Headlines
Sweden launches AI music licence to protect songwriters
Published by Global Banking and Finance Review
Posted on September 9, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 22, 2026
Global Banking and Finance Review
Company
Published by Global Banking and Finance Review
Posted on September 9, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 22, 2026
Sweden launches an AI music license to protect songwriters, ensuring royalties for AI use of copyrighted songs. Songfox is the first to adopt it.
(Reuters) -Sweden’s music rights organisation has introduced a licence that allows artificial intelligence companies to legally use copyrighted songs for training their models, while ensuring that songwriters and composers are paid.
The move announced by rights group STIM on Tuesday responds to a surge in generative AI usage across creative industries that has prompted lawsuits from artists, authors, and rights holders. The creators allege AI firms use copyrighted material without consent or compensation to train their models.
The licence developed by STIM, which represents more than 100,000 songwriters, composers, and music publishers, allows AI systems to train on copyrighted works while paying royalties to creators.
According to the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC), AI could reduce music creators’ income by up to 24% by 2028.
“We show that it is possible to embrace disruption without undermining human creativity. This is not just a commercial initiative but a blueprint for fair compensation and legal certainty for AI firms,” Lina Heyman, STIM's acting CEO, said in a statement.
By 2028, generative AI outputs in music could approach $17 billion annually, according to CISAC.
Sweden has previously set industry standards for platforms such as Spotify and TikTok, and the new licence includes mandatory technology to track AI-generated outputs, ensuring transparency and payments for creators.
Songfox, a Stockholm-based startup, is the first company to operate under the licence, allowing users to create legal AI-generated songs and covers.
(Reporting by Stine Jacobsen, Editing by William Maclean)
An AI music license allows artificial intelligence companies to use copyrighted songs legally for training their models while ensuring that songwriters receive compensation.
STIM is Sweden's music rights organization that represents songwriters, composers, and music publishers, facilitating the licensing of music rights.
CISAC, the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers, is an organization that advocates for the rights of creators and ensures they are compensated for their work.
Royalties are payments made to creators, such as songwriters and composers, for the use of their copyrighted works, ensuring they receive income from their creations.
Generative AI refers to artificial intelligence systems that can create new content, such as music, art, or text, based on the data they have been trained on.
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