Musical AI Tames the Chaos and Ushers in a Sustainable Generative AI Future

13 June 2024 - Press release

 

Thanks to groundbreaking technology, this newly launched rights management platform allows attribution and metered licensing of copyrighted works for AI training and generation.

Musical AI (formerly Somms.ai) is unveiling its new rights management platform for AI, serving as a secure go-between for rights holders (labels, publishers, artists) and generative AI companies. The platform knocks down all tech barriers standing in the way of attributing music to the original artists and songwriters and paying rights holders for use of their work by generative AI.

This means there are no more excuses. “We have these incredible advances in AI outputs that require valuable human-created input. There are a few futures ahead of us; one is a future where inputs are seen as interchangeable commodities without distinct value. This is the future currently being promoted by some AI companies,” explains Musical AI co-founder and CEO Sean Power. “In another, arguably better future, we as humans insist that inputs are important, that music, art, ideas, words, and the human labor required to create them have value. If you value this work, then logic dictates that an attribution platform must exist. We are that platform.”

This future requires a middle ground to bridge rights holders’ and generative AI entrepreneurs’ needs. Rights holders need a way to monitor, take down, and sunset usage of the works they own. Generative AI companies need quality licensed data. Musical AI has built this bridge, creating a service that allows rights holders to manage their catalog in a secure platform while retaining control. Generative AI companies can then train their models on this data, using Musical AI’s reports to monitor usage for each generated output.

Musical AI’s innovation lies in its unique ability to determine what inputs led to particular outputs. Musical AI is able to parse what percentage of a generated output came from what data source, a game-changing factor in attribution and remuneration for artists and rights holders. 

“The current problem in the marketplace is that many AI companies agree that the people who own music and IP should be paid. However, rights holders don’t have mechanisms in place to control and monitor usage,” notes Matthew Adell, co-founder and COO. “We’ve created a platform that allows musical assets to exist in a secure environment and that allows us to attribute every single generation. This lets rights holders and AI companies do business fairly and legally.”

Musical AI is built by a team of world-class AI researchers, experienced serial entrepreneurs, and long-standing music and entertainment leaders, all of whom care deeply about the fate of data and art in the AI age. It is guided byadvisors at the top of their field, including Vickie Nauman, the music licensing powerhouse behind several breakthrough tech products, and Alastair Croll, one of Canada’s preeminent technology entrepreneurs and authors.  

Musical AI’s focus on ethics and the value of human labor has helped them become one of the first companies to gain certification from generative AI watchdog, Fairly Trained. It has also won over key players in the music industry, though the company hopes to expand to other media soon.  

“We’re excited to innovate rapidly in the music AI space, but we need a partner that allows us to do so while honoring artists. Musical AI is that partner,” says Jorge Brea, CEO of Symphonic, the distribution partner to millions of independent artists. “In the near future, distributors and record labels will be glad they took a proactive approach to best-in-class AI music rights protection and monetization on behalf of the music community.”