AI could give music companies a larger role beyond licensing

Music companies may use AI to become more directly involved in technology and reshape the streaming-era business model, rather than remain primarily licensors of music. The assessment compares the industry with film companies that licensed content to Netflix for large payments before trying to catch up with the platforms they helped build.

Music companies licensed music to Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon; Spotify is described as being worth more than all the labels combined while owning little music-industry intellectual property, possibly apart from podcast-related assets. The analysis predicts that Spotify will have to evolve, while labels and platforms could use their capital, tools and talent to develop a new model involving artists.

Which side ultimately creates that model is uncertain: Spotify may capture the next opportunity, or the labels may become more involved. The claim is explicitly an opinion about the future of the music business, not a prediction that music itself will disappear.