Universal Music Group (UMG) and Warner Music Group are reportedly in talks to license their artists' music to artificial intelligence (AI) companies. Among the companies that have held talks are ElevenLabs, Stability AI, Suno, Udio, Klay Vision, Google and Spotify.
The use of musicians' works to train AI models has become a controversial issue because it is seen as stealing the creators' intellectual property. UMG and Warner Music are believed to demand payment every time an artist's work is used to make music using a royalty model similar to that used on streaming platforms.
Last year, Suno and Udio were sued by Sony Music, UMG and Warner for allegedly infringing on their music copyrights. In a writ of summons filed, the recording companies said that music generated by generative AI would compete with, devalue and take the place of music produced by humans. Within a year, UMG and Warner seem ready to forget about this lawsuit by paying a license.