SOCAN Policy on AI-Generated Outputs and AI-Assisted Works
What You Need to Know About Registering Your Works
As part of your SOCAN membership obligations, you have agreed to only register music that you own, and you will continue to be responsible for the accuracy of the information that is provided to SOCAN during the registration process, including authorship information. Only musical works that are protected by copyright may be registered.
With the rise of generative AI, it’s important to understand how this technology affects copyright and registration.
AI in Music Creation
There are two key ways AI can be involved in music creation:
- AI-Generated Outputs are created entirely by AI with little or no human input.
- AI-Assisted Works are created by a human using AI tools to help or enhance their work.
Only AI-Assisted Works can be registered with SOCAN.
What Can’t Be Registered
AI-Generated Outputs are not eligible for registration. These outputs do not express human creativity and cannot be protected by copyright. If you have mistakenly registered an AI-generated output with SOCAN, please contact us at members@socan.com to have those work registrations removed.
SOCAN may also remove AI-Generated Outputs at its discretion.
What Can Be Registered
AI-Assisted Works are allowed. These are original works created by a human, where AI is used as a tool. You don’t need to disclose how AI was used when registering your AI-Assisted Work with SOCAN.
The key is that the human author’s creativity must be central.
Registration Comes With Responsibility
When AI is used to create music compositions, it’s up to SOCAN members to carefully evaluate whether their music qualifies for registration. This includes understanding the difference between AI-Generated Outputs and AI-Assisted Works.
Members are responsible for ensuring that the works they register reflect their own creative input. If a work is incorrectly registered, the responsibility, and any potential liability, rests with the member.
Policy Updates
As AI technology and copyright law evolve, SOCAN may update this policy. Stay tuned for future changes.
Q & A
- What is generative AI?
Artificial intelligence (“AI”) tools have been used for years in the creation of music, such as programs used for sound recording, editing and mastering processes. Generative AI is a subset of AI. It is different from other AI tools because generative AI can generate a complete song – music and lyrics – in response to a written prompt from a user. The use of generative AI may have implications for what musical works you may and may not register with SOCAN.
- Is there copyright in songs created with AI?
It is convenient to categorize musical outputs that are created with generative AI tools in two categories: (i) AI-Generated Outputs and (ii) AI-Assisted Works.
AI-Generated Outputs are content autonomously generated by an AI tool, with minimal human input, such that these outputs do not convey the author’s own expression.
The general view at the current time is that there is no copyright in such AI-Generated Outputs. AI-Generated Outputs cannot be registered with SOCAN.
On the other hand, AI-Assisted Works are musical works authored by composers and songwriters with the assistance of AI tools. While the AI tools have participated in the creative process, they have not replaced the author. An AI-Assisted Work is a musical work of human authorship that is the expression of the composers or songwriters, and it is protected by copyright.
- Can I register a song created using generative AI?
Generative artificial intelligence can participate in the creation of musical content in different ways. For the purpose of registration, it is useful to distinguish between AI-Generated Outputs from AI-Assisted Works:
- AI-Generated Outputs are works autonomously generated by an AI tool, that do not contain protectable human expression.
- AI-Assisted Works are works authored by composers and songwriters where AI tools have been used as part of the creative process.
You cannot register an AI-Generated Output with SOCAN. Under Canadian law, a work must be creative expression resulting from the exercise of the skill and judgement of a human author to be protected by copyright. A fully AI-Generated Output does not meet this threshold.
The terms of the SOCAN Membership Agreement require that any musical work you register with us is created by you. A fully AI-Generated Output is not “created” by you, rather, it has been generated by the generative AI system. On the other hand, AI-Assisted Works are musical works of human authorship that are an expression of the composers’ and songwriters’ creativity with the assistance of AI tools and is a work protected by copyright. While the AI tools have been used in the creative process, they have not replaced the author. An AI-Assisted Work is registrable with SOCAN.
You are responsible for ensuring that your work is eligible for registration. SOCAN reserves the right to reject any work registrations that do not comply with the above requirements. SOCAN may also modify or update this guidance as the law develops.
If you are concerned that you may have registered an AI-Generated Output with SOCAN, please contact us at members@socan.com to remove the work from our catalogue.
- How do I register a song where generative AI was used to create part of the song? Do I need to credit the generative AI portions?
There are no requirements to credit generative AI portions at this time. Where generative AI is involved in the creative process, the resulting musical works must be the author’s own expression and the product of their skill and judgement. Such musical works can be registered as any other works of authorship by crediting the contributing human authors. Where the works are generated solely by means of generative AI tools, they are not registrable. In all cases, you are responsible for ensuring that the musical works you seek to be registered are eligible for registration.
- What are the risks of submitting an AI-Generated Output as if I created it myself?
Submitting an AI-Generated Output as your own is a breach of your obligations to accurately record your rights with SOCAN. The terms of the SOCAN Membership Agreement require that any musical work you register with us is created by you. A fully AI-Generated Output is not “created” by you, rather, it has been generated by the generative AI system. Preserving the integrity of the SOCAN’s repertoire is in the interest of all members and is an essential condition to the effective collective management of your musical rights.
- What are the risks of sharing my lyrics or compositions with an AI service?
If you are using an AI system you must read the company’s terms of service or terms of use to determine if they will claim any rights to content that you submit into the system, including whether they can reuse the content for other purposes or what rights you are granting them by sharing your lyrics and compositions with them. In certain cases, by entering your own musical works, you may be granting a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to the AI developer to use the shared lyrics or music for the training of its own AI model. The terms of service may also place restrictions on what use you can make of content generated by you when you use the AI system to generate output. For example, some AI developers may prohibit commercial use of their AI-generated outputs.
- What AI services are training their models in an ethically responsible manner?
Some AI companies are training their AI models by ingesting copyright-protected musical works without permission from, compensation for, or credit to, music creators. There are other AI companies that operate ethically, to ensure that music creators benefit from the use of their products or models. Examples of these companies can be found on https://www.fairlytrained.org/certified-models.
- If I composed the music but the lyrics were generated by AI, what part can I register?
SOCAN’s position is that an AI-Assisted Work may be registered with us. An AI-Assisted Work means a work that has substantial human input and the author uses generative AI systems as a tool to assist, help or augment their original musical work. An AI-Assisted Work can be registered with SOCAN, though we rely on our membership to ensure the work they are registering reflects the skill and judgment of their authorship.
- Is it enough to slightly modify an AI-Generated Output to claim it as my own creation?
The modification made to an AI-Generated Output must be substantial enough that the resulting work evidences an exercise of skill and judgment emanating from the author. It depends on the circumstances, but slightly modifying an AI-Generated Output is unlikely to meet this legal threshold.