ElevenLabs switched on Music v2.5 on 11 September, making it the default model in its ElevenMusic song generator, one day after announcing a multi-year licensing agreement with Universal Music Group. The company insists the two are unrelated: no Universal music trained the model, and the deal's first product will be a separate fan platform built on licensed catalogue with artist participation, plus tools developed jointly for artists and songwriters.
The model itself is pitched on realism, with instruments that sound played and songs that hold together to the end. ElevenLabs says a blind test over nearly 48,000 prompt pairs preferred v2.5 most of the time, with the widest margin on vocal-led and acoustic genres from soul and hip-hop to orchestral. Unlike Suno, which retired its older models the day v6 launched, ElevenLabs is keeping v2 available.
Where the story gets interesting is the fine print. The ElevenLabs blog tells users they own what they make on every plan, free included. The same post on the ElevenMusic site says users have rights to what they make, with a footnote that rights and commercial use vary by tier. An email to Music Business Worldwide used the strongest form of all: own it, use it commercially, on any plan. The free tier's credit requirement appears in one version and not the others.
All versions agree on the mechanics: five lossless downloads a day free, 400 a month on Pro, whatever you were granted survives cancelling, and downloads are blocked for tracks that reference other artists. Prompting with an artist's name or lyrics has been barred since last year. The gap between marketing and terms, the outlet notes, is not unique to ElevenLabs.
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