Artificial intelligence was the main conversation at the National Music Publishers Association’s annual meeting in New York on Wednesday, as the trade organization announced during the event that it inked a licensing agreement with AI music generation platform Udio, a notable step as NMPA head David Israelite referred to the deal as the music business’s first industry wide licensing agreement with an AI music company.
The NMPA also announced an agreement with AI music startup Klay, which bills itself as a fan-powered platform that allows listeners to use AI to play with the music they’re listening to. Klay had previously announced deals with the big three record companies and music publishers.
“They’ve come to the table to bring creators in as business partners, as it should be,” Israelite said of Udio and Klay to the crowd on Wednesday. Israelite said its member publishers could review the agreement with Udio and decide if they’d like to join in next week.
Udio’s NMPA deal comes months after the AI music generation startup had settled lawsuits with UMG and WMG last Fall. Sony Music Group is still in litigation with Udio.
While Israelite had announced the deals, he told the crowd that the NMPA would continue to litigate against “bad actor” AI companies and emphasized his concern with AI’s impact on streaming fraud, calling upon industry stakeholders like streaming services to take action. He announced an upcoming “AI Songs Summit” in Nashville set for this September for the publishing industry to convene and align on AI policy.
Reflecting the sensitivity that still lies in the AI music conversation, a keynote between Israelite and Meta president and vice chair Dina Powell McCormick had elicited some groans as the discussion turned toward AI and gender equity at the workplace. McCormick recalled a new intern class at Meta this year and said she noticed that the men were more willing to use AI in their projects than women, and she encouraged the women interns to use AI as well to keep pace. When Israelite pointed out diversity issues in the music industry — women have long-been under-represented as songwriters, producers and executives at companies — McCormick suggested the women in music should use AI too.
Beyond the AI discussions, as she did last year, NMPA Danielle Aguirre touched on the impact of Spotify and Amazon Music’s controversial bundling strategy, where bundling music with audiobook offerings allows the streamers to pay out songwriters less in royalties. To date, Aguirre said the publishing business has lost nearly $500 million over the strategy. Still, she said, revenue was up this year to $7.3 billion.
Further, the NMPA honored several hitmakers during its meeting, including most-notably P!Nk, who performed acoustic renditions of her hit songs “Who Knew,” “What About Us,” and “Perfect.”
“Experiencing someone else’s words as your own, to me, is connection,” P!nk told the crowd before the performance as she reflected on her songwriting career. When I was a scrappy teenager from Doylestown, Pennsylvania, I did not write songs to win awards. I wrote songs because I had feelings. A truly alarming number of feelings… I wrote these feelings down. I set them to music and then screamed them into a microphone for the last 25 years.”
Rising country act Carter Faith, whose Cherry Valley was a THR editor’s pick for the best albums of 2025, started off the event with a performance of her song “Six String.”
Also honored Wednesday was producer-songwriter Julian Bunetta, whose hits include international smashes like Teddy Swims’ “Lose Control” and Sabrina Carpenter’s “Espresso.” Amber Mark performed a rendition of “Lose Control” in his honor.
Grammys CEO Harvey Mason Jr. was given the Industry Legacy Award as well, joining Israelite for a fireside chat, while Jordin Sparks surprised Mason afterward to perform “No Air,” her breakthrough hit he wrote.
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