The Big Launch

On August 5, 2025, ElevenLabs officially launched Eleven Music, a new AI music generation platform built on fully licensed datasets. Unlike competitors like Suno and Udio, which face ongoing lawsuits, ElevenLabs secured agreements with Merlin and Kobalt — two of the largest global rights organizations — ensuring royalties flow directly to artists and publishers.

Why It Matters

Eleven Music’s release marks a turning point for AI music creation. Instead of fighting lawsuits, ElevenLabs took the opposite approach: secure licenses upfront and give creators, publishers, and rights holders transparency over how their music is used.

• For creators: Generates studio-quality tracks for commercial projects without copyright risk.
• For rights holders: Built-in royalty splits ensure musicians and publishers are compensated fairly.
• For the industry: Establishes a “license-first” framework, avoiding the legal turmoil currently facing Suno and Udio.

Key Features of Eleven Music

1. Licensed Training Data: Every track is trained on cleared datasets from Merlin and Kobalt’s catalogues.
2. Artist-Centric Payments: Royalties are distributed whenever generated content uses licensed references.
3. AI Safety Controls: Users cannot prompt by artist names, copyrighted song titles, or lyrics — ensuring compliance.
4. Studio-Grade Outputs: High-fidelity stems, multi-instrument layers, and support for both instrumental and vocal generations.

“Eleven Music was built in partnership with artists, labels, and publishers. Our mission is to innovate without undermining creators’ rights.” — ElevenLabs Launch Statement, August 2025

How It Compares to Suno

While ElevenLabs focuses on licensed innovation, Suno and Udio are in the middle of ongoing legal battles over unlicensed training data. Eleven Music provides an alternative for creators who want risk-free commercial AI music generation, avoiding the uncertainty around copyright lawsuits.

What Creators Should Do

• Experiment with Eleven Music if you need royalty-safe AI tracks for YouTube, Spotify, or client projects.
• Review your platform choices carefully — the AI music space is splitting between licensed-first and lawsuit-first models.
• Stay updated on both the Suno lawsuit and ElevenLabs’ licensing moves — the outcomes will shape creator strategies for 2026 and beyond.

Sources

• Music Business Worldwide — ElevenLabs launches Eleven Music (Aug 5, 2025)
• Music Ally — Eleven Music partnership breakdown (Aug 6, 2025)
• AP — AI music industry reactions (Aug 31, 2025)