ElevenLabs has launched Eleven Music, their new AI music generation service, and they say they've done it with a new strategy: don't get sued. While competitors Suno and Udio are in litigation with major labels for allegedly training on copyrighted material, ElevenLabs secured licensing deals with Merlin Network (a digital rights agency for independent labels) and Kobalt Music Group before launching. That's revolutionary thinking in AI circles. ...
On the consumer side, ElevenLabs says it has built safeguards to prevent users from generating songs with specific artist names or copyrighted lyrics. They're essentially creating AI guardrails that acknowledge artistic ownership while still enabling creation. It's like building a copy machine that refuses to photocopy currency. ...
It's hard to say whether or not you need the biggest artist's works to train a model. It's more important to be able to reference an artist as most people associate a "sound" with a name. You are more likely to prompt, "Give me a song that sounds like Bob Marley" than to prompt, "I need a 72-96 bpm reggae groove with a one-drop pulse, skank guitar, and bubble organ." ...
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