Licensing AI Output
License the part you actually made, and keep uncertain rights out of the contract
Related
The problem
The most dangerous sentence in a contract for AI-generated music is a warranty that the work infringes no third-party rights. You cannot honestly give it, because you do not control the training data and you have not searched the world's repertoire for similarity. What you can give is a promise about what you actually did.
How it works
A finished track stacks several rights. The work itself, melody, harmony and lyrics, a particular performance, a particular recording, and the editing and production. A public-domain work is free to use, but a new arrangement, a new performance and a new recording may each generate rights. AI output sits outside that structure, and its protectability is itself contested, so what you hand a client is closer to a licence to use this audio plus an assignment of your own contribution, not a clean transfer of copyright. What clients need to know is whether they can use it, whether it may be taken down, and who bears the loss; warranties, indemnities and insurance allocate that.
Practice
Write three things separately. The scope of the licence, media, territory, term, exclusivity and sublicensing. The disclosure obligation, which tools were used, which parts a person made, whether synthetic voice is present. The allocation of responsibility, what you cover, such as known third-party material and sample licences you signed, and what the client covers, such as the context of use and versions they alter. Phrase warranties as facts you can verify, for example "a search to the best of my knowledge found no substantial similarity" or "all samples used are licensed", and state the method and extent of that search. Cap indemnities, commonly at the contract value, and confirm enforceability under local law. When a client asks for exclusivity or a buyout, first confirm that you hold the rights to grant it.
What to listen for
In the live Ballade, how composition, performance and recording stack. In the remaster, how mastering produces another version. In the Gymnopedie score, the original itself, with your production placed beside it. In Homage to Satie, how close a style can come, a reminder that similarity and infringement are two separate questions to be answered separately.
Listen in the library
All tracks from midicn-lib — inline badge is the license tier (C1 commercial / C2 non-commercial / C3 study only).
Sources
- 音乐授权中的权利层次，依公开行业说明归纳，未作法律结论
- 保证与赔偿条款的常见写法，依公开合同通识核对，未抄文本
Used for fact-checking only; all prose is original.