good morning. Did you listen to any new music on vacation? Can you tell if it was made by humans? Artificial intelligence-generated songs are becoming more common on streaming and increasingly appearing on charts. There's a good chance your favorite real-life musician will be furious about this. Today, Canadian TV shows are gaining traction with an amazing market that enjoys them. fierce rivalry.
first up
on the news
Mining: Rio Tinto is acquiring rival Glencore for more than $70 billion, becoming the world's largest mining company.
Trade: Ontario Premier Doug Ford has asked Premier Mark Carney not to lower tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles.
Energy: Alberta is defending its access to Montana's electricity distribution company against the U.S. Trade Representative's claims.
Fee: US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the US has other tariff options if President Trump loses the case at the Supreme Court.
Your favorite human musician might not like the AI that pervades the industry.Illustration by Kyle Smart
in focus
What is the value of human creativity?
Hello, I'm Josh O'Kane. I am a Globe Arts reporter covering the cultural industry. I've been writing about how new technology is reshaping music since before Spotify was available in Canada. I wrote my final project in graduate school about the economic instability of the early days of streaming. An excerpt was published in the Globe with a headline pandering to Metallica, written by Chris Wilson-Smith, the master of the usual business brief. It was years before we became exhausted parents.
As you can imagine, over the past three years I've been closely monitoring how generative AI is reshaping the creative economy in Hollywood, animation studios, publishing, music, and more.
The recorded music industry, like most creative companies, responded to the first wave of consumer Gen-AI services with litigation. But over the past few months, we've noticed the dynamics between that industry and AI services starting to flip. Quite quickly, in fact.
I wrote everything I learned into my latest novel, published today.
First, I saw that SOCAN, a company in Canada that collects and pays for the copyrights of songwriting and composition, announced that it would allow musicians to register songs that are partially generated by AI. Then we found out that the world's two biggest major music groups, Universal and Warner, had settled lawsuits and started signing licensing deals with gen-AI companies like Suno and Udio that allow users to create songs with prompts. A third AI company, Klay Vision, signed a deal with the same major company and Sony.
In the spirit of bad music puns, this was a major change in tone. So I started calling some musicians.
Most of the people I spoke to were not satisfied. Mac DeMarco, king of Canadian slacker rock, described the introduction of AI as turning human creativity into a mere input into a system dominated by robots. matrix”
Toronto's Katie Stelmanis, who makes music under the name Austra, warned about AI's inability to move culture forward. “If music is responsible for creating culture and defining what is cool, then I can tell you that AI is not cool,” she told me.
And in one of the most succinctly worded comments in a conversation with Chad VanGaalen, the Calgary musician called AI “a cultural black hole for people who never had a soul.” Oh, and “bloodstains”.
good. The music industry itself sees things differently. Its leaders believe that generative AI will reshape the economy, and that music fans will want to use these services to create their own music.
Patrick Rogers, chief executive of label lobbying group Music Canada, said if all AI-generated music is being created, the companies with the largest catalogs should negotiate the best terms for its inevitable use. SOCAN CEO Jennifer Brown explained that the organization's embrace of partially AI-generated songs recognizes that AI is becoming an increasingly common writing tool.
Executives argue that we are currently in the early stages of licensing AI, and starting with a legal, licensed framework is a good start. In fact, they both liken this moment to the early days of streaming, making yet another bad Metallica reference. memories remain From that era.
Throughout the 2010s, streaming services matured from shocking technology to a new kind of normal. Initially, the industry and musicians alike feared what would happen when lucrative CD and download sales began to trade for cents per stream.
Canadians now stream 3 billion songs a week, and Metallica's old nemesis, music piracy, feels like a thing of the past. The music industry is excited about the return to revenue.
On the other hand, what about active musicians? Well, they're not too happy about that either. There has always been a gulf between artists and the industry. It may just spread.
charting
Calling all consumers
Mobile wireless plans can become even more expensive, according to Statistics Canada data. However, Statscan analysis found that the recent increase in the consumer price index was due to less intense seasonal discounts in the fall than in previous years, and spokeswoman Taylor Mitchell said it could be “the beginning of a change in trends.”
quotation
Ice hockey is a very confrontational sport, and combining that with a gay romance creates a very interesting and strong contrast.
— Mu Zi, 27 years old, vocal coach from Shanghai
Canada's popular sport may not be popular in China – China's men's hockey team lost every game and ranked last at the Olympics – but one of Canada's top TV shows is. fierce rivalry ' has become a (piracy) hit in Asian countries despite crackdowns on LGBTQ content.
to the next
Other files we follow
View: Shopify is poised to see a wave of growth from agent AI, an emerging e-commerce trend that analysts say could reshape the retail industry.
take: The US is shamelessly profiting from previously sanctioned Venezuelan oil, writes Rita Thrissur.
Watching: To learn more about the employment statistics, which will be Canada's first major release of 2026, I would like to pay attention to the employment statistics for December.
morning update
Global markets rose cautiously ahead of important jobs data from Canada and the United States, but investors were focused on a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on the legality of President Donald Trump's sweeping global tariffs.
Wall Street futures were slightly higher, but TSX futures were in the red.
Overseas, the pan-European STOXX 600 index rose 0.52% in morning trade. Britain's FTSE 100 index rose 0.46%, Germany's DAX index rose 0.17% and France's CAC 40 index rose 0.75%.
In Asia, Japan's Nikkei Stock Average closed 1.61% higher and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index closed 0.32% higher.
The Canadian dollar traded at US$72.09.
