Sean Parker, Napster co-founder, joined an $80 million rescue of Stability AI two years ago after founder Emad Mostaque’s ouster amid overspending and internal turmoil. Parker and CEO Prem Akkaraju are pivoting Stability into the go-to AI toolmaker for music professionals.
In late August, Stability announced $76 million in funding from Sony, Warner, and Universal, which also licensed their catalogs for training. Stability has released three new audio models and AI music-editing software. The AI generates whole instrumental tracks or short snippets from text prompts. An upcoming update will let users hum a melody or beatbox a drum pattern to steer generation.
Parker tells The Information he’s playing by the rules this time — licensing catalogs rather than the Napster-era approach of asking forgiveness rather than permission.