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Udio and GRAI Adopt UMG and Liquidax-Backed AI Music Patents
Music IP Holdings (MIH) — an intellectual property development company formed through a strategic partnership between Universal Music Group (UMG) and Liquidax Capital — revealed on Thursday (Aug. 20) that AI music start-ups Udio and GRAI are the first two companies to license patents from its portfolio for use in developing their AI products. According to a press release, the MIH patents will specifically be used to support “the development of licensed AI services including covers, remixes and a wide range of interactive music experiences.”
So far, MIH holds and manages more than 24 patents and has over 50 patents pending, all of which provide frameworks for creating “responsible,” licensed AI content products. The press release says MIH patents can help with everything from moderation, watermarking, identification tagging, authorization, licensed distribution and payment “across open and closed ecosystems.”
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This essentially means that MIH, UMG and Liquidax Capital, an IP advisory and management firm, will receive compensation every time these patents are adopted for use in developing various AI products, opening up a potentially significant new revenue stream for the group of firms.
It is not disclosed which patents Udio and GRAI, a forthcoming “social streaming service for music,” have selected from the available offerings MIH has developed, but Udio CEO, Andrew Sanchez , calls this moment “a genuine inflection point for AI and music. With MIH, we’re partnering to implement the infrastructure that protects artists and establish the guardrails that ensure AI amplifies human creativity. That work — the technology, the licensing, the partnerships — is what makes the next chapter one artists can actually build on.”
While little is still known about GRAI, the press release described the emerging AI company as being built on “GRAI’s own music foundation model, trained on licensed data and built to understand music…Every play and every change pays the artists and songwriters behind the song.” It was quietly founded last year by the team behind video-editing app Vochi, which was acquired by Pinterest, and has raised seed funding from Khosla Ventures and Inovo VC.
“Nobody has ever been just a listener. We drum a song on the steering wheel, cry to it in a parked car, send it to a friend at one in the morning. GRAI is building a social streaming service where music moves between people. And when someone puts something of their own into a song they love, the artist is asked, credited and paid, every time. These patents are what make that possible,” said Ilya Liasun , CEO and co-founder of GRAI.
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To bring these patents to market and find licensing opportunities across technology and creative industries, MIH is supported by Barefoot Media, which is led by CEO Bill Campbell . Campbell said of the announcement: “MIH’s portfolio creates that bridge for generative AI — giving responsible innovators a path to market while helping protect artists, songwriters and the value of their work. Barefoot Media is proud to help bring this framework to the global creative and technology communities.”
Chris Horton , executive vp of strategic technology at UMG, said: “These patents are an important way to reinforce the strategy we believe will play a critical role in the next era of music: embracing ethical innovation that puts artists and songwriters at the center, with greater agency, influence and value-chain participation for the creative community. We are thrilled to join MIH, music companies, and responsible technology enterprises in building an AI music ecosystem that works for everyone, especially the creative forces that makes it all possible.”
“Artists and songwriters shouldn’t have to choose between embracing AI and protecting their lifes’ work,” added Daniel Drolet , CEO of MIH. “And responsible AI companies should have a clear path to innovate. This portfolio is designed to do both: creating new opportunities for responsible innovation while giving artists, songwriters and rightsholders stronger protections and the ability to share in the value their work creates. The portfolio was developed to enable a standard that provides creators of all types the ability to generate, track and ensure new AI revenue streams while simultaneously providing strong options to manage unauthorized AI outputs.”
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