Sean Parker rebuilds Stability AI as a music-focused AI toolmaker
Napster co-founder Sean Parker and Stability AI CEO Prem Akkaraju are repositioning the company as an AI toolmaker for music professionals, backed by funding from major record labels. Parker says this time the company intends to operate within the rules.
Sean Parker, the co-founder of Napster, has returned to the music industry — this time, he says, intending to follow the rules rather than repeat his earlier "ask forgiveness, not permission" approach, which he admits did not work out well. He made the comments in an interview with The Information.
Two years ago, Parker took part in an $80 million rescue of Stability AI, the image-generation startup that had nearly collapsed following overspending and internal turmoil that led to the ouster of founder Emad Mostaque. Now Parker, together with his longtime friend Prem Akkaraju, who became the company's CEO, is revealing what they have been building since then.
A new direction toward music
According to Parker, the plan is to turn Stability AI into the leading AI toolmaker for music professionals. In support of that goal, the company announced in late August a $76 million funding round that included Sony, Warner, and Universal among its backers. As part of the deal, those labels also licensed their music catalogs for use in training Stability's AI models.
Since then, Stability AI has released three new audio models along with AI-powered music-editing software. The tools can generate complete instrumental tracks or short audio snippets from text prompts. Parker says an upcoming update will allow users to hum a melody or beatbox a rhythm to guide what the AI produces, giving creators more direct control over the generated output.
