The Majors Are Building AI Music Products, Not Just Suing Them

If you run a label, manage a roster, or distribute catalog, you have spent the last two years watching the majors fight generative AI in court. That story is not over. But a different story just got louder, and it is the one that will actually touch your revenue.

The majors are no longer only suing AI companies. They are building products with them. And the deals are stacking up faster than the lawsuits.

On September 10, Universal Music Group signed a multi-year licensing agreement with AI audio company ElevenLabs, according to Music Business Worldwide. The two will launch a new AI-powered music platform for fans, built on UMG's catalog, that lets people remix and mashup tracks, create "new track interpretations," and generate "personalized vocal experiences" from artists and songwriters who opt in. That is the consumer half. The other half matters more.

UMG and ElevenLabs also agreed to jointly develop AI audio products for artists and songwriters, not just for fans. Billboard stressed that this deal is more about building new products together than plugging into ElevenLabs' existing tools. It does not include ElevenMusic, the company's original-song app, and it does not include its studio-grade models sold via API.

Read the timing, not just the terms

The clock is the tell. As Variety noted, UMG's announcement landed one day after Suno launched its first label-powered models, v6, trained on music from WMG, Believe, and BMG. Billboard reported that Suno v6 was built "in partnership with the music industry," using catalog from UMG's direct competitors plus user interaction data.

So within 24 hours, one major (Warner) plus Believe and BMG put their names on Suno's licensed models, and then UMG announced its own separate deal with ElevenLabs. That is not a coincidence. That is the industry moving in the same direction at once.

Here is the part that keeps me honest: UMG and Sony are still suing Suno over alleged copyright infringement, per Variety. The litigation and the licensing are running on parallel tracks. The majors want it both ways, and right now they are getting it. They sue the platforms that trained without permission while cutting deals with the platforms willing to pay.

Why $11 billion is the number to watch

ElevenLabs was valued at $11 billion in a $500 million Series D announced in February, MBW reported. That is more than double the $5.4 billion Suno reached in June. ElevenLabs said in May it had crossed $500 million in annual recurring revenue, up from $350 million at the end of 2025, and Forbes estimates it made $116 million in profit in 2025.

Translation: UMG did not partner with a scrappy upstart. It partnered with the largest, most profitable name in AI audio, and it did so on a bespoke build rather than a plug-in. When the biggest label ties itself to the best-capitalized AI audio company, that is not an experiment. That is infrastructure.

ElevenLabs already has music-business relationships. MBW noted its ElevenMusic launch last year came with deals with Merlin, which represents 30,000 independent labels and distributors, and publisher Kobalt, plus a later deal with Believe. Billboard traced its earliest known music partnership to production library SourceAudio in 2025. In April, ElevenLabs said more than 4,000 independent and emerging artists were on the platform.

What this means for you

Start with the shift in strategy. For two years the safe read was that enforcement was the majors' primary weapon. That is over. Enforcement is now the stick used to negotiate the deal, not the endgame. Licensed remix platforms are the endgame.

Notice the opt-in language. Both companies stress that only participating artists and songwriters will be in the fan platform. If you manage artists, that veto is a real lever. Use it.

Then watch the artist-side tooling. The consumer remix platform gets the headlines, but the jointly developed products for artists and songwriters are the quieter, bigger story. The business model is broadening from exploiting catalog to selling tools back to creators. That is a second revenue axis, and it is the one indie distributors and publishers should be pricing into their own AI conversations now.

Grainge framed it as unlocking "new revenue opportunities for the creative community." ElevenLabs CEO Mati Staniszewski promised artists would be "fairly compensated." Those are the right words. The rate cards will tell us whether they mean them.

The majors have decided the future of AI music is licensed, remixable, and monetized. The only open question left for the rest of us is who sets the price, and how much of it reaches the people who made the song.

Sources

• Music Business Worldwide
• Variety
• Billboard