Universal Music and ElevenLabs strike multiyear AI music licensing deal

Universal Music Group and ElevenLabs announced a multiyear licensing and product-development agreement on September 10 to build AI audio products for artists, songwriters and fans. Their first planned product is a fan music-creation platform based on licensed music and participation by artists and songwriters.

Still in development, the platform is intended to support remixes, mashups, track reinterpretations and personalized vocal experiences. It is intended to give fans ways to co-create with music from participating artists and songwriters.

The companies described the agreement as ElevenLabs’ first with a major record label. The fan platform will be separate from ElevenLabs’ existing Music API and ElevenMusic products, they said. The broader collaboration also calls for AI audio products for artists and songwriters, plus additional fan products over the coming months and years. For context, other developers are building real-time voice models for AI agents, a different segment of the AI audio market.

The companies said artists and songwriters should share in the value created. ElevenLabs CEO Mati Staniszewski separately said creators would be fairly compensated. Those remain company commitments: the announcements do not explain how compensation would be calculated or distributed, and they report no measured commercial results for the platform while it remains in development.

The announcements do not disclose financial terms, royalty rates, revenue-sharing formulas or minimum guarantees. They also do not name participating artists or songwriters, identify eligible catalogs, set a launch date or pricing, or specify which recording, publishing, voice, name-and-likeness or training rights the agreement covers.