ElevenLabs Just Dropped An AI Music Album Featuring Grammy Legends

At a time when AI-generated music is climbing the charts even as it sparks a growing backlash, ElevenLabs—the buzzy voice-cloning company that could be worth as much as $11 billion soon—is looking to script an AI music redemption arc.

The AI audio company on Wednesday dropped a full-length AI music album, created in collaboration with musicians including Grammy-winners who ElevenLabs says will retain full control over their work. And that, crucially, they’ll also keep 100% of any streaming revenue.

The Eleven Album brought together musicians from across the spectrum, including Liza Minnelli and Art Garfunkel, to co-create original tracks using ElevenLabs’ Eleven Music model. ElevenLabs, for its part, calls the album—available now at elevenlabs.io/eleven-album and on Spotify—the first large-scale, artist-led AI music project built with a “creator-first, rights-secure framework.”

The project also lands, it should go without saying, squarely in the middle of a heated debate over the future of media, intellectual property, and technology.

“At ElevenLabs, our mission is to reimagine how humans interact and create with technology,” CEO Mati Staniszewski said. The Eleven Album, he continued, is a collaboration between “talent representing over 1 billion streams, multiple Grammy Awards, and decades of influence across modern music.”

Its release comes as his company continues to expand far beyond the AI voice tools that put the company on the map in the first place.

ElevenLabs’ computer-generated voices—convincing enough to mimic real people—helped turn the four-year-old startup into one of Europe’s most valuable AI companies, while also drawing scrutiny over misuse and deepfake potential. That tension has only intensified as AI-generated songs have begun showing up on music industry charts and racking up listens on streaming platforms.

One such recent example is “Walk My Walk” by the AI-generated artist Breaking Rust, which went to No. 1 on Billboard’s Country Digital Song Sales chart in November. It also collected millions of Spotify streams.

Beyond music, the creation of a lifelike AI actress named Tilly Norwood has sparked similarly existential hand-wringing across Hollywood. About Norwood—a precocious brunette with bright eyes created by Dutch technologist Eline Van der Velden—actress Emily Blunt described her as “really, really scary” in a September interview with Variety, adding: “Good Lord, we’re screwed.”

Speaking of actors: Just days ago, Matthew McConaughey secured U.S. trademarks related to his image, voice, and iconic catchphrase from Dazed and Confused to combat any unauthorized use for AI purposes. It’s a sign of creator ownership beginning to take hold—replacing the eyebrow-raising free-for-all that has at times turned generative AI apps into intellectual-property nightmares.

ElevenLabs, where McConaughey is an investor and user, is positioning the new AI album in a similar vein—as a working version of the idea that ownership can be normalized.

In addition to Minnelli and Garfunkel, artists who participated in The Eleven Album include Michael Feinstein, IAMSU!, Kondzilla, and Nashville songwriter Emily Falvey, among others. Falvey, who used ElevenLabs’ technology to generate a tropical house track, described the process of writing a song for the album as a “joyful and empowering experience.”

Adds Feinstein: “People who look at AI as a threat are not seeing the potential of what it can do with art direction and guidance … AI may offer infinite options. Creators have to make the final choices.”