Stability AI turns to music with backing from Sean Parker and record labels

Stability AI, the startup once known mainly for text-to-image generation, is remaking itself as a music AI company, with Napster co-founder Sean Parker driving the shift, according to The Information.

Two years ago, Parker joined an $80 million rescue of Stability AI after the company nearly collapsed. Overspending and internal turmoil inside the company led to the ouster of founder Emad Mostaque. Parker’s longtime friend Prem Akkaraju then took over as chief executive, and the two have spent the two years since reworking what Stability AI builds and who it builds for.

Parker told The Information that he intends to approach the music industry differently this time than he did at Napster, the file-sharing service he co-founded that let people download and trade music without licenses from labels or artists. He said asking forgiveness rather than permission did not work out well for him back then, and that Stability AI is instead seeking the industry’s cooperation before releasing its products.

That cooperation took concrete form in late August, when Stability AI announced $76 million in new funding from investors that included Sony, Warner and Universal. As part of the same deal, the three major record labels licensed their music catalogs to Stability AI, giving the company the rights to use that material for training its AI models.

Since the funding announcement, Stability AI has released three new audio models and AI music-editing software, according to the company. The tools can generate whole instrumental tracks or short snippets based on text prompts. Parker said an upcoming update will go further, letting users hum a melody or beatbox a drum pattern to shape what the AI produces, rather than requiring them to describe what they want in words.

The shift marks a reversal for a company best known for text-to-image generation, work that cost Stability dearly in money and leadership before the rescue two years ago. Parker’s stated aim now is to make Stability AI the primary AI toolmaker for working musicians and producers rather than a general-purpose image generator. What remains unclear is how songwriters and performers whose catalogs were licensed will see compensation flow through as Stability’s tools reach more users, and whether the promised humming and beatboxing features perform as described once they ship.