AI music service Udio has signed content-security company BuyDRM to encrypt the streaming of songs made on its platform. The deal, announced on July 14, covers the three main DRM systems from Google, Apple and Microsoft through BuyDRM's KeyOS MultiKey Service.
It is a piece of plumbing with a clear purpose. Udio's settlements with Universal and Warner commit it to a "walled garden", in which music generated on the service cannot be downloaded or sent out to other platforms. According to Water & Music, chief executive Andrew Sanchez has described three layers of enforcement for the coming subscription product, reported to be called Starstruck: encrypted streams to deter ripping, inaudible watermarks on every output, and fingerprints that let distributors and streamers block matching uploads. BuyDRM supplies the first.
Udio has spent the past year turning from defendant into licensee. After the majors sued in 2024, Universal settled in October 2025, Warner in November, and Merlin, Kobalt, Believe and the US publishers' association NMPA followed with deals of their own. Sony Music is the one major still in court, and a judge recently refused its request to add some 30,000 recordings to that case.
BuyDRM, owned by OVHcloud since 2021, mostly protects video and sports streams for clients such as F1 TV and NBC Sports, and counts SoundCloud among its music customers. Both companies framed the deal as a step towards a responsible, paid, global AI music service.
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