Matt Connarton Unleashed 6-13-26 hour 2

0:00 Speaker 1: W m n h rips the nobles.

0:05 Speaker 2: We're back from the brands.

0:08 Speaker 3: No Tonald Selma, are.

1:00 Speaker 4: You able to.

1:04 Speaker 3: From the tangleness you.

1:12 Speaker 5: Despite boriest, We really have to take the fall to know it someing we to.

1:30 Speaker 2: Don't let any will tell you not a part of the den.

1:41 Speaker 5: Feeling the hands dares poosh the stone.

2:00 Speaker 4: Let's breadless and turn aloud.

2:05 Speaker 3: Don't be boll can be.

2:13 Speaker 4: We pushed it off but to the edge, made page.

2:22 Speaker 1: To leave bagin to.

2:30 Speaker 4: Don't let edy W tells we're not. Don't let any tell us we're not. Don't let ny W tells we're not.

2:44 Speaker 2: The p of thing boy.

3:05 Speaker 6: He hey, no, it's all anosious.

3:41 Speaker 7: This new.

3:44 Speaker 8: To the always be.

3:48 Speaker 4: We go in deeper spare the always bending.

3:57 Speaker 2: We crawled from darkness and.

3:59 Speaker 9: Were I really like that a lot? That is the awakening by ex Animal and we are supposed to, uh, if you're listening live on Saturday, we're supposed to have Claude from X Animal with us but joining us remotely online. But unfortunately he seems to be I think he's having an issue connecting on his end. It's not a problem with us, but oh wait a minute, this might be him on the phone. Actually, let me see. Oh, nobody there. Okay, someone was calling the phone line. But yeah, so we are having a little bit of a trouble, A little bit of a trouble, A little bit of a problem, A little bit of trouble.

5:19 Speaker 9: Uh with that. So again, I'm pretty sure it's on his end. Let's see who's this? This might be him calling using the studio line as a backup.

5:28 Speaker 10: Hello is this man?

5:31 Speaker 9: Yes, who's this?

5:33 Speaker 10: This is Ricky Mapleton.

5:35 Speaker 9: Oh hey, Ricky, what's up?

5:37 Speaker 10: I Am just going to see how you're doing the show? Is your show is amazing in the great world of Matt Conaton.

5:46 Speaker 9: Oh, well, thank you, I appreciate that. I appreciate that. Yeah, we're we have a guest who's going to be joining us remotely, Claude from Ex Animal, But he's having a little bit of trouble connecting, so I might have to play another song and we'll see if we can get him on the line. But how have you been anything anything going on? Anything to promote.

6:02 Speaker 10: I'm in production of Scream Oh Sports Songs Part two?

6:06 Speaker 9: Oh really?

6:07 Speaker 10: And the rumor is that the soccer Chance song maybe getting played on World Cup. I'm hoping really that would be that would be the greatest moment of Ricky Mapleton's career if it pops up during a stadium game or a quick chance. Uh, you know, as the World cupany is being played.

6:29 Speaker 9: Yes.

6:30 Speaker 10: Uh so besides besides that, working with a rap artist named I Drop, trying to go that direction a little bit on a separate project More Today Today Sound as scary as it may be, and I'm working on something called rock doesn't lie back to the Kiss. The kiss section really of rock reality. Yes, so that's a lot of the lot in the mix. Oh, very cool.

6:56 Speaker 9: No, that's all. That's all exciting. Where do I find that?

7:00 Speaker 11: Oh?

7:00 Speaker 9: Wait a minute, I'm trying to look at it because I think I'm gonna play it. Uh, the soccer chant song, it's under screen. Oh, I'm looking for it because I know, I know we have it because we've played it before. Oh I found it. Yeah, maybe we'll play this if I can't, you know, if I can't get Claude on the line with us, because I think he's having a technical problem on his end, we might play the soccer chant song from Screamo Sports. Well, I do love it. I mean it's it's really good. All right, thank you, Ricky Mapleton, take care bye bye.

7:31 Speaker 9: Oh well, well that's cool. I'm really excited about Screamo Sports Songs Part two. Let's go ahead and play this and we'll see what happens if we are joined by Claude from X Animal. And if it doesn't work out, it doesn't work out, we can always pivot.

7:44 Speaker 12: Uh.

7:44 Speaker 9: We've got the Joy Thieves coming up in the third hour, of course. But here here's an interlude. Let's listen to this. This is a lot of fun. The soccer chant song from Screamo Sports Songs by the great Ricky Mapleton. Apparently it's Screamo Sports Songs Part one because it is part two coming. Can't wait, dear, but check this out. This is fun Boo.

8:06 Speaker 2: Boo boost foo.

8:10 Speaker 6: Boo po foo.

8:13 Speaker 2: Foopo fos boo boos.

8:17 Speaker 13: Laying on the bench, scribble down between my legs, sta bush.

8:26 Speaker 6: In the bag.

8:28 Speaker 2: It's time for a yellow car summer song. Boozoo boo boost fool.

8:43 Speaker 5: Boos po foo.

8:46 Speaker 2: Boopo foo poo boo boost.

8:50 Speaker 13: Time for our corner kicks ball mys up in the air, two heads collide, red card comes out, sign for up corner cats.

9:14 Speaker 2: Boom, muhold.

9:23 Speaker 9: Side it up, He's it square.

9:31 Speaker 13: Upright corner.

9:34 Speaker 4: He shoots at storm.

9:46 Speaker 3: Mushold.

9:55 Speaker 9: How cool is that? The soccer chant song by the great Ricky Mapleton. I love that. So, if you are just joining us, this is Matt Connorton Unleashed and we are live from the studios of wm NH ninety five point three FM in Glorious A, Manchester, New Hampshire. It's hot, but it is glorious. I like the heat. If you don't know, a lot of people don't, I'm just strange. But of course today is Saturday, June thirteen, twenty twenty six. We are of course from the studios of wm and H ninety five point three FM, and you can stream the show from anywhere.

10:28 Speaker 9: Go to Matt connorton dot com slash live for all of your live streaming options, social media links, contact info, show archives, et cetera, et cetera. Hey, a little bit of music news that caught my eye. And then we've got a couple of Uh, we'll see if Claude is able to join us, but I don't think it's gonna happen. So, but we also have a couple of world radio premieres to feature this week. We did it in the first hour, but if you miss it, we're gonna do it again in our number two that is coming up.

10:55 Speaker 9: But right now, I do want to look at this. This is from music Businessworldwide dot com, one of my favorite websites for music industry news, which we do a lot of here on the show. But this story caught my eye, not only because it's some very interesting music industry news and the base of the story is interesting for a couple of reasons, but it's also one of these things where you go, why would anyone try to do this and think that they can get away with it? Yes, this story does involve a fraud and much of fraud.

11:28 Speaker 9: It's like why does why does anyone think that they're going to get away with this? It's like bank robberies. You know, you ever you ever hear or see a news story about a bank robbery in twenty twenty six, and you think, why does anyone think that they can rob a bank and they're going to somehow get away with it. It's not gonna happen. You're not gonna get away with robbing a bank. So this is one of those things you ready for this. Napster's three billion dollar investor charged with fraud, as US authorities say the money never existed.

12:02 Speaker 9: Oops, somebody thought they were gonna get away with it. I guess I don't know. I don't know what they were trying to do. Let's look at this and again, this is from Music Businessworldwide dot com says your US authorities have charged a North Carolina man with fraud, alleging that he used forged bank records and a fake banking website to obtain hundreds of millions of shares in Napster owner Infinite Infinite Reality without paying a cent. An indictment, unsealed on Thursday, June eleven, charges that Charles Cole of Mooresville, North Carolina, with wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and conspiracy to commit securities fraud.

12:49 Speaker 9: That's a lot of fraud. He also faces a parallel civil complaint from the US Securities and Exchange Commission the SEC, which charges him alongside his lawyer, attorney Torbin Welch, with and three entities he controlled. Okay, so that's where the conspiracy part of the fraud comes in. The fraud part is clear. Now, we also know where the conspiracy is. The case centers on Infinite Reality, the Florida based technology company that acquired Napster in twenty twenty five and later took on its name.

13:20 Speaker 9: In mid twenty twenty four, the company was seeking to raise around three hundred and fifty million dollars, and a broker introduced it to Coal as someone who could help facilitate the investment. The indictment states Cole first proposed handing over a one billion dollar bond in exchange for three hundred and fifty million dollars of stock, but his attempts to monetize it failed. He then told the company he wanted to buy billions of dollars worth of shares, directly submitting documents if falsely claimed a fifty million dollar annual income and an eight hundred million dollar net worth.

13:57 Speaker 9: Prosecutors allege again, there's more to this, but again, I just whenever I see something or hear something like this, it's like, how did this person think they were going to get away with this? Cole and Welch falsely told Infinite Reality that Coal or Avnok controlled at least fifty five billion dollars in assets. The sec alleges. When payments failed to arrive, Cole allegedly told Infinite Reality that he held billions of dollars at a second bank, this one in Malaysia, and that he had opened an account there in the company's name.

14:35 Speaker 9: One fabricated letter claimed Cole was quote ready, willing and able to fully fund the transfer of how do I even read this three billion, three hundred and sixty million dollars. According to the indictment, the account, however, was a fiction. Coal and a co conspirator had a step. By the way, what's the what's the point of the word co conspirator? Can't you just say conspirator? A conspiracy has to have more than one person, So why do we need co conspirator? Why can't we just say conspirator? What's the difference?

15:15 Speaker 9: Sorry, longtime listeners know, I get fixated on things like that. Cole and a co conspirator had established offshore servers hosting a fake website that mirrored the real banks site, allowing users to quote log in to fabricated accounts. The indictment states Cole repeatedly asked a Cone a co conspirator, whether the server hosting the mirror was up and running so that we can add an account and go live. According to the indictment, Infinite Reality executives received a fake welcome email, logged in and saw what looked like a funded account.

15:58 Speaker 9: Prosecutors allege in all if Finite Reality issued Cole and his entities at least two hundred and thirty nine million shares. The indictment states. Jake Clayton, us attorney, said, quote as alleged, Charles Cole built a fiction of wealth using fake bank records, sham correspondence, and a fraudulent bank website, then use that fiction to obtain hundreds of millions of shares with no intention of paying for them unquote. He also said, quote fraud is flaw. A fraud is flaw, a fraud, whether in our public markets or our private markets unquote.

16:34 Speaker 9: By the way, I assume he's saying that, because I mean, and that should be obvious frauds fraud. But you know, there are people and I'm not someone who does this, but there are people who will take the perspective of and you see this more and more of well, it's just somebody stealing from a big company, so that that makes it okay. People will kind of justify that that makes it okay if you're ripping off big company, you're ripping off a corporation who cares. But again, fraud is fraud, and that might be a good thing to remind people like this guy, Charles Cole, who again, how did he think that he wasn't going to get caught?

17:15 Speaker 9: Kenny On's an unusual name. Kenny larco Ward, the inspector in charge of the New York Field office of the US Postal Inspection Service, said, quote, mister Cole allegedly defrauded an unsuspecting company through a series of lies and misrepresentations unquote. It says here Cole never invested any money and instead used the shares as collateral to borrow from lenders. The indictment states, in May twenty twenty five, a US lender loaned one million dollars against nearly forty five million of the shares, with the proceeds passing through an account held by Cole's then attorney before roughly two hundred and eighty thousand was withdrawn.

17:58 Speaker 9: The SEC identified that attorney as Welch In alleges that he secured the loan by providing forged documents to verify Cole's wealth and giving the lender false assurances. Cole later like, what's the point of all? Like, is it just again? I know I'm editorializing a lot here, but I just I wonder about this. Are these people just crazy? These conspirators, They couldn't, Like, no rational human being could possibly think that they're going to get away with this. Anything that you do leaves a digital footprint, leaves breadcrumbs.

18:33 Speaker 9: You can't possibly get away with anything like this. You can't. And I'm sure somewhere there's a story of someone who pulled off a grandiose scheme like this and got away with it. Okay, but the odds are so incredibly low. I mean, how did these people think they had a shot at getting away with this? They have to be insane. These are not mentally well people to even attempt this scheme. In my opinion, it says here and again this is from a music businessworldwide dot com. Cole later tried to acquire still more shares through a tender offer, fabricating a screenshot of an eleven billion dollar balance and an account that did not exist.

19:22 Speaker 9: Prosecutors alleged Cole even directed a co conspirator to fix mismatched formatting on the forged statements so they would match all the others, according to the indictment. The scheme unraveled in March twenty twenty six when Infinite Reality rescinded all the shares it had issued to Coal and his entities. As Music Business Worldwide reported in March twenty twenty five, Infinite Reality acquired Napster in a two hundred and seven million dollar deal, weeks after announcing what it described as a three billion dollar funding round from an unnamed private investor.

19:59 Speaker 9: The money never arrived, and prosecutors now led to the investor behind it, Cole, never had the funds he promised. Napster launched in nineteen ninety nine as a file sharing service before being shut down following a wave of copyright lawsuits, and the brand has changed hands repeatedly as a licensed streaming service and by the way, Napster again. When we talk about, you know, the changes in the music industry and everything right now, the big change is AI AI is causing a lot of upheopal in the music industry.

20:30 Speaker 9: But back then, in nineteen ninety nine into the early two thousands, it was Napster. I was working for Transworld Entertainment at the time. I was a store manager. Trans World owned at that time Strawberries, which eventually got bought. Well actually this was before trans World owned it. Strawberries was a separate company. But anyway, it was a music store, so we sold CDs and Jesus at that time we staw had cassette tapes, but we were mostly selling CDs, so we were selling music. So when Napster showed up, like there was an and this is not hyperbolic, this is absolute fact.

21:03 Speaker 9: There was what could only be described as panic in the industry, both on the retail side of it and all throughout the music industry. There was panic because it was like Napster comes along, and you can and it was the harbinger of what we have now. But you know, the music industry really had to adapt here, and it took a long time, but there was panic. Napster comes along, and I remember having conversations with people about this where I said, you know, so I guess music is just free. Now music is free, so this changes everything And there was absolute panic, all right, So it was my little Napster sidebar.

21:43 Speaker 9: It says here. In twenty eleven it merged with the subscription platform Rhapsody, and operated under the Rhapsody name in the US until rebranding re rebranding to Napster again in twenty sixteen. It was sold to virtual reality company Melody VR in a seven million dollars deal in twenty twenty, then to hive Mind Capital Partners and cryptocurrency firm Algorand in twenty twenty two before the Infinite Reality acquisition in twenty twenty five. The case has been assigned to US District Court Judge Vernon S. Broderick, with Cole presented in the Western District of North Carolina on Thursday.

22:22 Speaker 9: The wire fraud and wire fraud conspiracy counts each carry a maximum sentence of twenty years in prison, while the securities fraud conspiracy counts carry a maximum of five years. The DOJ said. The full indictment also seeks the forfeiture if any proceeds col made from the alleged scheme. The charges are allegations, and Cole is presented innocent is I'm sorry, presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty. So there you go. But again, like, how does somebody do this and think that they have any shot of getting away with it.

22:52 Speaker 9: It's it's truly, truly remarkable. If you are just joining us, this is Matt Connorton Unleashed. We've got a couple of world premieres for you this week. Our friend Aaron Billado who will be here with us in studio on July eleven. Can't wait to see him. Hopefully he'll come in and play live for us. But he's got a brand new album called Lid Liquor and the first single is called the Passenger and we're gonna play that for you. And of course we also have the new track from the band Anthems. It's called Afterglow.

23:19 Speaker 9: Absolutely love it. They will be on the show soon as well. I can pope. I can promise you that. And there is some audio I was not expecting. If you heard that that little okay, it's gone live radio, my friends. All right, here we go this week's world radio premieres. And don't forget we've got the Joy Thieves coming up in the third hour.

23:43 Speaker 12: You're listening to Matt Connorton Unleashed on WM and H ninety five point three.

23:57 Speaker 9: This week on Matt Connorton Unleashed, we have two exclusive world radio premieres for you. You will only hear these on w m n H ninety five point three f M up first from his new album Lid Liquor. This is Aaron Billado with the Passenger.

24:37 Speaker 4: A little bit every day and.

24:40 Speaker 7: Wait until the Scott Ray the passenger.

24:47 Speaker 2: That I can see in.

24:52 Speaker 7: Sad clovery. It don't matter what.

25:41 Speaker 9: I said, that's clos Now we have another exclusive world radio premiere. You heard it here first on Matt connorton Unleashed w m n H ninety five point three FM. The new single from Anthems available June nineteen. This is called Afterglow.

27:29 Speaker 2: I can't excide. Whenever I'm thinking, I shry to hide.

27:40 Speaker 2: Maybe try and hide it so hide. She's got a win. Hide.

27:51 Speaker 2: My name is Cridad.

27:55 Speaker 3: The sigence tells me how three day.

28:01 Speaker 4: I don't even guys.

28:04 Speaker 2: Don side of the I don't hate then never never, never,

28:33 Speaker 2: try't even try it, cause you start over the lode of Yeah. I can by it. That's excited deep inside of me. Get a crying when you signs.

28:43 Speaker 4: Tell me that right today.

28:45 Speaker 2: You know I don't need to li guy, get excited.

28:54 Speaker 4: The I don't need to no, I know mins never,

29:31 Speaker 4: I don't need then don't sign them.

29:39 Speaker 2: I don't need try to sign.

29:47 Speaker 4: I don't need then.

29:49 Speaker 9: I can't sign in the.

29:54 Speaker 4: I don't MISSU.

30:14 Speaker 9: This is Matt connorton Unleashed. We are live from the studios of WMNH ninety five point three FM, and uh we got some uh some great stuff coming up in the third hour today. The Joy Thieves will be our guest and they are a supergroup. I'm just gonna go ahead and tell you right now a little bit about them, because there is a lot. There is a lot of this group. When I say they're a supergroup. Here's here's some of the people who are involved in this project. Actually this is right from their website.

30:47 Speaker 9: Who are the Thieves? The Joy Thieves are an ever growing, ever changing collective of musicians. The following is a list of verified members, along with a list of some of the other musical projects in which they have been involved. Amy Abermite from Mary's Window, Scott David Allen from a Covenant of Thorns and The Burying Kind, Steven Archer from Ego Likeness, Stoneburner, Tessa Acid I'm not sure how to say that from Designer Violence, Dave Betcha Batcha from Love Lines, Bleeding, Julian Beeston, who has played with Knitzer, Ebb, Bob Marley, Billy Idol, William, Orbit, Gravity Kills, Flood and others.

31:31 Speaker 9: Howie Beino, who has played with Ministry, Black, Asteroid, Silver Relics, Depeche Mode, Red Hot, Chili Peppers, Mary's Window, Sheep On Drugs, Screw, thirteen MG, and Blondie. There's just wow. This is a really long list. So this is more than a supergroup, this is like a super collective. So I'm really looking forward to that. So the Joy Thieves coming up in the third hour, and the music is really really good right now, though, you know, we were talking about this earlier. A little more music industry news for you.

32:06 Speaker 9: This is from Digital Musicnews dot Com, again one of my favorite websites for music industry news, and this relates to something that we were talking on the show about very recently. You know, because in the AI era and as we watch how AI is affecting the music industry or infecting the music industry depending on your point of view, there's a and again we were even talking about this. Well, we touched on on this a little bit with UH with Mick from Corners of Sanctuary, in the first hour. But AI is really causing a lot of One of the things that people are concerned with with AI, it's not just that you're able to easily generate really professional, well produced music with just a few prompts, like with apps like Suno and whatnot.

32:51 Speaker 9: So obviously people are concerned about musicians being replaced by AI. You know, a lot of people are worried about their jobs losing their jobs to AI in various ways as we see the acceleration of automation and all of these things. But you wouldn't necessarily if it's not something that if the music industry isn't something you're actively thinking about. And I know we have a lot of listeners of this show who are involved in the music industry, But if you're outside of it and you're not necessarily thinking about it, you wouldn't particularly be worried about musicians necessarily having their jobs replaced by AI.

33:23 Speaker 9: But if you are a musician or you're in the music industry in any capacity, you are thinking about this. But there's also an increased potential for fraud for people pretending to be who they're not, impersonating celebrities. We talked about that recently on the show on TikTok Ai impersonations of Taylor Swift, for example, selling memberships to some service on TikTok And then you wonder, well, if you're a discerning person using logic and reason, you might wonder, why would Taylor Swift, who has all the money in the world and is so hugely successful, a global icon, why is she on tiko talk selling memberships?

34:01 Speaker 9: Because it's not really Taylor Swift. It's AI generated, but it's it wants you to think it's Taylor Swift. It's fraud. So Spotify, we talked about this on the show. Spotify has they've got this new artist profile protection thing where if you're an artist on Spotify, if you have music on Spotify, you can become verified. It's similar to what other social media platforms have done, like you know x formerly Twitter you can be verified. You can do something like that on Facebook now too. For your business you can be verified.

34:36 Speaker 9: I don't know if Facebook calls it verified or if they call it something else. I can't remember, but it costs money, so I haven't done it. But now they have it for artists, so you can be a verified artist. And what this is supposed to prevent In theory, is somebody say, somebody wants to pretend that they're Tailor's Swift and they create some music, presumably during using AI, some AI generated tracks that sound like Taylor Swift, and then they upload them to Spotify and they call themselves Taylor Swift, but they're not really Taylor Swift.

35:10 Speaker 9: It's supposed to help to prevent that, but is it working? And this question this article asks that question from Digital Musicnews dot com. Is Spotify's artist profile protection actually working? Fans confused after Bridget Mendler's new EP appears. So let's see what's going on here, it says. Bridget Mendler says a SURPRISEEP attributed to her on Spotify and Apple Music is not her, raising questions about streaming platforms efforts to curb AI impersonators. Last week, fans of former Disney Channel star Bridget Mendler were thrilled to see she had released a new EP titled Once Again, on Spotify and Apple Music, but Mendler confirmed on social media that the release it wasn't her, raising concerns about streamer's efforts to prevent AI impersonation.

36:06 Speaker 9: Sorry to disappoint everyone. The Spotify release wasn't me, wrote Mendler on the former Twitter on Wednesday. When it is, trust me, you'll know, oh boy. Spotify confirmed that the fakep had been removed from the platform. Here's what Spotify spokesperson had to say about this quote. Protecting artist's identities is a top priority for us, and we continue to invest heavily in detection and prevention. Spotify is the only streaming service to offer artist profile protection, currently available in beta, which lets artists opt in to review and approve or decline incoming releases before they go live on their profile unquote, which seems like a pretty simple system.

36:52 Speaker 9: Actually, you know, a lot of this stuff is complicated, and I always worry about people getting caught in the net. For example, when we talk about software that can detect AI and then either block that track or that content or label it as AI and so it's not monetizable on YouTube, for example, things like that, I always worry about people getting caught in the net, people who are actually making quote unquote legitimate content or legitimate music, but they get tagged as AI when in fact, for example, if you're making music, you know, any modern recording studio has programs has software in it that they're working with that uses AI in some way, so you know there's there's going to be error there.

37:35 Speaker 9: This system seems like it would be pretty foolproof, though. If you are a verified artist on Spotify, if someone uploads something with your name on it, you're going to get an email. I presume this is how it works from Spotify saying hey, is this you do you approve this, and then you either approve it or you deny it, and if you deny it, it doesn't go up. That seems like a really simple system, but it is in beta and apparently there are already problems with it because it did not work for Bridget Mendler.

38:09 Speaker 9: Okay, so let me just read that part again. But this is from the uh. This is what the spokesperson said.

38:21 Speaker 9: The system lets the artists opt in to review and approve or decline incoming releases before they go live on their profile. So it says here that implies that Mendler had not opted in to Spotify's artist profile protection, making her an easy target for impersonation. Okay, so she didn't opt in the former Wizards of Waverley Place star hasn't released new music. Since her four track EP Nemesis in twenty sixteen, followed by a single Driving in twenty seventeen. Okay, so she hasn't been active. I assume she's doing more acting.

38:56 Speaker 9: Maybe I don't know. I don't know anything about her, but she hasn't been active in terms of release music in almost a decade. So it makes sense. And you know, this is a relatively new thing, this artist profile verification, So I can see how she would have fallen through the cracks here. So it says here in fact, Mendler stepped away from the entertainment industry. Oh, she's not even acting. She stepped away from the entertainment industry to focus on her college education and pursue a career in tech.

39:24 Speaker 9: Oh okay. Now she's the co founder and CEO of Northwood Space and Aerospace communications startup launched in twenty twenty three. Okay, so she's out of the game completely. Given Mendler's pivot away from music, it seems she was ripe for Ai impersonation. Since she had presumably not opted into Spotify's beta service to protect her profile and was not focused on releasing new music, her presence was easier to mimic than someone actively involved and with a massive following like Taylor Swift or Ariana Grande Weather.

39:58 Speaker 9: Spotify's efforts to protect artists with artists Profile Protection will ultimately make a difference in curbing bad actors remains to be seen, since currently artists must opt into the service once the feature enjoys a wider rollout, and artists are not required to opt in. Such functionality could make a massive difference. Hopefully, Spotify as plans to expand the release so that artists like Mendler who aren't actively engaging with their streaming presence can rest easy knowing they won't be the target of AI deep fakes.

40:28 Speaker 9: Okay, I but I have a question, why can't you, like, why does it have to be something you have to opt in for? It just seems to me, wouldn't it not be the easiest thing in the world to just make it so that whoever the artist profile is registered to, they get And I mean, jeez, we all have two step verification now just to log in to our email or whatever, right or to social media, Like, there's all kinds of stuff now to verify things when you're logging into things. Why can't there be something and maybe if they opt into the artist's profile protection, maybe there's even an additional step.

41:10 Speaker 9: But why can't there be something basic where if it's your account, if it's your name, and someone is uploading something with your name on it, you automatically get an email saying, hey, just making sure this is you and that you approve of this. Why does it have to be something you have to opt into, because again, this is a problem. And you know, I thought this sounded like a great idea the first time we talked about it on the show, but yeah, there is a great giant gaping hole in this whole thing.

41:38 Speaker 9: Right, if you're not someone who's actively making new music and you're not paying attention to what's going on on Spotify because you're you don't have anything new to put there, then yeah, then you're ripe for this kind of thing. She hasn't put out new music since twenty seventeen, so they're gonna have to figure it out and listen again, this is in beta, and hopefully they will figure it out. But that's that's crazy. So another just quick thing because we are running out of time in the first hour.

42:13 Speaker 9: But this relates to another thing we talked about recently on the show about who owns your voice, and we talked about this with that whole that story we did. Maybe it was a month ago, the estate of Johnny Cash suing Coca Cola because Coca Cola had some commercials that there's a guy singing in the commercial that kind of sounds a little like Johnny Cash, but to me, did not sound enough like Johnny Cash to you know, to justify the claim that the estate was making in their lawsuit that Coca Cola intentionally hired a sound alike singer to fool people into thinking that it was Johnny Cash's voice in the commercial.

42:58 Speaker 9: To me, it's somebody singing kind of in the style of Donny Caspers. Doesn't sound like him. But that opened up a discussion on the show about your voice, owning your voice. You know, obviously everyone you know, whether you're doing anything creative or not or you know, it doesn't matter who you are, you own the rights to your own likeness. You know, somebody can't just take and use your likeness, a visual image of you and just use it for whatever they want to, right, That's that's illegal. You own your likeness no matter who you are.

43:30 Speaker 9: Whether you're famous not famous, whatever, you own your likeness. You own what you create, you own your own. If you great music, you own your music. If you create something else, you own it. You own that right. But what about your voice? What about your voice? And there was something that came up on the show several months ago. I can't remember the name of the company, but Scarlett Johanson was suing a company that had an app that they created. They wanted Scarlett Johansson's voice to be the voice of the app.

43:57 Speaker 9: She said, no, next thing, you know, you can hear her voice on the app because apparently they hired an actress who whose voice sounded very similar to that of Scarlett Johanson, or at least this is what they claimed. But she was claiming that, no, they just made an AI generated version of my voice. So she sued them and I think she won or they settled or something. But who owns your voice? And it is tricky. It is tricky because some people sound similar. You know, you might think you have a very distinctive voice.

44:27 Speaker 9: Nobody else sounds like you. But guess what, there's somebody out there who does. This is from Digital Musicnews dot Com. This is fascinating to me. And again, I don't think any of this were we not in the AI era, and very early in the AI era of things, I don't think any of this would be happening, including what I'm about to read here from Digital Musicnews dot Com. I don't think any of this would be happening were we not in the AI era. Lionel Richie moves to trademark his voice, filing sound mark application for easy like Sunday Morning and more.

45:03 Speaker 9: By the way, a sound mark application with the Trademark Office. That's usually for things like, you know, you can trademark sounds. I mean, obviously you can trademark songs, but you can also trademark other things like du that belongs to NBC, that's their you know, little song that you might hear at the end of a show, or something you know you can. But he's actually filing a trademark application, a sound mark application, specifically for his voice, it says here in the era of voice trademarks upon us.

45:35 Speaker 9: It seems that way as Lionel Richie has become the latest entertainment professional to file related applications amid AI's rapid expansion. Specifically, Richie moved to obtain the trademarks yesterday, joining the likes of Taylor Swift and Matthew McConaughey, both of whom have sought voice and Likeness trademarks as of late. According to the filings, Richie is specifically seeking sound marks for snippets of his famed song lyrics Hello is it me? You're looking for say you say me? Easy? Like Sunday Morning and all night long.

46:06 Speaker 9: Unsurprisingly, all the applications mention a man saying the lyrics and connection with, among other things, entertainment, information services, stage performances, interviews, and related websites. These specific usages aside, it's not a secret that the aforesaid AI, which is pumping out all manner of sound alike and look like media, played a key part in Richie submitting the applications. But will they receive USPTO approval? If so, how exactly would the four time Grammy winner look to protect his IP intellectual property undercurrent trademark law.

46:42 Speaker 9: See, we're in't a whole new realm here. There's a lot of lawyers. But boy, what a great time to be an attorney. They're going to make a lot of money in the AI era. Admittedly, again getting back to the article here, admittedly we lack definitive answers here on the former front. Gurban Ip pointed to the possibility of Richie and others encountering significant legal hurdles with the here to four Little Seeing applications. A few adjacent questions, as these applications are seeking to protect actual voices.

47:14 Speaker 9: What happens when and this is my question that I keep raising, what happens when similar sounding entertainers come along? Is this a first come, first served situation that will leave future generations out of luck? And what of existing voice overlap among public figures generally? Nevertheless, McConaughey has already secured several trademarks is Hey Hey Hey application was filed back in twenty twenty three. Furthermore, despite the enforceability questions, it's always possible that voice and likeness trademarks will prove useful in courtroom confrontations down the line.

47:55 Speaker 9: That ties back to another unknown how the NIL focus will evolve in the approaching years between the AI and music related music investment explosions. It seems safe to say that there's never been a bigger emphasis on the rights. Time will tell how this and the corresponding trademark process evolves in the coming years. There's also the chance that Congress will update voice and Likeness law for the AI era. What can go wrong? A modified version of the No Fakes Act, the prior iteration of which sputtered out in committee, was introduced last month.

48:30 Speaker 9: By the way, just a quick sidebar on that before we wrap this up, because we do need to show some love to our amazing sponsors. But I'm always nervous when we talk about Congress making laws involving any kind of technology, even though it's obviously necessary, because and if you don't know why I'm scared about that and why it concerns me, I challenge anyone go on YouTube and find an example. Find a YouTube of Congress people at a committee hearing asking questions of somebody like you know, like Mark Zuckerberg, for example.

49:13 Speaker 9: That's an easy one to find. He's testified I think, on more than one occasion before congressional committees. Find Saturday Night Live even oh wait, no, it was bad lip reading, did something about that. But find a video of Congress people asking at a committee hearing questions about tech or if you want to be specific, look up, look up Mark Zuckerberg testifies before Congress or whatever. And listen to the questions these people ask, and you will immediately And I'm not saying all of them, by the way, some some are well informed and ask good questions, but some don't.

49:49 Speaker 9: And you will immediately become concerned. I promise you. If this is not your reaction, there's something wrong with you. You should immediately become concerned about. You know, some of these, you know, septagenarian octogenarian people. Not to be agist, but some of the questions that they ask. When you realize that these are the people who are going to make laws about something that they don't and cannot and will not ever understand. When you listen to some of the questions and how confused they are, it's it always makes me so nervous.

50:24 Speaker 9: So maybe it's just as well that the no fakes act. Well, it might be something that I would support in theory and spirit and judgment, but maybe it's just as well that it's sputtered out because who knows what was actually in it and uh, and there's probably a bunch of things in it that didn't even apply to the problem at hand, because that happens a lot. But anyway, we're gonna wrap up our number two of Matt Connorton Unleashed. We've got The Joy Thieves coming up in the third hour and I cannot wait for that, very very exciting.

50:56 Speaker 9: Right now, I think we better show some love to our amazing sponsor here at WMNH ninety five point three FM. Don't forget you can also stream the show from anywhere. Go to mattconnorton dot com slash live for all your live streaming options, social media links, contact and posts, archives, et cetera, et cetera, And don't forget the new website, Matt Connorton Unleashed dot com, where you can also quickly and easily access the archive of the show. There's a search function there, so if you're looking for specific guests you can find it.

51:26 Speaker 9: We've got a lot of content there, so please check it out. We've got the Joy Thieves coming up in the third hour. Don't go anywhere. Plenty more to come.

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56:40 Speaker 1: Behold the harmony of airwaves as you immerse yourself in the captivating frequencies of w m NHLP the sonic cards of Manchester transcending through the ether right ninety five point three megahertz frequency modulation. Our transmissions M and E from the ZF of one thousand doll streets insure into the hearts of our creative at one to nineteen Canal Stree, where innovation and sound collode They're the impro moder of Manchester Public Television Service in the venerable city of Manchester, New Hampshire, USA.

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