Musical AI, the AI rights management platform for music and audio, is collaborating with First Rule, a new Nashville-based artist-model platform and VST plugin, to build fully licensed AI agents and models that support music makers. Musical AI will provide licensed training data to First Rule, which will use this data to train musical agents and models to help artists and producers where they currently make music.

Musical AI will provide data, attribution technology (what inputs led to specific outputs), and payment processing to ensure First Rule can prioritize rightsholder consent, credit, and compensation. First Rule will train its proprietary models using this data and ensure they are capable of producing high-calibre results. This lets artists and producers train their own Musical Essence or M.E Models™ on their distinctive style and approach, then license these models to others for use in First Rule’s Co-Writer™, the generative AI-powered VST plugin they’re building that will work in any digital audio workstation (DAW), saving several steps and integrating AI right into the music-making process.

First Rule is the latest in a growing number of AI companies and rightsholders that are turning to Musical AI’s platform to license copyrighted works for AI training purposes. Musical AI has created a secure environment that allows rightsholders to offer select data for training and that allows AI innovators to know what track led to what generated outcome so that they can pay the rightsholders appropriately. This licensing framework has already attracted significant music rightsholders such as Symphonic and Soundstripe, and generative AI companies such as Beatoven.

“This partnership speaks to how generative AI can support artists from the ground up, from training data and models that honor artists’ work to helpful tools and substantial payouts based on usage,” says Matt Adell, COO of Musical AI. “First Rule is a great example of how AI can play a key role in inspiring creativity and unlocking new revenue, all while honoring the needs and wishes of rightsholders.”

“First Rule is committed to building AI that encourages artists and sustains music by ensuring rightsholders have consent, credit, and compensation,” says Rob Baker, Co-CEO and Co-Founder of First Rule. “Our partnership with Musical AI has been vital to realizing this vision and showing how AI can work in harmony with music, with both its creative and business sides.”