Universal Music Licenses Its Catalog to ElevenLabs for a Fan-Remix AI Music Platform

Universal Music Group has licensed its artist catalog to ElevenLabs to build an AI-powered music platform where fans can remix and mash up official tracks and generate new interpretations of them. The licensing agreement gives ElevenLabs rights-cleared source material for fan-facing audio tools, and routes that AI use through UMG's rights management rather than around it.

• Fans get sanctioned remixing. The platform will let listeners remix and mash up UMG artist tracks, create "new track interpretations," and build "personalized vocal experiences," according to the companies.
• The companies are co-building a new platform. According to Variety, that separates the deal from UMG's arrangements with the remixing tool Hook and the AI music generator Udio, which license into existing products.
• More audio products are planned. The platform is the first piece; UMG and ElevenLabs say they intend to create additional AI audio products together.
• Compensation is part of the framing. Both CEOs tie the deal to paying artists and songwriters for AI use of their work.
• It arrives amid active AI-music litigation. UMG and Sony Music Entertainment are still fighting Suno in court over alleged copyright infringement.

What the platform lets fans do with UMG tracks

The platform will let fans remix and mash up artist tracks alongside generating "new track interpretations" and "personalized vocal experiences," according to the companies. The specific artists, launch window, and pricing were not detailed.

UMG Chairman and CEO Sir Lucian Grainge framed the deal around keeping rights holders in the loop. "UMG and ElevenLabs are aligned that responsible AI can inspire discovery, deepen engagement between artists and fans, and unlock new revenue opportunities for the creative community," he said in a statement.

ElevenLabs co-founder and CEO Mati Staniszewski said the pairing combines "UMG's global community and rights management expertise, with our AI models and products," adding that the goal is to "ensure they are fairly compensated." How that compensation is calculated was not disclosed.

How this deal differs from UMG's Hook and Udio arrangements

UMG already has AI-music deals with the remixing tool Hook and the AI music generator Udio. The ElevenLabs agreement differs, according to Variety, because the companies are co-building an entirely new platform rather than licensing into an existing product.

The move lands inside a broader label push into licensed AI audio. The deal follows Suno's first label-powered models, backed by Warner Music Group, Believe and BMG. At the same time, UMG and Sony Music Entertainment remain in litigation against Suno over alleged copyright infringement, so the major labels are simultaneously building licensed AI products and contesting unlicensed ones in court.

ElevenLabs' expanding music footprint

ElevenLabs, founded in 2022, licenses voices and intellectual property, including Hasbro's suite of characters, and has pushed further into music. Its Eleven Music model offers control over genre, structure, and lyrics.

The company also released a custom music model that trains on a user's own tracks.

ElevenLabs has also released "The Eleven Album," a collection of original songs co-created with singers including Liza Minnelli and Art Garfunkel plus some AI-generated artists, alongside an AI model built to produce "studio-quality compositions," with a second volume following. Per Variety, the company raised $500 million in a Series D funding round at an $11 billion valuation, after offering employees a $100 million tender offer at a $6.6 billion valuation.

A major label is now supplying its catalog as licensed input for a consumer AI remix platform, keeping the source recordings inside a rights framework rather than through the unlicensed use now being contested in court. What that means for anyone building derivative work, and how payments actually reach artists, will depend on terms neither company has published.