AI music startup Beatoven.ai has announced the launch of Maestro, a generative AI foundation model for music that introduces ongoing royalty payments to artists, composers and rights-holders. Unlike other AI music licensing deals, the model is fully licensed and built through partnerships with rights-holders.
The model powers Beatoven’s suite of generative AI and Music Intelligence tools, allowing users to generate instrumental tracks. Moreover, support for sound effects and vocals will be added in a future update. The company states that Maestro proves AI companies can build innovations while respecting copyright.
Maestro is trained on datasets licensed in collaboration with Musical AI, a rights management platform that enables attribution of generative outputs to specific tracks, ensuring payouts to rights-holders. Data partners include Rightsify, Soundtrack Loops, Symphonic Music, Bobby Cole, Vadi Sound and Pro Sound Effects.
“Human creativity and AI can go hand in hand,” said Mansoor Rahimat Khan, co-founder and CEO of Beatoven.ai. “Most tools try to mimic humans, whereas AI should push human creativity forward by generating what we’ve never heard before. Hallucinations in foundation models are a feature in music, not a bug.”
Khan, a sitarist from a seven-generation family of sitar players, said the company’s approach stems from respect for music and its creators. Beatoven.ai’s earlier models have been used by two million registered users who generated over 15 million tracks. Maestro also allows fine-tuning, enabling adaptation to new genres, styles and sounds.
The launch extends beyond the creation of generative music. Labels, publishers and rightsholders can use Beatoven.ai’s Musical Intelligence tools to analyse tracks, identify instruments, generate metadata and improve catalogue searchability.
“Beatoven.ai’s fully licensed model ensures that every track generated pays the rightsholders who made it possible,” Khan added. “With Maestro, Beatoven.ai unites creators and artists in a sustainable AI-powered music ecosystem.”
The company will continue offering its music generation API, which it calls the world’s top generative music API since 2024. The roadmap includes expanding access across industries while creating additional revenue streams for musicians and rightsholders.
Industry figures welcomed the development. “If you respect musicians, you license their music,” said Ed Newton-Rex, CEO of Fairly Trained and former VP of audio at Stability AI. “Beatoven.ai is providing compelling evidence that generative AI doesn’t need to be built by scraping the music of the world’s musicians.”
Meanwhile, Sean Power, CEO of Musical AI, called Maestro “a major step towards this better future”. “We’re showing the world what a fair AI deal looks like: attribution, respect of rights, and ongoing payouts every time a work contributes to an output,” he added.
