Warner Music Group on Wednesday announced its acquisition of the startup Sureel AI, an AI platform that uses a technology called “AI DNA” in an effort to protect creative projects and other intellectual property — including music, voices, likeness and performance — from unauthorized use and monetization by AI training models.
Sureel, founded in 2022, works to track how artists’ content are used by generative AI models, using patented technology to trace how and when work is used and make it easier for those artists to be compensated. That technology is deployed by the user via a dashboard (pictured below).
The deal will see Sureel continue to operate as a standalone company. The acquisition, founder and CEO Tamay Aykut said in a statement, would help Sureel “deliver on our mission at scale, building a more transparent and fair future and driving value growth for the whole music and entertainment ecosystem.
“Rightsholders deserve to know how AI interacts with their work, and to share fairly in the value it creates,” Aykut said. “Sureel was built to make that possible.”
Surreel AI’s staff includes several music industry veterans, including Pledgemusic co-founder Benji Rogers and former Universal Music exec Aileen Crowley (both co-presidents) as well as former SoundCloud and Warner Music exec Michael Pelczynski as head of licensing.
“AI powers a large fan engagement and value creation opportunity for our industry, while making the human provenance of music more important than ever,” WMG CEO Robert Kyncl said in a statement. “Bringing Sureel into WMG strengthens our capability for protection, control and monetization and ensures that the creative community remains in control of its intellectual property, name, image, likeness, and voice. We look forward to working with Tamay and his team to advance all of their incredible work.”
WMG has gone from an AI skeptic to an AI embracer. After suing the music generation app Suno in 2024, the company settled the lawsuit and struck a licensing agreement with the app in November to power Suno’s models, even as the two other major music companies, Sony and Universal, continue legal action against it. That new, license-backed model is currently being tested. The music giant also struck a deal last year with Stability AI to create AI tools for artists.