At the National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA) annual meeting on Wednesday (June 10), president and CEO David Israelite announced the “first-ever industry-wide AI licensing deals” for publisher members with AI music firms Udio and KLAY, in his words. He also announced the AI Songs Summit, a gathering in Nashville this fall that will bring together songwriters, publishers, streaming services and other stakeholders to discuss the opportunities and challenges of AI.

“Litigating against bad AI actors and licensing good AI partners is not in conflict,” Israelite explained. “NMPA will do both… There has been hesitancy to make mistakes in these early deals, but there has not been any deal offered across the entire market until today.”

Importantly, Israelite noted in his speech that these AI deals offer publishers equal compensation to record labels on the AI training side. Whether or not publishing receives equal pay on the output side of AI licensing was not addressed in the presentation.

Equal pay for masters and publishing in AI licensing has been a goal of Israelite’s for the last few years. At the Association of Independent Music Publishers (AIMP) Grammy week event in 2025, he addressed this, saying, “I believe the most important principle is that the song is just as valuable, if not more, than the sound recording in the AI model,” he said, adding, “I am fearful that as these models develop, if we do not protect our rights, we will find ourselves in a situation where we are not getting as much or more than the sound recording when it comes to revenue… That is a responsibility of this entire community to fight for that.”

The NMPA annual meeting takes place each summer and acts as a state of the union for music publishers, gathering together the highest-level executives and songwriters to go over financials for the business, hand out awards to songwriters and their business champions, and have talent perform their greatest hits. This year, the company honored P!nk as its Songwriter Icon for 2026 and Julian Bunetta (“Lose Control,” “Espresso,” “Night Changes”) as its Non-Performing Songwriter Icon.

Israelite also often uses the stage to debut a bombshell announcement, with this year’s being the new landmark AI deals with Udio and KLAY. The license gets the two AI music companies much closer to full music industry support. In a business in which ownership of intellectual property is often divided among several stakeholders represented by a number of different companies, it has historically been a challenging and lengthy process for tech companies to get the widespread support needed to be properly licensed.

Israelite said of Udio: “I thank CEO and co-founder Andrew Sanchez, who is with us today, for his collaboration. Most importantly, this deal delivers something that we have always demanded: Songs are just as important, if not more than sound recordings, when it comes to AI… Starting on Monday, NMPA members in good standing will have the opportunity to review and join this groundbreaking deal.”

Udio and KLAY have previously received industry support. After the former was sued by the three major music companies in a $500 million copyright infringement lawsuit in June 2024 for allegedly training on unlicensed sound recordings, it shifted its platform from creating new AI songs in seconds to remixing licensed, pre-existing songs — and received support and reconciliation from the music business in doing so. In the last year, Udio has inked licensing deals with Universal Music Group (UMG), Warner Music Group (WMG) and Kobalt, all of which are NMPA members, as well as Merlin on the sound recording side.

KLAY, which also will offer customization of licensed songs using AI, has periodically made announcements about its progress with music licensing but has not yet launched. Previous deals between KLAY and music companies include UMG, WMG and Sony on the master and publishing sides, all of which are members of the NMPA.

KLAY’s proactive approach to achieving full music licensing before its launch is unique in the AI music space. The company is helmed by musician and CEO Ary Attie, while Thomas Hesse, former president of global digital business and U.S. sales and distribution at Sony Music, acts as its chief content and commercial officer.

Said Israelite, “This deal will launch later this summer, as NMPA members in good standing will receive instructions about how to opt-in… Both of these agreements represent real progress toward AI and creators working together and benefiting both sides, and for companies that don’t take this approach, you know what’s coming.”

While Israelite expressed a willingness to harness the opportunities of AI licensing for songwriters and publishers, he also reminded the crowd of what he sees as one of the biggest challenges it presents: streaming fraud.

“AI is being used to hypercharge streaming fraud,” he said. “And that fraud is not just stealing from songwriters and artists, but also can be used for a more nefarious purpose. There is growing concern by the U.S. government that it is being used to launder money for organized crime and even to finance terrorism. Streaming fraud is a national security issue.”

For further coverage of the NMPA annual meeting, see Billboard’s recap of financials and awards here.

U.S. music publishing revenue rose to $7.3 billion in 2025, the National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA) revealed at its annual meeting on Wednesday (June 10). This is up from $7.04 billion in 2024, which the trade organization reported at last year’s meeting, and $6.2 billion in 2023.

The meeting, held at Alice Tully Hall at New York’s Lincoln Center, is considered a state of the union for U.S. music publishers and attended by the industry’s highest-ranking publishers and songwriters. This year, its chief legal officer and chief operating officer, Danielle Aguirre, focused her speech on the financial health of the U.S. publishing business. She explained how Spotify and Amazon‘s 2024 moves to shift some of their subscription tiers to “bundles” — meaning a subscription tier that includes multiple offerings for a discounted price tag, thus qualifying it for a reduced U.S. mechanical royalty rate — led to a loss of almost $500 million in value for songwriters and publishers.

This subject was also addressed at the NMPA annual meeting last year, where it was noted that the first year under bundling lost songwriters and publishers $230 million in total. Since it unveiled its bundled tiers, Spotify in particular has inked deals with numerous NMPA members — and the NMPA itself — to improve remuneration for songwriters. However, a source close to the matter previously told Billboard that these deals primarily did this by opening up a new revenue stream for licensing music videos on the streaming service, rather than changing the U.S. mechanical rate.

Financials

The NMPA annual meeting noted that U.S. publishing revenue has climbed again in 2025 to $7.3 billion. The organization reports that this means publishing is outpacing the growth of recorded music for the fourth year in a row, and that it has continued to grow year over year since 2014, around the time that streaming took off. U.S. publishing revenue for 2025 breaks down to the following:

Aguirre also noted that deals negotiated and settled by the NMPA in the past fiscal year have led to the distribution of about $110 million to its membership. This means NMPA’s legal recovery under “the modern NMPA” is nearly $1.5 billion in total. 

“What was in 2024 a DSP-wide royalty distribution of 55% mechanical to 45% performance has flipped to now 53% performance and 47% mechanical due solely to the bundling implemented by Spotify and Amazon,” explained Aguirre. “This is concerning because mechanical royalties, as you guys know, are paid through the MLC, and the MLC does not take out a commission or any fee from you for administration of mechanical rights…you are receiving 100% of them. We will be working hard at the Copyright Royalty Board proceeding to address the issues around DSP bundling and to make sure that regulations cannot be manipulated.”

In providing an update on the Copyright Royalty Board Phonorecords V (2028-2032), which began proceedings in January, Aguirre added: “All parties have expressed an interest to come to the table and discuss how to fix bundling issues and to move forward as partners. That is a welcome first step. But what really counts are actions.”

AI Music Licensing Deals

Israelite later took the stage to make this year’s bombshell announcement: The NMPA has struck licensing deals with AI music companies Udio and KLAY. The Udio deal, in particular, marks the first industry-wide licensing deal with a major AI music company, as Israelite explained. It is also the first that will value songs and sound recordings equally when it comes to AI training in particular, according to Israelite.

For more information on these AI deals, see Billboard’s separate story on them here.

Honorees

This year, the NMPA honored a number of songwriters and executives for their dedication to the music industry. This included a tribute to 2026 NMPA Songwriter Icon recipient P!nk, who hosted the Tonys earlier this week. The songwriter and artist took the stage and performed acoustic renditions of her songs “Who Knew,” “What About Us” and “F—ing Perfect.” In accepting the award, she said, “Most of all, I want to thank every single person who has joined me, singing at the top of their lungs in their car alone, windows up, ugly crying — that image is why I continue to write songs.”

Julian Bunetta, the hitmaker behind smashes like “Lose Control” by Teddy Swims, “Espresso” by Sabrina Carpenter and One Direction’s “Night Changes,” received the NMPA’s Non-Performing Songwriter Icon award. To honor the songwriter, artist Amber Mark and frequent Bunetta co-writer John Ryan took the stage to sing “Lose Control.”

Bunetta said of receiving the honor, “Persistence is hard, but if one day you woke up and you had parents like mine, and you had a brother like mine, and you had a songwriting partner like mine, and you had a wife like mine, and kids like mine, and if you had publishing partners like mine, and you had lawyers like mine, and you had mentors like mine and you had collaborators like mine, and you had a Big Family like mine, I guarantee you’d wake up and say songwriting is easy.”

Recording Academy CEO and songwriter in his own right, Harvey Mason jr., received the NMPA’s Industry Legacy Award for his work to highlight and elevate songwriters since becoming the head of the Academy. Since Mason jr.’s appointment as CEO, the Academy has added the long-desired songwriter of the year award and created a songwriters and composers wing as well.

In a fireside chat with David Israelite, president and CEO of the NMPA, Mason jr. said: “I always wanted to be a songwriter, and so I approach pretty much all my work from that perspective, whether I’m producing a record or doing other work…the collaborative spirit, the way that you write songs is the way that I try and do everything in my life. So, as it relates to the Academy, I consider my team at the Academy my collaborators [too].”

The NMPA also surprised Mason jr. with a surprise tribute to his work as a writer, welcoming Jordin Sparks to the stage to perform “No Air,” one of Mason jr.’s most enduring co-writes.

The event also featured a keynote conversation with Dina Powell McCormick, a former colleague of Israelite’s who now serves as Meta’s president and vice chair. During the conversation, she spoke about AI and music’s role in the Meta ecosystem: “It brings life to every single thing that we do. It brings life to posts on Instagram. It brings life to creators.” She also noted how Meta believes its wearable technology, like its Ray-Ban smart glasses, will change the music listening experience: “People listen to music in a very different way on the Meta glasses… We think that experience is going to become even more meaningful over time…music and sound are so important to what we’re building.”