Music Ally Focus

Ep. 180: Music consumption today is borderless, but the systems that manage it have historically been national. Now, collective management organisations are undergoing their most significant transformation in decades.
On one hand, they are becoming global infrastructure players, scaling systems, data and partnerships to match worldwide music consumption. On the other, they are redefining their relationship with creators whose ways of making, monetising and collaborating are changing just as rapidly.
We're joined by Caroline Champarnaud, Sacem's Director of International, and Julien Dumon, Director of Digital. They talk about how CMOs are evolving into interconnected, global infrastructure players. We explore the challenges of global metadata, why international partnerships with organisations like ASCAP and GEMA are more vital than ever, and how Sacem is scaling its systems to match the explosive growth of music streaming in emerging markets.
SACEM: Society of Authors, Composers and Publishers of Music
This is the third in a special series of Music Ally Focus made in collaboration with Sacem, exploring the evolution of collective management in the modern music industry – looking at technology, policy, copyright and more.
In the next episode, we’ll discuss the evolution of CMOs further, and how the global infrastructure only works if it ultimately serves creators, whose needs are evolving just as fast as the systems built to support them.
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In the first episode in the series, ⁠David El Sayegh, Deputy CEO of Sacem⁠, discussed how the organisation is defining the future of copyright.
In the second episode, we were joined by Julien Lefebvre, the Head of Innovation and Sacem Lab, to talk about its startup partnerships, and the strategic decision to open up certain proprietary technologies to all creators.
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This is a Music Ally Co-Labs podcast: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠musically.com/music-ally-co-labs⁠⁠⁠.
Co-Labs content is created by publishing partners in liaison with the Music Ally Editorial Team. We work closely with partners to ensure that it adheres to Music Ally's high expectations of quality, thoughtfulness, and usefulness.

Ep. 179: It's a Very Special Episode of Music Ally’s Focus podcast in which Stuart Dredge and Joe Sparrow can roll up their sleeves and look at the impact that AI is having on streaming in 2026 – and there’s a whole lot of nuance, what-if’s, and context to rummage around in.
It's all connected to Music Ally's latest Insight Report (available to Music Ally Subscribers here: https://musically.com/category/reports) – and that report focuses on 5 “C”’s of AI and streaming. Stu and Joe picked two of the biggest: Crunch Time, and Creativity:
Crunch Time: AI and the music industry are finally at a true inflection point where decisions need to be made and lines need to be drawn. So where’s that line: how much of a song can be AI-generated before it’s classed as “AI music” – or is there a dawning reality that this is not even a distinction that can be made any more?

Creativity: If it’s not realistic to divide songs into “AI” and “not AI” piles, should we instead not be asking “is AI truly creative?”, but “how will people be truly creative when using AI?” And is the pie being grown when a poet adds their words to an AI-generated song, or a teenage producer samples AI-music they generate?

It’s a spirited, feisty and opinionated conversation (i.e. Stu and Joe agreeably disagreed a little bit) – and it’ll help you to get up to speed with two of the key issues that we’ll all deal with in some way or another this year.

Ep. 178: Collective management is no longer just about collecting royalties; it's about innovating infrastructure and offering direct services. So we're joined by Julien Lefebvre, the Head of Innovation and Sacem Lab, to talk about the Lab project, its startup partnerships, and the strategic decision to open up certain proprietary technologies (including blockchain applications) to all creators, redefining the role of a CMO as a global tech enabler.
He discusses: balancing Sacem's priorities with the current volatile music ecosystem; the Musicstart service, where anyone –Sacem members or not – can use their tool to secure permanent "proof of creation" of their music; how the organisation is collaborating with fellow CMOs like GEMA and ASCAP; and how the music-tech startup landscape is moving away from "hype" tech.
Read more here:  SACEM, Society of Authors, Composers and Publishers of Music (https://presse.sacem.fr/?lang=en)
This is the second in a special series of Music Ally Focus made in collaboration with Sacem, exploring the evolution of collective management in the modern music industry – looking at technology, policy, copyright and more.

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In the first episode in the series, David El Sayegh, Deputy CEO of Sacem, discussed how the organisation is defining the future of copyright.
Over the next two episodes, we will continue to dive into how collective management is having to move with the times: exploring how one of the world’s leading CMOs is navigating a landscape redefined by artificial intelligence, global scaling, and the changing needs of modern creators.
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This is a Music Ally Co-Labs podcast: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠musically.com/music-ally-co-labs⁠⁠.
Co-Labs content is created by publishing partners in liaison with the Music Ally Editorial Team. We work closely with partners to ensure that it adheres to Music Ally's high expectations of quality, thoughtfulness, and usefulness.

Ep. 177: Generative AI, copyright, and collection. Welcome to a special Music Ally Focus podcast series made in collaboration with Sacem, exploring the evolution of collective management in the modern music industry – looking at technology, policy, copyright and more.
In the first episode: Generative AI is no longer a future concept – it is a fundamental tool in today's creative process. But as the amount of AI-generated content increases, so do the complexities of music rights – and the number of questions that songwriters, artists and rightsholders have.
So we spoke to David El Sayegh, Deputy CEO of collecting society Sacem, to discuss how the organisation is defining the future of copyright. We explored Sacem’s strategic approach to the AI revolution, from building a shared understanding of policy to the practical technologies being tested in the Sacem Lab, to protect human creativity and ensure fair revenue exists in this new landscape.
And, we ask El Sayegh: if we are in the middle of a huge shift in AI-driven music creation and consumption, what are the revenue opportunities – and financial risks – for creators and CMOs stemming from this?
It's a broad and deep discussion from the top: he also discussed Sacem's official stance on AI training models, how they are protecting the notion of human creativity – and the new technologies being developed to ensure creators are fairly compensated in an AI-driven world. 
Explore more: https://flyer.sacemenligne.fr/IA/EN/index.html
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Over the next three episodes, we continue to dive into how collective management is having to move with the times: exploring how one of the world’s leading CMOs is navigating a landscape redefined by artificial intelligence, global scaling, and the changing needs of modern creators.
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This is a Music Ally Co-Labs podcast: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠musically.com/music-ally-co-labs⁠.
Co-Labs content is created by publishing partners in liaison with the Music Ally Editorial Team. We work closely with partners to ensure that it adheres to Music Ally's high expectations of quality, thoughtfulness, and usefulness.

Ep. 176: In 2026, labels, artists, musicians and creators are all working differently: generating millions of micro-royalties every month across global campaigns that involve multiple of partners across dozens of countries. Getting your music out there is easier than ever, but processing that increased volume of payouts becomes more complex – and we all have an expectation to get paid fast, and see what’s going on and what we’re owed at any given time.
So to find out what’s happening at the point where all those payment pipes meet, in this latest episode of Music Ally Focus, we partnered with a fintech company that processes tens of billions of payments each year – Tipalti, which works closely with labels like Ninja Tune to pay their artists what they’re owed.
We chatted to Tipalti’s Travis Hughson about what labels need in 2026, what artists want when it comes to payments, and how to maintain trust and transparency to keep all parties happy.
Some more Tipalti resources for the music business:
Automated Royalty Payouts to Nurture Artists
Ninja Tune Enhances Artist Satisfaction and Cuts Payouts Processing Time by 50% With Tipalti Mass Payments
Fast, Secure Global Payments Anywhere
Royalty Rate Explained: How to Determine Your Royalties

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This is a Music Ally Co-Labs podcast: ⁠⁠⁠⁠musically.com/music-ally-co-labs.
Co-Labs content is created by publishing partners in liaison with the Music Ally Editorial Team. We work closely with partners to ensure that it adheres to Music Ally's high expectations of quality, thoughtfulness, and usefulness.