Attribution and licensing startup Musical AI has announced a $4.5 million raise. Photo Credit: Markus Winkler
Artificial intelligence attribution startup Musical AI (formerly Somms.ai) has announced a $4.5 million raise and set its sights on inking “breakthrough industry deals.”
Ottawa-headquartered Musical AI unveiled that multimillion-dollar round’s close today, a little under one year after securing $1.5 million from investors. Heavybit, the self-described “leading early-stage investor in enterprise infrastructure,” led the newer raise.
Also contributing to the $4.5 million tranche were the Business Development Bank of Canada and Halifax-based Build Ventures, the latter having led the aforementioned $1.5 million round.
Looking ahead to the remainder of 2026, Musical AI intends to keep on building out its core attribution tech. Per the company, the involved tools are “successfully deployed” and “can parse what percentage of a generated output came from which source.”
With the AI audio avalanche in full swing – and with nearly all DSPs still failing to tag machine-made uploads accordingly – this capability is noteworthy. (There’s a distinction between detecting AI audio generally and pinpointing source materials for compensation purposes, but you get the idea.)
So is Musical AI’s outlined role in providing cleared data to companies and enabling rightsholders to control their IP’s monetization.
“Generative AI companies can access quality licensed data and can use Musical AI’s reports to monitor usage and pay rightsholders on an ongoing basis, right now,” the business summed up.
At present, Musical AI’s partners include Pro Sound Effects, SourceAudio, and Symphonic Distribution. On the opposite side of the equation, SoundBreak AI, led and co-founded by Better Than Ezra frontman Kevin Griffin, is said to have trained its models on licensed works via Musical AI.
“Some claim attribution, licensing and AI are incompatible, or that only the largest players in the business can deploy it due to the cost and complexity,” added Musical AI co-founder and CEO Sean Power. “We have proved them wrong. We have made attribution simple and turnkey.”
At this point, the AI explosion (in and beyond the music world) definitely isn’t a secret – nor is the long list of companies operating in the funding-heavy space.
(For a bit of proof, look no further than the similar names of Music AI, Muso AI, and Musical AI – not to mention Suno and Udio, both of which arrived on the scene well after Stockholm-based audio-product manufacturer Sudio.)
Among other things, that means multiple entities are working to make waves at the intersection of AI, attribution, and licensing. Sony Music-backed Vermillio is actively pushing TraceID, or what it says is “the first platform that delivers the solutions needed to safeguard your IP & NIL,” for instance.
And while it’s zeroing in on the news sector, ProRata scored a Universal Music pact en route to pulling down $40 million in Series B capital this past September.
