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The world's largest music label is building a fan-facing remix platform powered by licensed AI, with artists required to opt in before their catalogs are touched.
Universal Music Group, the label behind Taylor Swift, Drake, and Billie Eilish, is partnering with ElevenLabs to build an AI-powered platform where fans can create remixes, mashups, and entirely new interpretations of licensed music. The multi-year deal, announced on September 10, represents UMG’s latest move to shape the AI music landscape on its own terms rather than fight it from the courtroom.
The platform will let users tap into UMG’s massive catalog to generate new tracks and personalized vocal experiences.
How the platform works #
Artists and songwriters won’t be dragged into this automatically. UMG is requiring creators to opt in before their content appears on the platform, giving them direct control over whether their work gets remixed by AI.
The platform will exist as a standalone product, separate from ElevenLabs’ existing offerings like its ElevenMusic app and Music API models. This is ElevenLabs’ first collaboration with a major record label.
Sir Lucian Grainge, UMG’s chairman and CEO, framed the deal around responsible AI that benefits both artists and fans.
For participating artists, the platform creates a new revenue stream. Every remix, every mashup, every AI-generated vocal experience theoretically flows money back to the creators who opted in.
From lawsuits to licensing deals #
UMG’s embrace of AI music tools didn’t happen overnight, and it certainly didn’t happen without some legal friction first. The label has been actively involved in AI-related lawsuits, pushing back against companies that trained models on copyrighted music without authorization.
This ElevenLabs deal sits alongside a growing portfolio of AI partnerships. UMG previously struck a settlement with Udio, the AI music generation startup it had sued, and the two are now developing their own AI music platform targeting a 2026 rollout. UMG has also signed AI licensing agreements with Spotify and Nvidia.
The broader industry is moving in the same direction. Warner Music Group recently partnered with Suno on its v6 models, signaling that the major labels have collectively decided that controlling AI is more profitable than blocking it.
What this means for the music industry #
The UMG-ElevenLabs platform represents a specific bet: that fans will pay, or at least engage enough to generate ad revenue, for the ability to creatively interact with their favorite artists’ music using AI tools.
For artists, the opt-in model is crucial. It preserves agency in a way that earlier waves of AI music generation did not. An artist who doesn’t want their voice cloned or their instrumentals remixed can simply stay off the platform. With UMG building platforms with both ElevenLabs and Udio, the label is essentially hedging its technology bets while maintaining leverage over multiple AI partners.
For ElevenLabs, landing a deal with UMG validates its technology in a way that no product launch could. The company moves from being an AI audio startup to a licensed partner of the most powerful entity in recorded music. Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our