FEARLESS MEDIA: The Future Of Entertainment, Media & Tech

Peter Csathy

Peter Csathy's podcast explores the future of entertainment, media and tech and features the entrepreneurs, executives, and creators leading the way - all with a healthy mix of mind, body and soul. Diverse stories, from diverse voices via Peter's expert analyses and exclusive interviews. Peter is an internationally recognized media, entertainment and tech expert and Chairman of Creative Media, a leading legal services and business advisory firm (creativemedia.biz). He is the author of several critically-acclaimed industry books and regular contributor to Forbes, Variety, TheWrap, Billboard, Consequence, TechCrunch and USA Today. Follow Peter on Twitter @pcsathy, reach out to him at bizdev@creativemedia.biz, and sign up to his "Fearless Media" newsletter (fearlessmedia.substack.com) and separate "AI & NFT Legal Update" newsletter (ainftlegalupdate.substack.com) - both on Substack.

  1. Jun 16

    The Rise of the "Always On" Celebrity & "Living IP": 24/7 Monetization via AI

    Peter Csathy recently sat down with Character.AI CEO Karan Anand. While their conversation focused on the notorious chatbot pioneer’s surprising pivot to entertainment and its aggressive courtship of Hollywood IP, it sparked a related new phenomenon — we have now entered the era of the “Always On” celebrity.  In this episode -- based on Peter's recent article of the same name -- Peter's hosts explore the issues raised by Peter's article (and the opportunities it explores). Imagine living — and even deceased — artists, athletes, and performers completely freed from the physical constraints of time, travel, and human exhaustion. Always available to “work,” and always collecting the scaling revenues that flow from it. This new “Always On” celebrity opportunity dovetails perfectly with the related concept Peter and Anand previously discussed — “Living IP.” For the last century, Hollywood’s monetization model has essentially relied on a predictable, rigid formula — develop IP, control its distribution window, and charge a passive audience a fee to watch it. It’s a top-down experience controlled by the studio. The evolution of interactive AI completely flips this script, giving the audience agency. Instead of waiting two years for the next movie featuring their favorite superhero character — or for their favorite musician’s next album — fans can now engage in ongoing, continuous, interactive, two-way experiences with that IP (characters, music). It's a fascinating podcast, hosted by Google NotebookLM's co-hosts. Peter listened to the entirety of the episode and approves its content. Reach out to host Peter Csathy at peter@creativemedia.biz, and check out Peter's entertainment, media, AI and tech-focused business advisory and legal services firm Creative Media. You can also sign up for his free generative AI-focused newsletter "the brAIn" on Substack (via this link) -- all about how generative AI is transforming the media and entertainment industry.

    18 min
  2. May 9

    Interview with Character.AI CEO Karan Anand: From AI Companion Chatbot to AI Entertainment Company?

    In this episode, I feature my exclusive interview with Karan Anand, CEO of Character.AI — the controversial “AI companion chatbot” company that has been at the center of the AI storm (including tragic stories of teens who commit suicide after having established deep relationships with their chatbots). Likely surprising to many of you (it was to me), Character.AI is now pivoting to be first and foremost an AI entertainment company — courting major studios and creators alike to build and monetize fandom. This is Anand’s elevator pitch: “Think if Roblox, TikTok, and Wattpad had a baby ... this is what Character.AI is rapidly evolving into.” But can Character.AI successfully make this pivot? And how credible and powerful is its new pitch, including on the critical issues of teen safety? Can the company gain the trust of major studios, IP owners and celebs/influencers from whom they'd like to license content for fandom? I ask Anand the hard questions. And to his credit, he doesn’t shy away from any of them.  It’s an important, fascinating, and candid conversation — and Peter and Karan covered a lot of ground in 60 minutes, every minute of which is newsworthy. NOTE: After our interview, Character.AI asked me to include its official response to the new litigation filed by the state of Pennsylvania. Here it is. “We do not comment on pending litigation. Our highest priority is the safety and well-being of our users. The user-created Characters on our site are fictional and intended for entertainment and roleplaying. We have taken robust steps to make that clear, including prominent disclaimers in every chat to remind users that a Character is not a real person and that everything a Character says should be treated as fiction. Also, we add robust disclaimers making it clear that users should not rely on Characters for any type of professional advice. Character.ai prioritizes responsible product development and has robust internal reviews and red-teaming processes in place to assess relevant features.” Reach out to host Peter Csathy at peter@creativemedia.biz, and check out Peter's entertainment, media, AI and tech-focused business advisory and legal services firm Creative Media. You can also sign up for his free generative AI-focused newsletter "the brAIn" on Substack (via this link) -- all about how generative AI is transforming the media and entertainment industry.

    1h 6m
  3. Apr 2

    Musicians: Yes, You CAN Recapture Your U.S. Copyrights Even If You Have a U.K. Contract

    This episode features a "deep dive" discussion based on host Peter Csathy's recent article of the same name (here's the link), in which Csathy writes that Artists and Musicians can, in fact, recapture their U.S. copyrights to their songs, recordings and other creative works even if they originally signed publishing and recording agreements under U.K. law (or other international law). It's conventional wisdom in the music industry that the now infamous U.K. "Duran Duran" court case blocks a Musician's recapture of their U.S. copyrights. But Csathy debunks that conclusion, and lays out why Section 203 of the U.S. Copyright Act (the relevant reversion right) is an absolute right that cannot be taken away by U.K. or any other contractual law. Csathy represents Musicians in music catalog deals, and has negotiated and facilitated deals on behalf of music icons and legends that include Devo, Prince, A Flock of Seagulls, Boston, Air Supply, Sheila E., Count Basie, Sarah McLachlan, Half Pint, and Wailing Souls. His Artist-first music catalog representation and advisory firm is DEEP CUTS MEDIA (deepcutsmedia.com), and Csathy can be reached either at peter@deepcutsmedia.com or peter@creativemedia.biz. Reach out to host Peter Csathy at peter@creativemedia.biz, and check out Peter's entertainment, media, AI and tech-focused business advisory and legal services firm Creative Media. You can also sign up for his free generative AI-focused newsletter "the brAIn" on Substack (via this link) -- all about how generative AI is transforming the media and entertainment industry.

    9 min
5
out of 5
9 Ratings

About

Peter Csathy's podcast explores the future of entertainment, media and tech and features the entrepreneurs, executives, and creators leading the way - all with a healthy mix of mind, body and soul. Diverse stories, from diverse voices via Peter's expert analyses and exclusive interviews. Peter is an internationally recognized media, entertainment and tech expert and Chairman of Creative Media, a leading legal services and business advisory firm (creativemedia.biz). He is the author of several critically-acclaimed industry books and regular contributor to Forbes, Variety, TheWrap, Billboard, Consequence, TechCrunch and USA Today. Follow Peter on Twitter @pcsathy, reach out to him at bizdev@creativemedia.biz, and sign up to his "Fearless Media" newsletter (fearlessmedia.substack.com) and separate "AI & NFT Legal Update" newsletter (ainftlegalupdate.substack.com) - both on Substack.