A Petition for Fair Monetization of Human-Generated Music

A Petition for Fair Monetization of Human-Generated Music
How Music Is Made Should Matter

AI-generated music and human-generated music are not the same in terms of labor, production, or value creation. And recognizing this difference does not require policing creativity or excluding anyone from creating music.

Today music created by literally prompting three or even two sentences is flooding platforms such as YouTube and streaming services, and that music is monetized right alongside works that involve countless hours of human musical performance, human editing, compositional work, recording, and production… When these radically different ways of creating music are treated as commercially equivalent, value ends up being attributed in the wrong place: working musicians are disadvantaged and platforms benefit the most.

This petition calls for collective, sector-wide licensing and monetization standards — similar in spirit to what the Writers Guild fought for in Hollywood — so that new technologies can coexist with human musicianship under fair and transparent commercial terms. This is a practical economic request, not necessarily an aesthetic judgment.

Ultimately, our goal is to encourage lawmakers to consider the creation of two distinct types of commercial licenses: one for primarily AI-generated music and one for primarily human-generated music. These licenses would not restrict creativity or use, but would simply recognize that different kinds of musical labor create value in very different ways. Put very plainly, if fully human-generated music earns 10, music generated primarily through AI prompting should earn something more like 1 — or less.

Call to action:
If you believe that how music is made should matter when it is monetized, we invite you to add your name in support.

Initiated by:
Mehmet Ali Sanlıkol
Composer · Performer · Scholar
Boston, MA, USA

Add your name in support below