theWarner Music Music (WMG) was announced on Wednesday which is acquiring performance AI startup Sureel AI. Sureel’s patented technology creates “AI DNA” for songs and breaks them down into parts to identify how AI models use these elements.
Through the acquisition, WMG aims to better track when the work of its artists and songwriters is used in AI-generated content or to train artificial intelligence models.
“Bringing Sureel to WMG strengthens our ability to protect, control and monetize and ensures that the creative community retains control of their intellectual property, name, image, likeness and voice,” said WMG CEO Robert Kyncl in the press release.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Founded in 2022, Sureel also offers intellectual property provenance, audit and compliance reporting, model optimization and AI business intelligence. The startup also has a Name, Image and Likeness Rendering (NIL) suite to track how artists’ voices, likenesses and identities are used in AI training and creation. This includes voice clones, AI-generated avatars, and style reproduction.
The startup will continue to operate as a standalone platform serving the broader music and AI ecosystem, WMG says.
“Rights holders deserve to know how AI interacts with their work and to share fairly in the value it creates,” said Sureel founder and CEO Tamay Aykut. “Sureel was built to make this possible, and with WMG’s support, we can deliver on our mission at scale, building a more transparent and equitable future and driving value growth for the entire music and entertainment ecosystem.”
WMG has embraced AI after initially opposing it, as the company initially sued music production startup Suno in 2024 and later signed a licensing deal with the company last year. WMG said at the time that artists and songwriters would have full control over whether and how their names, images, likenesses, voices and compositions are used in new AI-generated music.
It’s worth noting that Sony Music Entertainment and Universal Music Group are still pursuing massive copyright infringement claims against the AI music startup.
WMG last year also settled its lawsuit against AI music startup Udio and reached a licensing agreement with the company.
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