Music IP Holdings (MIH), an entity backed by UMG, has unveiled a portfolio of over 24 patents for AI music creation – with another 50 patents pending.
According to a press release from MIH, these licenses will support the development of licensed AI services including covers, remixes, and “a wide range of interactive music experiences”.
Crucially, they will also provide “additional protections designed to address the unauthorized redistribution of AI-generated content beyond their services”. (Aka: Keeping those walled gardens, well… walled.)
However, the same patents also cover tech to enable ‘open’ AI music ecosystems – where AI content is permitted to travel between platforms, but carries watermarks and identifiers designed to track, enforce, or monetize its usage.
Udio is one of the first two platforms to license these patents. The other is GRAI, a “social streaming service for music” backed by Khosla Ventures.
MIH was formed out of a partnership between UMG and IP asset management firm Liquidax Capital,announced in July 2025.
Speaking to MBW about the announcement, Michael Nash, EVP and Chief Digital Officer of UMG, said: “We have a long track record of supporting technologies that create new opportunities for the creative community, while enabling entrepreneurs to build and scale innovative businesses.”
“Our partnership with MIH on patent innovation extends that approach into the AI era, with a portfolio covering the entire AI-content lifecycle and helping set a standard for how AI and music grow together.
“This initiative complements our artist-centric strategy by providing us with new ways to promote our artists’ and songwriters’ interests in this critical new phase of digital music’s evolution.”
“Our partnership with MIH on patent innovation extends that approach into the AI era, with a portfolio covering the entire AI-content lifecycle and helping set a standard for how AI and music grow together.”
Daniel Drolet, CEO of Music IP Holdings, said: “Artists and songwriters shouldn’t have to choose between embracing AI and protecting their life’s work. And responsible AI companies should have a clear path to innovate.
“This portfolio is designed to do both: creating new opportunities for responsible innovation while giving artists, songwriters and rightsholders stronger protections and the ability to share in the value their work creates.
“The portfolio was developed to enable a standard that provides creators of all types the ability to generate, track and ensure new AI revenue streams while simultaneously providing strong options to manage unauthorized AI outputs.”
MBWreported on three of the patent filings in April, which described a system of artist approval, watermarking and controlled distribution for AI-generated derivatives – the kind of framework Universal Music Group has advocated.
The full array of patents extends beyond music to audio, video, film, animation, images, and text, as well as applications involving name and likeness, according to MIH.
Digital services can license them through an online platform that MIH said is designed for widespread adoption.
Meanwhile, UMG, its affiliates, artists and songwriters – plus other participating rightsholders – will be able to use the portfolio to protect their works against unlicensed and unauthorized generative AI uses.
“This is a genuine inflection point for AI and music.”
Andrew Sanchez, Udio
Andrew Sanchez, Founder and CEO of Udio, said: “This is a genuine inflection point for AI and music. With MIH, we’re partnering to implement the infrastructure that protects artists and establish the guardrails that ensure AI amplifies human creativity.
“That work – the technology, the licensing, the partnerships – is what makes the next chapter one artists can actually build on.”
Ilya Liasun, CEO and co-founder of GRAI, said: “Nobody has ever been just a listener. We drum a song on the steering wheel, cry to it in a parked car, send it to a friend at one in the morning.
“GRAI is building a social streaming service where music moves between people. And when someone puts something of their own into a song they love, the artist is asked, credited and paid, every time. These patents are what make that possible.”
Chris Horton, EVP, Strategic Technology at Universal Music Group, said: “These patents are an important way to reinforce the strategy we believe will play a critical role in the next era of music: embracing ethical innovation that puts artists and songwriters at the center, with greater agency, influence and value-chain participation for the creative community.
“We are thrilled to join MIH, music companies, and responsible technology enterprises in building an AI music ecosystem that works for everyone, especially the creative forces that makes it all possible.”
Barefoot Media, led by CEO Bill Campbell, is supporting MIH in bringing the portfolio to market.
Campbell said: “Throughout every major shift in digital music, the most successful models have been built by bringing technology companies and rightsholders together around clear, practical licensing frameworks.”
“MIH‘s portfolio creates that bridge for generative AI – giving responsible innovators a path to market while helping protect artists, songwriters and the value of their work. Barefoot Media is proud to help bring this framework to the global creative and technology communities.”
UMG and Sony Music Groupcontinue to pursue copyright litigation against Suno, the AI music platform whose executives have publicly opposed the walled-garden model.Music Business Worldwide
