In 2024, Musical AI, formerly known as Somms.ai, launched a rights management platform to allow proper attribution and compensation for the use of copyrighted works in AI training and generation.
At the time, the startup said the technology aims to address the lack of a system for attributing and licensing copyrighted material used to train AI models.
Now, the company has raised $4.5 million in a funding round led by Heavybit, with participation from BDC and Build Ventures, to further develop its attribution technology.
Musical AI says it will use the fresh capital to expand its team, refine its attribution technology, and establish new partnerships in the music industry before moving into other creative sectors.
The startup’s technology traces which training data influences specific outputs from generative AI models, and identifies what percentage of a generated output came from which source.
Musical AI says its platform serves both sides of AI training. Rightsholders can track where their work appears in AI training datasets and take down content they don’t want used. On the other hand, AI companies gain access to licensed data and monitor usage and pay rightsholders on an ongoing basis.
“Some claim attribution, licensing and AI are incompatible, or that only the largest players in the business can deploy it due to the cost and complexity. We have proved them wrong.”
Sean Power, Musical AI
Sean Power, CEO and co-founder of Musical AI, said: “Some claim attribution, licensing and AI are incompatible, or that only the largest players in the business can deploy it due to the cost and complexity. We have proved them wrong.”
Musical AI is one of the first to gain certification from generative AI watchdog, Fairly Trained. The non-profit, founded by former Stability AI executive Ed Newton-Rex. Fairly Trained provides a “Licensed Model” certification, similar to organic food certifications, that evaluates and certifies AI models based on their training data sources.
Musical AI has signed partnerships with audio content providers including Pro Sound Effects, SourceAudio, and Symphonic Distribution. In December 2024, Musical AI partnered with Beatoven.ai, which provides AI-powered royalty free music for content creators, to create what they call the “first fully licensed, rightsholder-compensating, generative AI platform” trained on copyrighted music and other audio.
“Our business is built upon using licensed data sets with attribution for our AI model. Working with Musical AI is a perfect fit.”
Kevin Griffin, Soundbreak AI / Better than Ezra
SoundBreak, an AI music company formerly known as SESHY, has also used Musical AI to train its models on licensed works with proper attribution.
Kevin Griffin, CEO and co-founder SoundBreak AI, better known as the lead vocalist for rock band Better Than Ezra, said: “Our business is built upon using licensed data sets with attribution for our AI model. Working with Musical AI is a perfect fit.”
Jesse Robbins, General Partner at Heavybit, said: “Musical AI’s attribution technology is essential infrastructure that will enable and accelerate every media-focused AI product.”
“AI companies now have a seamless way to properly license, train, and use content while ensuring creators are credited and paid properly. As a leading investor in enterprise infrastructure for AI, Heavybit is proud to support Musical AI’s mission to shape the future of music and all media for everyone from artists and rightsholders to developers and innovators.”
“Heavybit is proud to support Musical AI’s mission to shape the future of music and all media for everyone from artists and rightsholders to developers and innovators.”
Jesse Robbins, Heavybit
Heavybit has backed enterprise infrastructure startups since 2013, investing in companies across DevSecOps, feature flagging, and AI code generation. The company works with founders from early stages as they build software companies.
Its investment in Musical AI comes as the music AI sector has seen a shift toward licensing agreements after a period of legal conflict. AI music generators Suno and Udio faced copyright infringement lawsuits from major record labels in 2024, but both companies have since negotiated licensing deals with the major labels.
Musical AI’s Power said: “We are demonstrating that we can provide attribution and licensing infrastructure to everyone interested in generative AI. And we can not only license IP but also pay all involved rightsholders accurately and consistently. This ensures the future of human creativity will be enriched, not undermined, by AI.”
Music Business Worldwide
