this way. And site owners are at a disadvantage while they play catch up. But unless – and until – there is a resolution, content creators and site owners will be discouraged from launching or maintaining Internet properties. 

 

The fear is that more and more creators will stash their content behind paywalls, which may solve one problem but invariably lead to others. While the CISAC is right to press ahead for a regulatory solution, technology also has a role to play. 

 

Ultimately, all parties – policymakers, tech companies and creators – need to come together to enable the market to thrive while safeguarding creativity. For those in the music industry, it’s not just a question of harmony, but of hitting the right notes too. 

 

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Tony van den Berge is VP of EMEA at Cloudflare, the connectivity cloud company

 

Main image courtesy of iStockPhoto.com and Jacob Wackerhausen