Sonilo partners with Musical AI to measure which licensed songs shape its AI music

Sonilo, the San Francisco startup that writes music and sound effects for your video, has signed Musical AI to track which licensed songs shape each soundtrack it generates. The partnership was announced on October 27, 2026, and Sonilo published the details in a press release on October 29.

Musical AI’s technology will analyze Sonilo’s outputs and measure how each licensed recording and composition contributed to them. Those reports go to the rights holders who license music to Sonilo, so they can account for usage and pay the people behind the songs.

The press release is the only source so far. It names no royalty rate and no deal value.

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The industry needs a better way to connect AI-generated music back to the artists and rights holders whose work contributed to it.

What Sonilo and Musical AI announced on October 27, 2026

Sonilo makes AI models that generate music and sound effects from video footage, text, or both. Former TikTok staff founded it, and B Capital led its $11 million round in October.

Musical AI is a Canadian rights technology company. It builds consent management and attribution tools for generative music, which means it keeps track of who agreed to have their music used and how that music shows up in AI output.

Sean Power, Musical AI’s CEO, said in the release that licensing “is only part of the equation.” His next line: “Rights holders also need visibility into how their work contributes to generated music.”

So what does measuring that contribution look like in practice?

How Musical AI’s attribution works on Sonilo’s soundtracks

Think of it as a split sheet for AI music. When 3 people co-write a song, the split sheet says who gets what share. Musical AI tries to produce that kind of breakdown for a track nobody wrote by hand.

After Sonilo generates a soundtrack, Musical AI analyzes it and measures how the licensed recordings and compositions behind Sonilo’s models contributed to it. Musical AI says it covers composition and sound recording rights separately, because a song and a recording of that song often belong to different people.

Sonilo isn’t Musical AI’s first partner. Musical AI teamed up with Beatoven.ai in December 2024, signed Pro Sound Effects in May 2025 and became SOCAN’s attribution partner in July 2026. It also raised $4.5 million in January 2026 to build this tracking.

Sonilo’s licensing deals: Shutterstock signed, labels and publishers pending

Attribution only works if there’s licensed music to attribute. Sonilo’s first named licensing partner is Shutterstock, which licensed its music catalog to train the Sonilo v1.0 model in May 2026.

The press release says Sonilo is “finalizing master recording and publishing agreements with major rights organizations”. It doesn’t name them, and it doesn’t say which partners get Musical AI’s reports first.

Sonilo is also preparing a new music model update, with no date given. Its consumer app is due in the fourth quarter of 2026.

Neither company has said when the first usage reports will go out.