Music IP Holdings (MIH) on Thursday unveiled a broad patent framework for generative AI, designed to support responsible innovation while offering additional protections for artists, songwriters, and their music. AI platforms Udio and GRAI are the first technology companies to license the patents.
The licenses will support development of licensed AI services, including covers, remixes, and a wide range of interactive music experiences. They also include protections aimed at addressing the unauthorized redistribution of AI-generated content beyond the licensees’ services. The patents extend beyond music to cover audio, video, film, animation, images, text, and applications involving name and likeness.
MIH holds and manages a portfolio of more than 24 patents (issued and allowed), with a further 50-plus patents pending. The portfolio spans the full process of creating, licensing, and commercializing AI-generated content—from the moment a prompt is entered through moderation, watermarking, identifier tagging, authorization, licensed distribution, and payment—across both open and closed ecosystems.
The portfolio is available to license now through an online platform at www.musiciprights.com, which MIH described as simple and accessible to enable widespread adoption. Barefoot Media, led by CEO Bill Campbell, is supporting MIH in bringing the portfolio to market and developing licensing opportunities across the technology and creative industries.
As part of its previously announced collaboration with MIH, Universal Music Group (UMG), its affiliates, artists, songwriters, and other participating rightsholders will be able to utilize the portfolio to further protect their works against unlicensed and unauthorized generative AI uses.
MIH CEO Daniel Drolet 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.”
Udio founder and CEO Andrew Sanchez called the development “a genuine inflection point for AI and music,” adding that the partnership implements infrastructure that protects artists and establishes guardrails to ensure AI amplifies human creativity.
GRAI CEO and co-founder Ilya Liasun described the patents as enabling the company’s social streaming model: “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.”
Bill Campbell of Barefoot Media noted that successful models in prior digital music shifts have brought technology companies and rightsholders together around clear licensing frameworks, positioning MIH’s portfolio as that bridge for generative AI.
UMG’s Chris Horton, EVP of Strategic Technology, said the patents reinforce a strategy of ethical innovation that puts artists and songwriters at the center, with greater agency, influence, and value-chain participation for the creative community.
MIH was formed through a strategic partnership with UMG and Liquidax Capital to advance, license, and deploy AI innovations into the global marketplace. The company is headquartered in Nashville.
The announcement positions the portfolio as both a pathway for licensed AI services and a tool for rightsholders seeking stronger controls and potential new revenue participation in AI-generated uses of their work.