Meta and Spotify have issued a joint statement addressing their views on Artificial Intelligence (AI) regulation in the European Union. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Spotify CEO Daniel Ek each complain in the statement published on their respective websites that EU privacy regulations around AI are holding back innovation.

The communiqués point out that Europe should embrace open-source AI, i.e., in a way that the source code is available to everyone in the public domain for use, modification, and distribution. Thus highlighting that failure to do so would slow down the continent's evolution since “artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to transform the world: increase human productivity, accelerate scientific progress and contribute trillions of dollars to the global economy”. 

Moreover, this liberalization of codes allows “power not to be concentrated in a few big players and, as happened with the Internet before, creates a level playing field.”

Also highlighted throughout the letter is the “uneven” implementation of the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The two tycoons highlight that EU privacy regulators are creating delays and uncertainty and are unable to agree among themselves on how the law should be applied. They cite the example of Meta, which has been prevented from using European user data to train its AI systems. 

“In the short term, delaying the use of data that is routinely used in other regions means that the most powerful AI models will not reflect the collective knowledge, culture, and languages of Europe, and Europeans will not be able to use the latest AI products,” Meta's blog post warns. Therefore, they believe that Europeans will not be able to access the latest open source technology and will instead be left with AI “built for someone else.”

Regulations that are contrasting with those of other countries such as the United States or China, who have decided to let their companies innovate as much as possible in this new technology.

EU laws regarding AI 

In recent years, the EU authorities have become increasingly invested in regulating AI uses and research. In fact, the recent AI Act (EU) passed in 2024 is meant to lay down harmonized rules on artificial intelligence and tries to provide AI developers and deployers with clear requirements and obligations regarding specific uses of AI.

The EU's concern regarding AI uses so much so that there is already a plethora of major laws regulating or affecting it: The EU General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679, The Product Liability Directive, which, if adopted, will allow people harmed by software (including AI software) to receive compensation from the software manufacturer (replacing Directive 85/374/EEC) The General Product Safety Regulation 2023/988/EU, replacing Directive 2001/95/EC Various intellectual property laws under the national laws of EU 

But, besides the regulations, another key element to understand Facebook and Spotify's concern is the definition of AI used in the EU. For the EU, AI is defined in the EU AI Act using the following terms:

• "AI system" means "a machine-based system that is designed to operate with varying levels of autonomy and that may exhibit adaptiveness after deployment, and that, for explicit or implicit objectives, infers, from the input it receives, how to generate outputs such as predictions, content, recommendations, or decisions that can influence physical or virtual environments."

• "General-purpose AI model" means "an AI model, including where such an AI model is trained with a large amount of data using self-supervision at scale, that displays significant generality and is capable of competently performing a wide range of distinct tasks regardless of the way the model is placed on the market and that can be integrated into a variety of downstream systems or applications, except AI models that are used for research, development or prototyping activities before they are placed on the market"

• "General-purpose AI system" means "an AI system which is based on a general-purpose AI model and which has the capability to serve a variety of purposes, both for direct use as well as for integration in other AI systems"3

The post Meta and Spotify complain about the EU regulations for AI appeared first on Cross-Border Magazine.

Spotify, has announced the relaunch of its self-serve advertising platform, Spotify Ads Manager, formerly known as Spotify Ad Studio. With a refreshed design and significant enhancements, Spotify Ads Manager offers advertisers of all sizes and industries a streamlined user experience and advanced tools to maximize the impact of their ad campaigns.

This comes after Spotify announced year-on-year ad revenue growth of 13% in its Q2 earnings report. Similarly, Spotify's 'self-serve' advertising platform saw significant double-digit year-on-year revenue growth.

With Spotify Ads Manager, the company continues to invest in advertising as a long-term growth driver. To achieve this, "it is key to continue to offer new opportunities for advertisers across the marketing funnel, from brand advertisers to performance-focused small and medium-sized businesses."

New features of Spotify Ads Manager include:

• Global expansion. Spotify has also made significant investments in its Ads API, which will eventually bring Spotify Ads Manager's capabilities to more than 50 new markets.

• New redesign. The user experience has been simplified to make it easier for advertisers to navigate and achieve their goals using Ads Manager.

• Advanced targeting features. In order to enhance audience and targeting capabilities, Spotify will be expanding its interest segment menu at the end of the month, giving advertisers more options when it comes to the audiences they reach and test in Ads Manager. In addition, the Audience Manager will also soon be launched, which will create a specific space for advertisers to manage their saved audiences.

• New ad formats. New ad formats available exclusively in Ads Manager have recently been introduced, including Canvas and Opt-in video. These new formats reinvent ads on Spotify and allow advertisers to connect with audiences using both visuals and sound. Canvas is a complementary feature that gives Spotify's audio ads a constantly repeating visual effect. For its part, the Opt-in video format allows a brand to appear in the foreground next to the music content the user is listening to, which increases its consideration.

• Measurement tools. A healthy media ecosystem includes proprietary and third-party measurement solutions to quantify performance. Thus, 'first party' measurement solutions have been introduced in Spotify Ads Manager with Spotify Ad Analytics and Pixel. Third-party solutions have also been expanded through IAS and DoubleVerify, Appsflyer and Kochava.

Spotify Ads are aimed at Gen Z 

This revamp of Spotify Ads services and solutions aims to capture the Gen Z audience. 

"At Spotify, we are constantly innovating to deliver a premium ad experience that helps advertisers achieve their business goals. The new, redesigned Spotify Ads Manager offers greater ease, control and performance, making it easier than ever for advertisers of all sizes to get started with Spotify Advertising and connect with a highly engaged audience of 626 million users," said Sam Bevan, Global Head of Emerging & Scaled Advertising at Spotify.

Brands such as World Rugby, Ionos and Monge, among others, have already used Spotify Ads Manager to engage new audiences and drive campaign results. To highlight one success story, Spotify shares the case of UK travel brand Contiki , which used Spotify Ads Manager to encourage young people to enjoy the company's group travel programs.

In order to reach Generation Z travelers and get them to click through to Contiki's website, the brand used a combination of audio and video ads on Spotify that included user-generated content to highlight real travel stories. Among the results, there was a 267% increase in clicks to its website, with Spotify outperforming other channels by 32%.

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Spotify VS. Apple Music

Due to their free version, Spotify will likely be able to top Apple Music in overall users (both in the US and worldwide). Spotify already has far more international subscribers and active users worldwide than Apple Music. This is probably caused by Spotify's free, ad-supported tier. In the last quarter of 2018, Spotify reported 207 million active users worldwide, 96 million of which are paid subscriptions.

Meanwhile, Apple Music, which doesn't offer an ad-supported option, only has about 50 million subscribers worldwide. Spotify's free tier is likely key to converting users abroad. It provides an indefinite and low-risk way for users to test the app's interface and features before financially committing. Apple's chief advantage is its addressable base of iPhone users for whom the Apple Music app is pre-installed. Apple estimates there to be 101 million active iPhones in the US and nearly one billion worldwide. Apple may not offer a free version but they do offer a free three-month trial. The app is pre-installed on iPhones, which reduces friction and encourages sign-ups. Apple may also stand to lure more subscribers to its service through features like lyric-based song search and exclusive content launches.

Apple's Focus

Apple has been focused on increasing its services revenue as iPhone sales are not as promising as they once were. iPhone sales were 15% lower in 2018 than in 2017, while Services revenue (including Apple Music) increased by 87% to $37.2 billion in the same year.

Apple could bundle together some of its services like Apple Music, Apple News+, Apple TV+ and Apple Arcade to boost its recurring revenue and drive sales. Given Apple's approach with other services — which are largely subscription-based — it is unlikely that Apple will create an ad-supported option for its Music app. A services bundle, on the other hand, seems logical.

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A complaint against Apple has been filed by Spotify, claiming that they introduce rules to their App Store that limit innovation and choice on purpose. This is at the expense of the user-friendliness.

Spotify is particularly irritated by Apple’s 30% cut on Premium subscriptions. They, therefore, have to charge customers $12.99 for subscriptions. These subscriptions are completed through the App Store, instead of the standard price of $9.99 via the Spotify website.

If the music streaming agency chooses not to use Apple’s payment system, they will apply experience- and technical limiting restrictions. Limitations such as not integrating Spotify with Apple services (HomePod, Apple Watch, Siri). Other companies have already backed out of the 30% tax, like Netflix. Therefore, it is impossible to purchase movies on the Prime Video App. Instead, customers have to purchase movies or books via their browser. Later, they can synchronise the purchase with their app.

Website

To publicly display Apple’s ‘self-serving behaviour’, Spotify has launched a website. This site functions as a timeline and guide. Guidelines of the iOS App Store in 2011 show how Spotify’s previous proposals have been dismissed by Apple. According to a spokesperson, the European Commission is assessing the complaint under their standard procedures.

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