In contrast to other AI music licensing deals, this model will result in ongoing royalty payments to artists, composers, and rightsholders

Beatoven.ai is announcing Maestro, its new generative AI foundation model for music. It’s the first such model to be fully licensed and fairly trained from the ground up, built on official partnerships with rightsholders and an ongoing revenue sharing component. This model, which powers Beatoven’s suite of generative AI and Music Intelligence tools, will allow anyone to generate instrumental tracks, with sound effects and vocals coming soon. This model proves that AI companies can respect human creativity and existing copyright and still create innovations that promise to transform musicmaking. 

Maestro uses datasets licensed in collaboration with Musical AI, a rights management platform that allows AI companies to attribute generative outputs to specific tracks and pay music rightsholders accordingly. Data partners include Rightsify, Soundtrack Loops,
Symphonic Music, Bobby Cole, Vadi Sound, and Pro Sound Effects, with more to come.

“Human creativity and AI can go hand in hand.” says Mansoor Rahimat Khan, co-founder and CEO of Beatoven.ai. “Our vision at Beatoven.ai has always been to create a model that generates the world's most interesting sounds. Most tools try to mimic humans, whereas AI should push human creativity forward by generating what we’ve never heard before. Hallucinations in foundation models are a feature in music, not a bug.”

Beatoven.ai’s approach comes from a deep love and appreciation for music: Khan is a sitarist who hails from a 7-generation old family of sitar players. The company has long sought to respect musical inputs, and its current trailblazing approach flows from that dedication. Its new foundation model will offer inspiring possibilities to Beatoven.ai’s existing 2 million registered users who have already generated more than 15 million tracks using the company’s previous models. Maestro also allows users to fine-tune the model, meaning Maestro can be trained to tackle new genres, styles, and sounds. 

Maestro includes powerful tools that go beyond the prompt and provide extra value for catalog owners. Labels, publishers, and rightsholders can analyze their tracks using Beatoven.ai’s Musical Intelligence, i.e. identifying instruments, generating metadata, and deepening search. It boosts exposure and supports rightsholders in surfacing music from their catalog apart from the well-known hits.

Along with these B2B offerings, Maestro will open up generative use cases for individuals and businesses that are new to AI, including creative and entertainment professionals hamstrung by many generative models’ sketchy licensing status. "Beatoven.ai’s fully licensed model ensures that every track generated pays the rightsholders who made it possible, bringing ethical, professional-grade music production into creator workflows from gaming to virtual production," reflects Khan. "With Maestro, Beatoven.ai unites creators and artists in a sustainable AI-powered music ecosystem where professional-quality tracks are generated ethically, and rightsholders share in the success. We’re building a creator economy that rewards creativity at every level."

Beatoven.ai continues offering its longstanding API that enables developers to build creative applications powered by music generation. Fully licensed, Beatoven’s API is currently the world’s #1 generative music API and has been available since 2024, with a robust roadmap of API expansion this year to broaden access across creative industries, and deliver another revenue stream to musicians and rights holders.

“This new model from Beatoven.ai is great to see. If you respect musicians, you license their music. Beatoven.ai is providing yet more compelling evidence that generative AI doesn’t need to be built by scraping the music of the world’s musicians,” says Ed Newton-Rex, CEO of Fairly Trained, former VP of Product at Stability AI and founder of Jukedeck (acquired by TikTok).

“In our partnership with Beatoven.ai, we’re building the future that everyone knows will result in real support for artists, composers, and rightsholders, while creating the best, most innovative AI possibilities,” notes Sean Power, CEO of Musical AI, Beatoven.ai’s license provider. “We’re showing the world what a fair AI deal looks like: attribution, respect of rights, and ongoing payouts every time a work contributes to an output. Maestro is a major step towards this better future.”