Voice AI startup ElevenLabs has entered the competitive AI music generation space with Eleven Music, a new service that creates studio-grade songs from natural language prompts. Users can generate complete tracks with vocals or instrumentals across multiple languages and genres, with full control over style, structure, and individual sections.

What sets ElevenLabs apart from embattled competitors Suno and Udio—both facing lawsuits from major labels—is its approach to training data. The company has secured licensing deals with Merlin Network (representing independent labels) and Kobalt Music Group, ensuring legal commercial use of generated content. CEO Mati Staniszewski emphasized they're "strictly using data we have access to," while hoping to expand partnerships to major labels like Universal, Sony, and Warner.

The platform includes built-in safeguards preventing the creation of songs mimicking specific artists or containing harmful content. Early customers across film, TV, gaming, and fitness industries have already utilized the service, representing a potential disruption to traditional stock music licensing.

However, ElevenLabs faces challenges beyond technical competition, including broader resistance from the creative community to AI and potential public backlash against businesses that profit from AI-generated music. Moreover, although the company claims that its product is "cleared for nearly all commercial uses", the Eleven Music terms of service ban most commercial uses in all the product's available plans. These legal limitations may prove to be a limiting factor for adoption, despite the successful early adoption that Eleven Labs claims its product has experienced.