Major news related to AI music is coming in one after another.
Universal Music Group has entered into a strategic partnership with Stability AI to develop “the next generation of professional music production tools.”
UMG said these tools will be “powered by responsibly trained generation tools.” A.I. Built to support the creative process of artists, producers, and songwriters around the world. ”
Through the partnership, Stability AI’s research and product teams will “work closely with UMG and its artists to study artist needs and technological approaches for the next generation of music production tools,” according to an announcement today (October 30).
It added: “Together, they will explore new recording and songwriting concepts, glean insights into artist needs, and gain a deeper understanding of how artists adopt and utilize these technologies.”
This news marks Universal Music Group’s second significant AI music production partnership in recent days. On Wednesday (October 29), UMG announced that it has settled a copyright infringement lawsuit against AI music platform Udio. The two companies also agreed to collaborate on a new platform featuring licensed AI music, scheduled to launch in 2026.
Stability AI, known for its Stable Diffusion image generator and Stable Audio AI music model, will work with UMG’s research and product teams to build trained software based on the licensed music catalog.
The partnership with Stability AI will allow UMG artists to participate directly in the development process, gather feedback on what creators need from AI-powered recording and composition tools, and “better understand how artists adopt and leverage these technologies.”
Through feedback with creators, UMG and Stability AI aim to create “fully licensed and commercially safe AI music tools” that “support both artists and rights holders while preserving the integrity of the art form.”
stabilityA.I. claims to be the “industry leader in commercially safe generated audio.” it is”stable The models in the Audio family were built specifically for professionals and trained only on licensed data to support responsible, high-quality music and sound production. ”
Michael Nash, Chief Digital Officer and Vice President, Universal Music Group, commented on the agreement with Stability AI: “This agreement is an extension of our fundamental direction: artists and songwriters are the foundation of our business.
“With AI, as with everything else we do, we start with those that best support our work, help them achieve creative and commercial success, and build on that foundation for new and better commercial and creative opportunities.
“This agreement is an extension of our fundamental direction: artists and songwriters are the foundation of our business.”
Michael Nash, Universal Music Group
Nash added: “As we have made abundantly clear, we will only consider the evolution of our AI tools and products based on responsibly trained models. We will work with Stability AI to deeply integrate the development of our AI tools with the vision and creative ambitions of our artists, and we look forward to the results and rewards this work will provide for everyone.”
Prem Akkaraju, CEO of Stability AI, added, “UMG has been a leader in innovation in the music space for many years, and this partnership marks the next chapter in music production.”
“At Stability AI, we put artists at the center and build AI around their unique needs, because true change always comes from combining art and science.”
“UMG has been a leader in innovation in music for many years, and this partnership marks the next chapter in music production.”
Prem Akaraju, Stability AI
UMG said the deal with Udio and Stability AI is one of the “industry-first AI deals” the company has signed with companies such as YouTube, TikTok, Meta, KDDI, KLAY Vision, BandLab, Soundlabs, and Pro-Rata.
Regarding stability AI, the deal with UMG follows recent strategic partnerships with Electronic Arts, which develops generative AI tools for game development, and with marketing company WPP for advertising applications. The deal with UMG extends that strategy to music production as well.
In July, Akaraju told the Financial Times in an interview that Stability AI was considering developing a marketplace where artists could license their work for AI training. The marketplace will reportedly allow creators to voluntarily submit their artwork and receive compensation when AI companies use their content to train models.
Stability AI is currently facing multiple copyright infringement lawsuits. In one case, Seattle-based Getty Images sued Stability AI in both the UK and US, alleging that the company illegally used 12 million images without permission or compensation.
Separately, illustrators Sarah Andersen, Kelly McKernan, and Carla Ortiz filed a class action lawsuit against Stability AI and two other companies in January 2023, challenging the use of their work to train AI models.
In August, Stability AI researchers said AI was creating “potentially new” musical genres. “Previously, musicians had to spend years learning a specific genre. Now, AI can blend and produce music from multiple (and potentially new) genres,” the researchers found.
