Sean Parker, the Napster co-founder who joined an $80 million rescue of Stability AI two years ago, is now leading the company into the music industry. Parker and CEO Prem Akkaraju, a longtime friend, plan to turn Stability into the go-to AI toolmaker for music professionals.
In late August, Stability announced $76 million in funding from music industry heavyweights Sony, Warner Music Group and Universal Music Group. As part of the deal, the labels also licensed their catalogs for training the company's AI models.
Stability has since launched three new audio models and AI music-editing software. The technology can generate whole instrumental tracks or short audio snippets from text descriptions. According to Parker, an upcoming update will allow users to hum a melody or beatbox a drum pattern to guide the AI.
Parker has acknowledged a shift in approach. He told The Information that he is "playing by the rules" this time, conceding that the strategy of asking for forgiveness rather than permission did not work during the Napster era.
The company, best known for its Stable Diffusion image generator, nearly collapsed after overspending and internal turmoil that led to the ouster of founder Emad Mostaque two years ago.