Udio and GRAI Adopt UMG and Liquidax-Backed AI Music Patents
The move gives UMG and its partners more control over how copyrights are used and compensated by participating AI models.
Universal Music Group (UMG) and Liquidax Capital's intellectual property development company, Music IP Holdings (MIH), has partnered with AI music startups Udio and GRAI to license patents for creating AI-based music products. MIH holds over 24 patents and more than 50 patent applications that provide frameworks for creating responsible, licensed AI content products.
These patents cover aspects like moderation, watermarking, identification tagging, authorization, licensed distribution, and payment across open and closed ecosystems. The licensing of these patents allows for revenue generation for MIH, UMG, and Liquidax Capital every time they are used in developing AI products. Udio CEO Andrew Sanchez refers to this as a significant inflection point for AI and music, emphasizing the partnership's role in implementing infrastructure that protects artists and establishes guardrails for AI to amplify human creativity.
GRAI, founded by the team behind video-editing app Vochi, is building a social streaming service where music moves between people. CEO and co-founder Ilya Liasun highlighted the importance of these patents in enabling artists to be credited, recognized, and paid every time their work is used in an AI-generated song.
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