The AI Opt-Out Problem
The next rights battle isn’t about AI. It’s about ownership, consent, and whether creators get to set the terms before their work becomes training data.
The next rights battle has already started.
Most creators just don't realise they're in it.
If you've read Parts 1 and 2, you know why I built vers1ons.
I watched a song spread across the internet.
Then I watched the value disconnect from the creators who helped make it happen.
Now we're standing at the beginning of another rights transition.
Artists are scared.
Scared about ownership.
Scared about relevance.
Scared that the music they dedicated their lives to is becoming training data for systems they don't control.
I understand why.
Spotify and Universal just announced deals around AI remixes and AI covers.
Udio is launching products that allow fans to generate new versions of songs using AI.
The language around all of this sounds good.
Consent.
Credit.
Compensation.
Most people would agree with those principles.
But I think we need to ask deeper questions.
Who sets the terms?
Can creators set prices?
Set royalty splits?
Control usage rights?
Share downstream earnings across future versions?
And perhaps the biggest question of all:
Can creators actually opt out?
Not opt out of a feature.
Opt out of training.
Because once your music has been used to train a model, you can’t untrain it.
That's why I think ownership in the AI era is becoming an infrastructure problem.
Rights don't matter if machines can't read them.
Consent doesn't matter if systems can't enforce it.
Opt-outs don't matter if nobody can prove they existed.
The urgency is already showing up in regulation.
The EU AI Act now requires providers of large AI models to respect certain rights reservations and is introducing new transparency requirements around AI-generated content.
That's a signal.
At vers1ons, we're building toward that future where permissions and ownership travel with creative works in a machine-readable way.
In simple terms:
You may remix this.
You may license this.
You may not train on this.
Automatically.
Verifiably.
From the moment of creation.
I'm not against AI.
I'm against creators losing control.
The AI conversation isn’t really about AI.
It’s about ownership.
It’s about consent.
It’s about whether creators get to participate in the value their work creates.
Or whether we repeat the same mistakes all over again.
The last time the music industry went through a major technological shift, artists didn't get to set the terms.
We have a chance to do better this time.
The question isn't whether AI will change music.
It already has.
The question is whether creators get to decide the rules before it does.
Applications for the vers1ons private beta are now open.
For artists, producers, remixers, and rightsholders who believe creators should set the terms before the internet runs with their work.
Apply at vers1ons.com/apply
Next: The Version Economy.
Why every creative work is the beginning of something else.
And why I believe the future of ownership is participation, not restriction.
I'm David Johnston.
Founder & CEO of vers1ons.
The next era of music will finally work for the people who actually make it.