Apple Music said it’s aiming to combat AI-generated content and shared that the service has updated its music style guide to address AI in a memo to partners obtained by Billboard.

“While AI is an incredibly exciting opportunity that promises to further that goal, we believe that technology should amplify artists, not replace them,” states the memo, sent on Wednesday (May 20).

Within the memo, Apple Music claimed that AI-platform-generated content made up less than 1% of all plays each week on Apple Music, and that 65% of AI-platform-generated tracks had yet to receive a single play.

The service also claims that it has developed its own internal technology used to identify AI-generated content, and that if an AI song is utilizing streaming manipulation it will automatically be removed from the platform. Apple Music vp Oliver Schusser mentioned the technology when he sat down with Billboard on the Record last month.

“We’ve developed technology in-house that would allow us to exactly see what music people are delivering us, and what AI [model] it is and all that,” Schusser told Billboard’s Kristin Robinson at the time.

Apple Music also shared that its Music Style Guide has been updated to address AI. “In February, we explicitly prohibited the use of AI in a misleading manner, evolving our long-standing policies against impersonation, spam and content that creates customer confusion,” the memo continues. “We also work to further minimize the impact of spam-like behavior, including repeated submissions and repetitious tracks, through careful curation of our content delivery processes.”

Apple Music also says content providers are asked to include information about AI-generated content. “Top distributors have started supplying this information where appropriate, and it will be required of all providers in the future,” it added in the memo. “We believe labels and distributors must take an active role in shaping the industry-wide policies around AI, and that starts with delivering AI content in a more transparent way.”

Apple Music introduced tagging for AI songs in March, requiring record labels and music distributors to disclose AI use in what are called “Transparency Tags” for artwork, tracks, compositions and music videos.

Since 2022, Apple Music has penalized streaming fraud, and the service doubled down on its penalties in February. In the memo, it claims it’s excluded more than 2 billion manipulated streams and returned those royalties to its payout pool: “Stream manipulation remains below 0.5% on Apple Music, which is among the lowest rates in the industry,” the service adds.

Shamrock Capital, best known for being the firm that sold Taylor Swift her early masters, said on Wednesday (May 20) it closed a fourth fund with more than $810 million in capital committed by investors and its general partner.

The Los Angeles-based investment firm said this is its fourth fund within its content strategy, which launched in 2015 and now handles 3.3 billion in assets under management across equity and debt products. The strategy has invested across film, TV, music, video games and sports rights, including in the assets of Metro Boomin and Dr. Dre.

“For more than a decade, we have invested in content and media rights, and this fundraise reflects the depth of the expertise and platform we have built at Shamrock,” said Patrick Russo, partner and member of Shamrock’s executive committee. “As content becomes more global, more valuable, and more complex to finance, we believe the need for sophisticated, long-term capital partners has never been greater. We have built our strategy to meet that need for content creators and rights-holders worldwide.”

The company said the fund was oversubscribed, having initially targeted $700 million, with commitments coming from pension funds, endowments, foundations, family offices, insurance companies and other institutional investors from the United States, Europe and Asia.

Shamrock was established as the family office for Roy E. Disney around 50 years ago The firm now says it has approximately $7.4 billion in assets under management as of May 11.

“The most valuable content assets are the ones that fans return to across generations, regardless of where or how they consume them,” said Jason Sklar, partner and executive committee member at Shamrock. “We are long-term investors, and the trust we have earned alongside artists, creators, and rights holders is the foundation of everything we do.”

Kirkland & Ellis LLP served as legal counsel to Shamrock Capital. No placement agent was used in connection with the fundraising process.

The owner of the Peanuts theme song and other music from the Charlie Brown franchise is going on the legal offensive, filing four copyright lawsuits Wednesday (May 20) over alleged unauthorized uses of Vince Guaraldi‘s iconic jazz tracks.

In one case, Lee Mendelson Film Productions (LMFP) accused a video game company called GameMill Entertainment of creating unlicensed songs that “mimicked and evoked” Guaraldi’s songs for an otherwise-licensed Peanuts game.

In another case, the company accused the U.S. Department of the Interior of directly using Guaraldi’s “O Tannenbaum” from the soundtrack to A Charlie Brown Christmas in a digital holiday card without paying for it.

“Unauthorized use doesn’t just violate the law, it erodes the exclusivity and artistic integrity that make these compositions meaningful to generations of fans,” said Mendelson attorney Marc Jacobson, who added that the company will “no longer tolerate companies using their property without a license, especially in this era of instant digital sharing.”

Two more lawsuits, filed against collectibles manufacturers Buckle‑Down Inc. and Heritage Auctions, claim those companies used Peanuts songs, including the unofficial franchise theme “Linus and Lucy,” in promotional social media advertisements.

“The composition is an iconic theme, associated with a beloved children’s series and television Christmas classic special,” Mendelson’s lawyers write. “It is widely familiar to the American public as one of the most popular works of television music of all time.”

The original Peanuts comic strip was created by Charles M. Schulz in 1950, but the famous television specials were a joint project of Schultz, TV producer Lee Mendelson and animator Bill Melendez. Starting with Christmas and It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, the trio produced dozens of Peanuts specials, many of them scored by Guaraldi.

The rights to Guaraldi’s music are still held by the late Mendelson’s company, and they aren’t afraid to enforce them. In 2019, LMFP filed a similar copyright case against Dolly Parton’s Dollywood theme park over accusations that it had used Peanuts songs in Christmas-themed theatrical productions for years.

Wednesday’s lawsuit against GameMill is centered on Snoopy & The Great Mystery Club, a video game starring Charlie ​Brown’s dog Snoopy. GameMill properly licensed the Peanuts characters themselves — those rights are owned by a different company — but the lawsuit says it took a shortcut when it came to the music: Creating knockoff tracks that sounded highly similar to the originals.

“GameMill self-evidently wanted the Peanuts imagery in the [Snoopy] game to be paired with the Peanuts music, but, equally self-evidently, did not want to pay plaintiff for rights to use it,” LMFP’s attorneys write in that complaint.

The case against the Department of the Interior, meanwhile, claims that the federal agency used “Tannenbaum” in an animated Christmas card posted to Instagram, X and other social media sites. “The card was viewed millions of times on many platforms,” reads that complaint.

None of the defendants immediately returned requests for comment on Wednesday.