The brief

Analyst view

• The first AI music app to settle with a major label: Universal (Oct 2025), then Warner, Merlin and Kobalt.
• Downloads have been off since Oct 2025 while it builds a licensed service; Sony is still suing.
• The planned service lets fans remix and cover songs by artists who opt in, with credit and pay.

Technical approach

As reported

Generation

Whole songs from a prompt

Udio's models produce vocals, lyrics and instruments together from a text description, rather than assembling stems.

Licensing

Train only on licensed music

Under its label deals, the new platform runs on models trained only on authorised, licensed recordings and compositions.

Controls

Fingerprinting and filters

Before relaunch Udio adds audio fingerprinting and filtering so outputs can be traced and infringing material blocked.