What country stars really think about that AI-generated country ‘hit’; The Washington Post, December 28, 2025

 Emily Yahr, The Washington Post; What country stars really think about that AI-generated country ‘hit’

"“Walk My Walk,” a track from an act called Breaking Rust, landed at No. 1 on the magazine’s country digital song sales list. It didn’t take long for journalists to realize that Breaking Rust didn’t appear to be human; Billboard referred to it as a “AI-powered country act,” and one of several “AI artists” on its charts.

“Can listeners tell the difference?” CNN wondered, taking the question to people on the street. “Does it matter?”

It’s an issue that has been roiling the music industry lately, even after years of media consolidation and format changes that had already made it harder for real singers and songwriters to earn a living.

The alarm bells grew louder in 2025 as artificial intelligence became more pervasive, but the Breaking Rust episode was a particular focal point for Nashville anxieties; Tennessee was the first state to sign into law the Elvis Act, which protects singers from their voices being copied by AI."

Privacy Laws and Listener Data in the Music Industry; Inside Counsel, March 2, 2017

Adrian J. Perry and Sari Sharoni, Inside Counsel; 

Privacy Laws and Listener Data in the Music Industry

"Whether and how state privacy laws across the United States apply to the collection and sharing of listener preference data could have a profound effect on not only the ability of music streaming services to deliver their content to listeners, but on the future of music and the music industry generally.

A recent U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit decision, in which the court dismissed a proposed class action suit against Pandora for disclosure of listener music preferences in violation of Michigan's Preservation of Personal Privacy Act (PPPA), shed light on the uncertainty looming over the music industry from the prospect of state privacy law placing constraints on the alienability of this valuable data.

The Michigan PPPA, in relevant part, prohibits a business engaged in selling, renting, or lending sound recordings from knowingly disclosing to anyone information that personally identifies a particular customer as having purchased, leased, rented, or borrowed those sound recordings from that business. The question before the Ninth Circuit was whether this statute could be construed to prohibit Pandora, a music streaming service with both paid and ad-supported unpaid options, from disclosing listener preference data."