Universal and ElevenLabs sign AI deal for licensed fan remixes
Universal Music Group artists can soon let fans remix, mash up and reinterpret their songs with artificial intelligence under a new multi-year deal with ElevenLabs.
The agreement was announced on 10 September 2026 and covers both licensing and product development, according to Universal Music Group. ElevenLabs will build a dedicated fan platform where listeners can make new versions of official tracks. Participation is opt-in for UMG artists, and revenue from the creations will be shared.
The platform will sit apart from ElevenLabs' existing products. That means it will be kept separate from its ElevenMusic app and its Music API, the programming interface other companies can use to add music generation to their own services. ElevenLabs defines Music as a service that uses one or more models to generate sound recordings.
It is ElevenLabs' first deal with a major label. The company is best known for Text to Speech models, which convert written text into spoken audio, transcription models including Scribe, and voice agents for customer conversations. It says it developed its AI music model in partnership with artists, labels and publishers.
The numbers behind the company are large. ElevenLabs raised USD $500 million in a Series D funding round in February 2026 at an $11 billion valuation, more than three times its valuation a year earlier. The round was confirmed by the company in February.
The UMG deal is part of a wider push by Universal around licensed fan creation. In August, Universal signed a licensing partnership with Hook, which supplies tools for fans to remix, clip and add effects to official recordings, with each use licensed, attributed and tracked. In May, Universal became the first music company to license Spotify's forthcoming AI covers and remixes tool, which will launch as a paid Premium add-on, according to Music Business Worldwide.
Fan edits are already common. Research firm Pex estimated that 38.03% of songs it identified on TikTok during 2023 were speed- or pitch-modified, up from 24.55% a year earlier.
For fans, this means the sped-up chorus or slowed-down verse that now circulates without permission could soon come with a licence attached. Artists who opt in would be credited and paid, rather than chasing unauthorised uploads after they spread.
