Yet, concerns regarding the copyrights surrounding the music created by these bots are still plausible. Given the fact that the AI training process happens on different materials, it’s hard to say how the startup began developing music.
The previous year, Suno and Udio were also sued by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the trade organization that is responsible for the US music industry. More so, three lawsuits mention that Suno and Usio trained theri music generation models on music that had copyrights. The companies are now discussing licensing deals with some of the 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. As Merlin’s website representatives have mentioned, the company now represents major artists such as Adele, Nirvana, Mitski, Carly Rae Jepsen, and Phoebe Bridgers. On the other hand, Kobalt represents singers such as Beck, Bon Iver, and Childish Gambino.
A Kobalt representative spoke to TechCrunch and reported that “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”.
