Universal Music Group and ElevenLabs announced a multi-year licensing and product agreement on September 10, 2026 — ElevenLabs' first deal with a major label — that will produce a new AI-powered music creation platform for fans. According to the companies, the platform will let listeners create remixes and mashups from participating artists' tracks, build new track interpretations and personalize vocal experiences. A second track of the collaboration covers additional AI audio products for artists and songwriters, to follow over the coming months and years.

The new platform is being built distinctly from ElevenLabs' existing music products: the Eleven Music API, a studio-grade model served to developers and media companies, and ElevenMusic, its song-generation and editing app. UMG framed the deal as an artist-first licensing arrangement. Chairman and CEO Sir Lucian Grainge said responsible AI can "inspire discovery, deepen engagement between artists and fans, and unlock new revenue opportunities for the creative community." ElevenLabs co-founder and CEO Mati Staniszewski said the pair would combine UMG's rights-management expertise with ElevenLabs' audio models so that artists and songwriters are "fairly compensated."

The announcement landed a day after Suno released its first label-backed models, trained with content from Warner Music Group, Believe and BMG — part of a fast-moving wave of licensed AI music deals across the majors. UMG already has arrangements with the remix startup Hook and with the AI generator Udio. It and Sony Music Entertainment are still suing Suno for copyright infringement, a lawsuit that makes the label's simultaneous embrace of ElevenLabs a flashpoint for artists and songwriter groups; the European Composer and Songwriter Alliance has pressed for more transparency in label–AI licensing.

ElevenLabs, founded in 2022, raised $500 million in a Series D earlier this year at an $11 billion valuation, up from $6.6 billion when it ran a $100 million employee tender offer. The company licenses voices and characters — Hasbro's portfolio among them — and has published two volumes of "The Eleven Album," collections of original tracks co-created with artists including Liza Minnelli and Art Garfunkel.

No launch date has been announced for the UMG platform; the companies said only that it is in development and that the licensing terms cover a multi-year term. Key unanswered questions include which artists will opt in, how revenue is split, and whether fans' generated tracks can be published commercially.

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