Universal Music Group Partners With AI Remix App Hook to Let Fans Legally Reimagine Its Songs

Universal Music Group announced on Wednesday, August 19, that it is partnering with Hook, an AI-powered social app that lets fans remix and mash up fully licensed songs and share the results across social media. The deal opens UMG's repertoire — the largest catalogue in the recorded-music business — to user-generated remixes built inside Hook's tools, with attribution features that credit the original recordings. UMG confirmed the partnership in a press release on its own website. (Universal Music Group)

Hook, founded and led by CEO Gaurav Sharma, lets users create with cleared, licensed music and post their remixes directly to TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat and SoundCloud through existing integrations with those platforms. The app already holds licensing agreements with Downtown Music Group, Too Lost, Primary Wave and Avex, giving it a base of independent and catalogue content alongside the UMG deal. (Billboard)

The partnership is not a cold start. Hook has already worked with several UMG divisions — Republic Records, Capitol Records, Mavin and Virgin Music Group — on roughly 30 marketing campaigns for new releases, remixes and social fan activations, according to Billboard. That track record gives both sides a working history before the broader deal.

Michael Nash, UMG's chief digital officer, positioned the partnership as a way to expand licensed fan creativity across social media. The announcement emphasises that Hook's tools let fans legally remix their favourite songs with attribution, addressing a tension that has dogged user-generated music content: the line between creative expression and unauthorised use of copyrighted recordings.

Hook closed a $10 million Series A funding round in February, led by Khosla Ventures with participation from Point72 Ventures, Imaginary Ventures and Waverly Capital. Waverly Capital is a fund co-founded by Edgar Bronfman Jr., the former CEO of Warner Music Group — one of UMG's two major-label rivals. Earlier investors in Hook include Kygo's Palm Tree Crew, Three Six Zero, Avex, The Raine Group and the producer KSHMR. (Billboard)

For fans, the practical effect is straightforward: songs from UMG's roster — which spans artists across Republic, Capitol, Interscope, Def Jam, EMI and dozens of other imprints worldwide — become raw material for legally shareable remixes, with the rights cleared in advance rather than chased down after a post goes viral.

For UMG, the deal extends a strategy of engaging with AI music tools on licensing terms the label group sets, rather than litigating after the fact. The major has previously taken legal action against AI platforms it accused of training on its recordings without permission. Hook, by contrast, operates with licences in place before a fan touches a track.