Partnerships
Universal Music Group, ElevenLabs Enter Multi-Year AI Music Agreement
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Universal Music Group and ElevenLabs announced a multi-year licensing agreement and wider strategic collaboration on September 10, 2026, beginning with a new licensed AI music creation platform that will let fans create remixes, mashups, and new interpretations of tracks from participating artists.
The agreement, announced in a release datelined Santa Monica, California, and New York, encompasses both licensing and product development. The companies described it as ElevenLabs’ first agreement with a major label and said it reflects a shared commitment to the principles that AI-enabled music innovation should be built responsibly, respect human artistry, and enable artists and songwriters to share in the value created.
A Licensed Platform for Fan Remixes
The relationship will begin with a new AI-powered music creation platform built on licensed music and artist participation, according to the announcement. Now in development, the platform will be launched by ElevenLabs and will give fans new ways to co-create with music from participating artists and songwriters. The planned formats include remixes and mashups, new interpretations of existing tracks, and personalized vocal experiences.
The new platform will be distinct and offered separately from ElevenLabs’ existing music products, the announcement said. The first of those is Music API, which the company describes as studio-grade music models available via API and used by music technology, media and entertainment, social media, and other businesses and developers globally. The second is ElevenMusic, an app for generating and editing original songs with control over vocals, instrumentation, style, arrangement, and other elements of a track.
Statements From UMG and ElevenLabs Leadership
Sir Lucian Grainge, UMG’s chairman and CEO, said the most exciting possibilities for AI and music are those that put artists, songwriters, and fans at the center. He said the two companies are aligned in the view that responsible AI can inspire discovery, deepen engagement between artists and fans, and open new revenue opportunities for the creative community. Grainge added that ElevenLabs brings a new dimension to what he described as UMG’s growing ecosystem of partners.
In ElevenLabs’ own announcement, cofounder and CEO Mati Staniszewski said: “AI opens up incredible possibilities for interacting with our favorite music and artists. By combining UMG’s global community and rights management expertise, with our AI models and products, we’ll enable artists and songwriters to create powerful new experiences for their fans, and ensure they are fairly compensated.” The company’s official blog lists the post under its Company category with a September 10, 2026 date.
UMG’s Earlier AI Agreements
The ElevenLabs agreement follows earlier AI-related announcements from UMG. On October 29, 2025, UMG and Udio announced strategic agreements under which the companies settled copyright infringement litigation and agreed to collaborate on a new commercial music creation, consumption, and streaming experience. The package included new license agreements covering recorded music and publishing, which UMG said would provide further revenue opportunities for its artists and songwriters on top of a compensatory legal settlement.
The Udio platform is planned to launch in 2026 as a subscription service trained on authorized and licensed music, that announcement said, letting users customize, stream, and share music in what the companies described as a licensed and protected environment. Udio’s existing product remains available during the transition period, with creations controlled within a walled garden and the service amended through fingerprinting, filtering, and other measures before the updated service launches. The Udio announcement also stated that UMG was the first company to enter into AI-related agreements with YouTube, TikTok, Meta, KDDI, KLAY Vision, BandLab, Soundlabs, and Pro-Rata, among others.
On January 6, 2026, UMG announced a collaboration with NVIDIA that the companies said would pursue responsible AI for music discovery, creation, and engagement using NVIDIA’s AI infrastructure and UMG’s catalog, which that announcement described as comprising millions of tracks covering every genre and era. The companies said they would extend the NVIDIA Music Flamingo model for music discovery and establish a dedicated artist incubator in which artists, songwriters, and producers co-design and test new AI-powered tools within real-world creative workflows. The collaboration also includes creative laboratories that draw on UMG studio operations such as Abbey Road Studios in London and Capitol Studios in Los Angeles, and UMG said it would use NVIDIA’s AI infrastructure to develop what it called responsibly trained AI-driven business and creative processes. That announcement noted that UMG’s Music & Advanced Machine Learning Lab had previously trained its models using NVIDIA’s AI infrastructure.
Beyond the fan platform, the companies said the multi-year agreement also provides for the joint development of additional AI audio products for artists and songwriters, along with further fan experiences, in the months and years to come.
