PPL Pays Out £81.6M, Ricardo Montaner Sues UMG Over Master Rights, Google Defends AI Training as Fair Use

How The Music Business Works - Issue #68

July 02, 2026

Welcome back to How the Music Business Works.

This week’s stories look at how money, rights, and AI policy are moving through the music business.

PPL has paid out £81.6 million to performers and recording rightsholders in its second-quarter distribution, while Firebird has launched a $750 million catalog-buying fund backed by Ares and Raine Group. Google is also continuing to argue that AI training should remain protected as fair use under US law, even as Australian music and creative organizations call for stronger action against unauthorized AI training.

We’re also tracking the latest in collection-society litigation, after PRS defeated Dave Rowntree’s black box royalties class action at appeal, while still being left with significant unrecoverable legal costs.

Here’s what to know this week.

PPL pays out £81.6M in Q2 2026

UK collective management organization PPL paid out £81.6 million, about $108 million, to more than 140,000 performers and recording rightsholders in its second-quarter distribution. The payment, announced June 30, mainly covers UK collections from public performance and broadcast licensing in 2025, along with additional international revenue. Nearly 4,500 performers and recording rightsholders received a PPL payment for the first time. The distribution brings PPL’s total payouts since the start of 2026 to £159.3 million, following a £77.7 million first-quarter payment. The half-year total is down from £167.8 million at the same stage in 2025, which PPL partly attributed to faster royalty pay-through. The Q2 distribution also includes international payments from markets including Japan, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, the US, Belgium, Germany, and Italy, plus more than £471,000 distributed through VPL for music video use.

Ricardo Montaner sues UMG over master rights

Singer Ricardo Montaner is suing Universal Music Group in both the US and Venezuela over the master rights to his first five albums, covering recordings released between 1986 and 1992. The works include early hits such as “La Cima Del Cielo,” “Castillo Azul,” and “Piel Adentro.” In a Florida federal court filing, Montaner says the albums were originally recorded while he was signed to Love Records and claims a 1993 agreement reverted the master rights to him. He also says UMG only acted as a distributor beginning in 2001 and has paid him no royalties. UMG argues it owns the masters through past acquisitions, including PolyGram’s purchase of Rodven Records, Love Records’ parent company. Montaner served a copyright termination notice in 2022, signed an ADA Latin distribution deal last year, and is now seeking ownership confirmation, an injunction against further interference, and more than $1 million in damages for unpaid royalties.

Google defends AI training as fair use

Google has renewed its argument that AI training should remain protected as fair use under US copyright law, while also pushing for more flexibility in the UK’s copyright rules. In a white paper on AI regulation, Google President of Global Affairs Kent Walker described the use of publicly available web data for AI training as a transformative, non-expressive use that should stay protected under US fair use. The article notes that the music industry and wider creative sectors reject that position, arguing that permission and licensing are still required when copyrighted works are used as AI training inputs. In the UK, Google lobbyists have argued that stricter copyright rules could push AI training and investment into other jurisdictions. Walker also pointed to robots.txt controls, commercial partnerships, output guardrails, takedowns, and voice-and-likeness protections as possible parts of AI regulation.

Australian music industry pushes back on AI training

Australia’s music and creative organizations have issued an open letter calling on the federal government to enforce copyright law and prevent AI developers from using copyrighted works without permission or fair remuneration. The coalition includes APRA AMCOS, ARIA, The Copyright Agency, Australian Music Centre, National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Music Office, Australian Publishers Association, Screenrights, Screen Producers Australia, AIR, and others. The letter argues that consent and remuneration should remain central to how creators are protected in the age of AI. It follows reports that millions of Australian and New Zealand musical works were included in large datasets allegedly used to train AI models without consent. APRA AMCOS CEO Dean Ormston called the situation the largest theft of intellectual property in the industry’s history, while ARIA CEO Annabelle Herd warned that changing copyright law would weaken the licensing market.

PRS defeats Rowntree black box class action at appeal

PRS has defeated Blur drummer Dave Rowntree’s proposed black box royalties class action at the Court of Appeal, which upheld an earlier decision refusing to certify the case. The lawsuit challenged how PRS distributes royalties it collects but cannot match to a specific songwriter or publisher. PRS uses a pro rata system, applying the distribution pattern from matched royalties to unmatched income. Rowntree argued that this approach favors publishers over writers because writer income may be more likely to end up unmatched. The appeal court found no fault in PRS’s matching efforts and said the claim did not establish a fairer alternative distribution method. The court also noted that PRS makes reasonable and proportionate efforts to match royalties manually down to £3. PRS welcomed the ruling, but remains around £1.8 million out of pocket after recovering only £750,000 of the £2.6 million it said it spent defending the claim.

Random Ramblings:

• Sprite is putting rap lyrics on cans, because apparently your soda also has bars now.
• Madonna is turning Confessions II into a TikTok live event, pop-ups included.
• “Doobie scoot canoe” is the misheard lyric TikTok decided to run with this week.
• YouTube Shorts found a way to get even shorter. Yes, really.