Beatoven.ai unveiled a new artificial intelligence music generation model on Wednesday (August 28) that promises to pay ongoing royalties to artists whose work helped train the system.
The company describes Maestro as “the first such model to be fully licensed and fairly trained from the ground up, built on official partnerships with rightsholders and an ongoing revenue sharing component.”
Maestro was trained through partnerships with Rightsify, Soundtrack Loops, Symphonic Music, Bobby Cole, Vadi Sound, and Pro Sound Effects.
Mansoor Rahimat Khan, co-founder and CEO of Beatoven.ai, said: “Human creativity and AI can go hand in hand. Our vision at Beatoven.ai has always been to create a model that generates the world’s most interesting sounds.”
“Most tools try to mimic humans, whereas AI should push human creativity forward by generating what we’ve never heard before. Hallucinations in foundation models are a feature in music, not a bug.”
“AI should push human creativity forward by generating what we’ve never heard before. Hallucinations in foundation models are a feature in music, not a bug.”
Mansoor Rahimat Khan, Beatoven.ai
The model addresses concerns over the use of unlicensed music in AI training, with startups Suno and Udio facing lawsuits from Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment. In June, Bloomberg reported that the same major record companies are seeking license fees from the platforms plus “a small amount” of equity in both AI firms.
Meanwhile, Beatoven.ai says in contrast to other AI music licensing deals, its Maestro model “will result in ongoing royalty payments to artists, composers, and rightsholders.”
Beatoven.ai partnered with rights management platform Musical AI to track which licensed songs contribute to each generated track and distribute payments accordingly. The system can identify specific musical elements that influence outputs to enable accurate attribution and compensation.
The launch of Maestro comes as Beatoven.ai has attracted 2 million registered users who have generated over 15 million tracks using earlier models.
“If you respect musicians, you license their music. Beatoven.ai is providing yet more compelling evidence that generative AI doesn’t need to be built by scraping the music of the world’s musicians.”
Ed Newton-Rex, Fairly Trained
Initially, Maestro generates instrumental tracks, with sound effects and vocals planned for future releases. The model can be fine-tuned for specific genres and styles, said Beatoven.ai.
The system includes tools to allow labels, publishers and rightsholders to analyze their tracks using Beatoven.ai’s Musical Intelligence, as well as identify instruments, generate metadata and enhance search capabilities.
The company also operates an API that developers use to integrate music generation into applications.
Ed Newton-Rex, CEO of the ethical generative AI non-profit Fairly Trained, said: “This new model from Beatoven.ai is great to see. If you respect musicians, you license their music. Beatoven.ai is providing yet more compelling evidence that generative AI doesn’t need to be built by scraping the music of the world’s musicians.”
Newton-Rex, who also founded Jukedeck (acquired by TikTok), quit his role as VP of Audio at Stability AI in 2023 over concerns about the ‘harvesting’ of copyrighted music by generative AI platforms.
“We’re showing the world what a fair AI deal looks like: attribution, respect of rights, and ongoing payouts every time a work contributes to an output.”
Sean Power, Musical AI
Sean Power, CEO of Musical AI, Beatoven.ai’s license provider, commented: “In our partnership with Beatoven.ai, we’re building the future that everyone knows will result in real support for artists, composers, and rightsholders, while creating the best, most innovative AI possibilities.”
“We’re showing the world what a fair AI deal looks like: attribution, respect of rights, and ongoing payouts every time a work contributes to an output. Maestro is a major step towards this better future.”
Music Business Worldwide
