ElevenLabs, a leading AI audio company, is dropping an album of AI-generated music, featuring iconic artists like Liza Minnelli and Art Garfunkel, alongside AI-native creators like King Willonius, who is best known for creating “BBL Drizzy.”
This series of songs, collectively called The Eleven Album, is intended to be a celebration of AI and human co-creation. To make the songs, artists collaborated with ElevenMusic, the company’s AI music model, and its Iconic Marketplace, a platform where famous entertainers can license their voices for AI recreation.
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According to ElevenLabs, the album will be distributed on Spotify, and the artists involved will retain full ownership, streaming revenue and commercial rights to their work. The full list of talent featured on the project is listed below:
- Liza Minnelli (artist, actor)
- Art Garfunkel (artist)
- Patrick Patrikios (writer, producer)
- Willonius (AI artist, songwriter, comedian)
- IAMSU! (rapper, producer)
- Demitri Leiros (film/tv composer, producer, songwriter)
- Emily Falvey (songwriter)
- Sunsetto (songwriter)
- Kondzilla (director, screenwriter, YouTuber, founder of a top music video production company)
- Chris Lyons (General Partner at a16z, producer)
- Kai (AI artist, producer)
- Angelbaby (AI artist)
- Michael Feinstein (singer, pianist, music revivalist)
The ways in which AI was employed to make the music vary per track. A spokesperson for ElevenLabs confirmed that some songs are entirely AI-generated, while others involve artists writing on top of musical ideas generated by ElevenMusic. Some use the artists AI vocal likeness on the track, while others recorded their voices in a more traditional way.
To get the work out to new people, ElevenLabs tells Billboard it has a direct deal with Spotify to release the album — making this the first known direct deal between Spotify and an AI company to easily and directly distribute AI songs on the streaming platform.
Mati Staniszewski, CEO of ElevenLabs, said of the deal: “At ElevenLabs, our mission is to reimagine how humans interact and create with technology – and The Eleven Album marks a major milestone: the first large-scale artist-AI collaboration bringing together talent representing over 1 billion streams, multiple GRAMMY Awards, and decades of influence across modern music. We’re incredibly grateful to every artist who chose to trust us and explore what becomes possible when AI amplifies human creativity.”
Minnelli said: “I’ve always believed that music is about connection and emotional truth. What interested me here was the idea of using my voice and new tools in service of expression, not instead of it. This project respects the artist’s voice, the artist’s choices, and the artist’s ownership. I grew up watching my parents create wonderful dreams that were owned by other people. Eleven Labs makes it possible for anyone to be a creator and owner. That matters.”
Art Garfunkel added: “Music has always evolved alongside technology, from microphones to multitrack recording. What impressed me about this experience was the respect for musicianship. The human remains at the center. My voice plus the technology simply opens another door.”
