THE CRUNCH
Elevenlabs has released Music v2.5 for ElevenMusic, promising fuller and more natural-sounding tracks. In a blind test involving nearly 48,000 comparison pairs, listeners most often preferred v2.5, particularly for R&B, Soul, Hip-Hop, Rock and orchestral music. The update is available through the Elevenlabs app and API, while the previous v2 model remains accessible. The company offers a free tier with five lossless,
Attribution is required for the free tier, and commercial use is permitted subject to industry and purpose rules. Tracks based on other artists' songs and imitations of existing musicians are blocked. Elevenlabs recently signed a licensing deal with Universal Music Group, but the company says this agreement applies only to future, separate products and not to Music v2.5. The firm trained its existing Music models on licensed stems and music, a distinction it draws from competitor Suno, which was sued for training on copyrighted content without rights holders' consent. Suno also released new models this week.
Why It Matters: Elevenlabs' focus on licensed training data and its competitive blind-test results may help it navigate the complex copyright landscape that has challenged rivals like Suno.