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Sean Parker Rebuilds Stability AI Around Tools for Music Professionals
Napster co-founder Sean Parker is steering Stability AI toward the music business, two years after joining an $80 million rescue of the near-collapsed startup and weeks after a $76 million round backed by Sony, Warner and Universal.
Stability AI has released three new audio models along with AI music-editing software, tools that can generate complete instrumental tracks or short passages from text prompts. The rollout follows a $76 million funding round announced in late August.
The round drew backing from Sony, Warner and Universal, among other investors. As part of the deal, the major labels licensed their catalogs for training the models.
Parker joined an $80 million rescue of Stability AI two years ago. The image-generator startup had nearly collapsed after overspending and internal turmoil led to the ouster of founder Emad Mostaque.
Prem Akkaraju, a longtime friend of Parker, took over as chief executive. The pair are now unveiling what they have been building, with Parker describing the core ambition as making Stability the go-to AI toolmaker for music professionals.
The Napster co-founder has returned to the music industry saying he intends to play by the rules this time, conceding that asking for forgiveness rather than permission did not work out well on his previous attempt.