Monthly Music Industry Roundup: August 2026

Those of you who were using computers in the early 2000s might still remember Winamp, the media player best known for its distinctive psychedelic visualizations. In August, we reported on its newly announced partnership with Deezer to launch a next-generation version of the iconic music player, expected to arrive in the first half of 2027.

After years away from the spotlight, but never entirely out of the picture, this particular partnership could mark Winamp’s biggest comeback yet. While many may have assumed the iconic media player was a thing of the past, the company has kept its classic desktop player alive and has gradually expanded into tools and services for artists and creators.

Although the partnership was first announced in late July, we felt it was worth revisiting simply because of how unexpected the collaboration is.

Staying with music platforms, we also reported on Qobuz, which introduced several new features, including a new audio player, real-time lyrics, expanded credits, and contextual recommendations. Last year, the platform experienced strong growth, proving that there is a growing desire for independent, non-major platforms with a focus on dedicated human curation as alternatives to what large platforms have to offer. The latest updates are a response to that growth. The philosophy stays the same, but the platform is modernized and adapted to what other major streaming platforms already have to offer.

Moving on to AI. The most important news around this topic is Article 50 of the EU AI Act, which went into effect on August 2, 2026. From now on, companies providing or using certain AI systems, as well as individuals using AI to create certain types of content, will have to follow new rules around transparency.

AI platforms that generate content from scratch will have to leave some kind of digital trace identifying their outputs as AI-generated or manipulated. For those who use AI, this means that the companies behind the tools they use will automatically add such marks to the outputs, which makes transparency around AI unavoidable.

On the other hand, if you use AI voice clones, synthetic vocals, or realistic AI video face-swaps that could be mistaken for real people or events, you may be required to make it clear that the content was artificially generated or manipulated. This information must be clear, easy to identify, and accessible to the people encountering the content. The EU AI Act can also apply beyond the EU.

Spotify has taken further action to identify and address AI-generated content on its platform. More specifically, it has introduced a new badge to label artist profiles that may be AI-generated. The “AI Persona” badge is designed to visibly classify an artist whose identity “may be AI-generated and does not represent a real person.” This is the latest move in the company’s and the wider industry’s efforts to label, restrict, and provide greater transparency around AI-generated music.

Suno and Anthropic might be in trouble. The prominent independent American music publishing firm Round Hill Music has sued both companies over copyright infringement and made it clear that it is not looking to settle either case. It argues that Anthropic used lyrics from the affected songs to train its chatbot, Claude, while Suno is said to have used the same songs to train its AI-powered music generation system.

Round Hill Music founder and CEO Josh Gruss commented on the decision as follows: “We are not against artificial intelligence. We are against the idea that you can build a business worth billions on top of other people’s creative work and pay the creators nothing.” He added: “We intend to take these cases to trial and to hold these companies accountable, and we will not accept a resolution that leaves songwriters and artists deprived of their rightful share of compensation.”

The cases could become important tests for how copyright law applies to AI companies using other people’s creative works to develop their systems, a highly contested and important topic.

While facing the copyright case in the US, Suno has already suffered a major setback in Germany. GEMA has won its copyright lawsuit against the AI music company, with the Munich Regional Court finding Suno liable for copyright infringement. The case centered on allegations that Suno used copyrighted music to train its AI system without permission or compensation.

The court also ordered Suno to disclose the revenue generated through the use of the copyrighted works and compensate GEMA’s members, although the final amount of damages has not yet been determined. Suno has rejected the ruling and is considering an appeal, meaning the decision is not yet final.

Despite these setbacks, Suno has also seen some success on another front. As announced in early August, the AI music company has entered into a global licensing agreement with BMG. The deal allows Suno to use BMG’s catalog, while artists and songwriters can choose whether to opt in. While this may look like a step toward a more legitimate model for AI music, it also raises questions about what this means for artists who do not want their work used to train AI systems.