Sean Parker, co-founder of Napster, has returned to the music industry, stating to The Information that he’s playing by the rules this time. Two years ago, he joined an $80 million rescue of Stability AI, the image-generator startup that nearly collapsed after overspending and internal turmoil led to the ousting of founder Emad Mostaque. Now, Parker and his longtime friend Prem Akkaraju, who became CEO, are going public with what they’ve been building.
Parker says the goal is to turn Stability into the go-to AI toolmaker for music professionals. In late August, the company announced $76 million in funding from Sony, Warner, and Universal, which also licensed their catalogs for training as part of the deal. Stability has since launched three new audio models and AI music-editing software. The AI can generate entire instrumental tracks or short snippets from text prompts.
An upcoming update will allow users to hum a melody or beatbox a drum pattern to guide the AI.
