GRAI buys Hangout, the Turntable.fm successor, before launching its own AI social streaming app
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ONCE · Distribution
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GRAI, an AI music startup from Warsaw, bought the social listening app Hangout on September 22, 2026. Hangout came with licences for more than 100 million tracks from Sony Music, Universal Music, Warner Music and Merlin.
GRAI hasn’t launched its own app yet. So it now owns a licensed social music product before it ships the one it’s building.
What GRAI bought when it acquired Hangout
Hangout is the latest version of an old idea. You build a virtual room, friends and strangers join, and everyone takes turns as DJ.
Joseph Perla helped launch Turntable.fm in 2011, which closed in December 2013. He revived it as Turntable in 2021 and again as Hangout in 2024, and in December 2025 Hangout added Turntable.AI, which makes a track from a text prompt.
A GRAI spokesperson told Music Business Worldwide the deal was a merger, not an asset buy. Turntable Labs is now a wholly owned GRAI subsidiary, and Perla joins GRAI as a board observer.
GRAI says it will keep and grow Hangout’s deals with labels, publishers and collecting societies.
How GRAI is building its catalogue before launch
This is GRAI’s second big move in about a month. On August 20 it became one of the first 2 companies to license AI music patents from the UMG-backed Music IP Holdings, next to Udio.
GRAI was founded in 2025 by the team behind Vochi, the AI video-editing app Pinterest bought. It raised $9 million in seed funding co-led by Khosla Ventures and Inovo VC, as TechCrunch reported in April.
The future of streaming is social and co-creative. It just needed two things: the demand and the technology.
Other licensed social music apps are raising money too. Hook raised $10 million for licensed AI remixing and later signed a Universal Music deal, as Digital Music News points out.
GRAI says it’s building “with the music industry rather than around it, so that every play and every change pays the artists and songwriters behind the song.” No launch date yet, and the waitlist is open at grai.fm.
Frequently asked questions
What is GRAI, the AI music startup that bought Hangout?
GRAI is a Warsaw-based AI music company founded in 2025 by the team behind Vochi, the video-editing app Pinterest acquired. It is building a social streaming service where people change and share music together, and it raised a $9 million seed round co-led by Khosla Ventures and Inovo VC.
What is Hangout, the social music app GRAI acquired?
Hangout is a social listening app from Turntable Labs, founded by Joseph Perla. Users build virtual rooms and take turns as DJ, the same idea as Turntable.fm, which Perla helped launch in 2011. Hangout launched in November 2024 with more than 100 million licensed tracks.
When is GRAI launching its social streaming service?
GRAI has not given a date. On September 22, 2026 it said its service is launching soon, with a waitlist open at grai.fm.
About the author
Covering AI music tools, industry shifts, and news for music creators and professionals. Twice-weekly newsletter at aimusicpreneur.com.
