Muzak is back, only now it's composed by machines

This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, a mouthwatering concoction of Bloomberg Opinion’s opinions. Sign up here. Robot lullabies to send us to sle [Bloomberg]( This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, a mouthwatering concoction of Bloomberg Opinion’s opinions. [Sign up here](. Today’s Agenda - Robot lullabies to send us to sleep are [a nightmare for record companies](. - Will investors back [a $34 billion coal company](? - The Fed may [go too far](. - Softbank is [unfriending Alibaba](. Metal Machine Muzak Earlier this month, analysts at Exane BNP Paribas downgraded the shares of Universal Music Group NV, citing the risks that music generated by artificial intelligence pose to the revenue of record labels. The stock lost more than $2 billion of market value in a single day. UMG has reportedly asked music streaming services not to allow AI companies to train their software on its music catalog. And while AI can’t yet generate ready-made songs, a company called Endel has [more than 2 million monthly listeners for its computer-generated soundscapes](, including an “AI Lullaby” it produced in partnership with Canadian electronica artist Grimes, writes Lionel Laurent. So-called “functional music” — think whale song, or white noise, or anything else designed to play in the background — garners 10 billion streams per month, double last year’s total and contributing between 7% to 10% of the entire streaming market. “This is all serious enough to rattle record labels, who are rightly starting to wonder whether functional music is the thin end of a dangerous wedge,” Lionel writes. “Record labels aren’t entirely wrong in asking streaming platforms to clean house in favor of more ‘human’ music. But this is also a good moment to think up fairer ways to distribute the streaming spoils and keep new human artists emerging.” Our Dirty Carbon Future Glencore Plc, the world’s biggest commodity trader, is betting $8 billion that institutional money managers will be willing to invest in [the coal-mining behemoth it plans to spin off]( if it wins its takeover battle for Canada’s Teck Resources Ltd. “If you’d have asked me a few weeks ago, I would have said ‘no way,’” writes Javier Blas. “Having run the numbers, I admit Glencore has a chance — so long as coal prices remain sky-high.” The world remains reliant on coal, the dirtiest of all fossil fuels, to meet its energy needs, even as the climate crisis is taken more and more seriously. Global coal demand has increased by 75% since the Kyoto Protocol in 1997, and 5% since the 2015 Paris Agreement. The price of coal remains double its two-decade average, Javier notes. Glencore is betting that the juicy dividends its coal-mining unit will be able to pay will outweigh the ESG considerations of investors, while shrinking coal production combined with sustained demand will keep prices elevated. “The more investors hate coal — limiting production — the more likely that coal prices remain high,” argues Javier. “Ironically, ESG is key to a downsizing coal industry remaining profitable and keeping diehard investors along for the ride. Crudely, that’s Glencore’s play.” Bonus climate crisis reading: - Mexico fails [the clean energy challenge](. — Eduardo Porter - [The World Bank’s shift to climate change](isn’t what we need. — Allison Schrager A Warning Flare About the Global Economy Policymakers in Singapore were among the first to start tightening policy in 2021 as inflation began to accelerate around the world. Their warnings about the faltering state of the global economy [are worth heeding](, argues Daniel Moss. “The drag on global investment and manufacturing from tighter financial conditions will intensify in the quarters ahead,” the Monetary Authority of Singapore said on Friday. “The boost to demand in most of the regional economies from their reopening last year will also fade over 2023.” MAS left interest rates unchanged, following pauses earlier this month in India and Australia and a second month of inaction from the Bank of Korea. The central banks of Malaysia and Indonesia have also halted hiking. But the Federal Reserve seems on autopilot to keep increasing borrowing costs: “The Fed risks overdoing it,” argues Daniel. China’s reopening from pandemic lockdown has delivered a solid economic recovery, rather than a spectacular boom. The International Monetary Fund warned earlier this week that stresses in the banking sector pose a risk to growth. Meantime, the tightening that the world’s guardians of monetary stability have already instituted is still weaving its restrictive way through the world’s economies. “I've spent many years tracking central banks and the extent to which their actions reflect those of the Federal Reserve,” Daniel writes. “Almost without exception they proclaim their autonomy from the US. This has been easier said than done, but it's just possible that this time DC is the laggard.” Telltale Charts The value of SoftBank Group Corp.’s unencumbered stake in Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. — shares it hasn’t pledged as collateral for loans or forward contracts — dropped to around $16 billion by the end of December from just over $50 billion at the end of 2021. While a a 25% drop in the share price last year contributed to that decline, “the simple fact is that [SoftBank is getting out of Alibaba](,” writes Tim Culpan. “That investment has run its course.” Further Reading The fate of the abortion pill will be determined by one man: [Justice Brett Kavanaugh](. — Noah Feldman Egypt can sell rockets to Russia, but [it can’t feed its people](. — Bobby Ghosh The Biden administration’s report [whitewashes the Afghanistan pullout](: Hal Brands Ex-SPACs [face a hellish battle]( to avoid the abyss. — Chris Bryant For Your Listening Pleasure Chris Bryant [talks inflation](, Adam Minter talks protectionism, Frank Wilkinson talks gun politics. ICYMI The US government will have a hard time explaining how [the biggest US intelligence leak in a decade](may have been committed by a 21-year-old airman. Bernard Arnault’s wealth soared to $210 billion on Thursday, [leaving Elon Musk in the dust](. The once-mighty [Eurodollar futures contract]( will soon be no more. [Kim Jong-Un’s “respected daughter”]( has become a fixture at North Korean missile tests. Kickers Someone paid $27,500 for [a VHS tape of the movie Rocky](. Someone else paid a record $15 million for the vanity number plate P7 at [an auction in Dubai](. Source: Emirates Auction [The climate crisis could prove disastrous]( species that rely on temperature to determine gender. Move over, Don Draper: This advertising agency thinks [AI can devise better ads than humans](. Notes:  Please send mugs of hot water mixed with curry powder mulligatawny soup and complaints to Mark Gilbert at magilbert@bloomberg.net. [Sign up here]( and follow us on [Instagram](, [TikTok](, [Twitter]( and [Facebook](. Follow Us Like getting this newsletter? [Subscribe to Bloomberg.com]( for unlimited access to trusted, data-driven journalism and subscriber-only insights. Before it’s here, it’s on the Bloomberg Terminal. Find out more about how the Terminal delivers information and analysis that financial professionals can’t find anywhere else. [Learn more](. Want to sponsor this newsletter? [Get in touch here](. You received this message because you are subscribed to Bloomberg's Bloomberg Opinion Today newsletter. If a friend forwarded you this message, [sign up here]( to get it in your inbox. [Unsubscribe]( [Bloomberg.com]( [Contact Us]( Bloomberg L.P. 731 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY 10022 [Ads Powered By Liveintent]( [Ad Choices](