The AI audio-generation unicorn ElevenLabs announced a new model on Tuesday that allows users to generate music, which it claims is cleared for commercial use.
This move marks ElevenLabs’ expansion beyond its main focus thus far in its three years of existence, which has been building AI audio tools. ElevenLabs is a leader among companies making text-to-speech AI products, and it has expanded into conversational bots and tools that translate speech into other languages.
Alongside the launch, Eleven Labs shared samples of its AI-generated music.
One features a synthetic voice rapping about how it “came up through the cracks with ambition in my pocket” and left its hometown, traveling from “Compton to the Cosmos.” It’s unsettling to hear a computer reflect the influence and language of artists like Dr. Dre, N.W.A., and Kendrick Lamar, who actually lived the experiences that this technology is attempting to emulate.
Given these concerns around what material AI music generation tools are trained on, it’s not so straightforward for startups to delve into music generation.
Last year, Suno and Udio were sued by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the trade organization that represents the U.S. music industry. These lawsuits allege that Suno and Udio trained their music-generation models on copyrighted material. The companies are now reportedly discussing licensing deals with major record labels.
ElevenLabs also announced deals with Merlin Network and Kobalt Music Group, two digital publishing platforms for independent musicians, to use their materials for AI training.
According to Merlin’s website, the company represents major artists like Adele, Nirvana, Mitski, Carly Rae Jepsen, and Phoebe Bridgers; Kobalt represents stars like Beck, Bon Iver, and Childish Gambino.
A representative from Kobalt told TechCrunch that artists have to voluntarily opt-in for their music to be licensed for AI use.
“Our clients benefit directly from this agreement in several key ways: it opens a new revenue stream in a growing market, includes revenue sharing so they participate in the upside, provides strong safeguards against infringement and misuse, and offers favorable terms comparable to other publishing and recording rightsholders,” the Kobalt representative told TechCrunch.
Updated, 12:50 PM ET, with comment from Kobalt.