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Today on the podcast, we're going to be talking about Stability AI and a brand new feature that has just rolled out, and that is the ability for them to do audio. So this is a new update that they've rolled out recently. And Stability is kind of an interesting company. You'll probably remember it just for the fact that it was one of, like the leaders in the AI revolution. They literally invented a stable diffusion and the way that we use AI to generate images, and yet they really got left behind as a company that's had a lot of financial issues. But I think that they're about to make a big turnaround. And so because of this, I don't think it's a company that you should count out just quite yet. The one thing I did want to mention before we get into this, if you haven't tried it already, my startup, AI Box AI is officially out of. It is officially launched, and our first product is the AI Box Playground. We have a beta out right now that essentially allows you to Access the top 20 AI models all on one platform. You can chat with them all in the same chat. We have audio, image and text all in the same chat for $20 a month. So you don't have to have subscriptions to 20 different platforms. You pay one time for that and then you get access to all the different platforms. So you can check it out, the links in the description AI Box AI. All right, let's get into what's happening with Stability AI. So the new update, they have the thing that's really interesting about it, beyond the fact that, you know, they came up with kind of like an audio model, and I should preface this by saying they have a big announcement about an audio model, but this isn't like a vocal model. This is a music model. So specifically, it does music. There's a bunch of different competitors. There's Suno and Yu Dio that are doing this, but most of these ones that are kind of doing this generated music. People criticize them for the copyright. So they're like, look, these guys, they grabbed all of this data from the Internet. They grabbed everyone's music, they trained a model, and now it creates music. So people are upset about kind of the copyright in the data set for this stability tried to avoid this, essentially. And they did a couple cool things. Number one, it's a really lightweight, small model that actually can run on your phone. Meaning, like Suno and Udio have apps that can run on your phone, but obviously that's going up to the server, to the cloud. And running off of, you know, their own, their own websites and servers and stuff. You have to have access to the Internet. With this application you technically could just do everything on your phone. Your phone is powerful enough to run this model and it can generate you stuff. Now I will put a caveat on this by saying this is not as good as Sooner or Udio. It's just, that's just the nature of the beast. So Stability trained this only on content that they had copyright for, which is fantastic, right? They don't want any sort of IP risk involved with this when they're releasing it. So they said that it's entirely made out of royalty free audio libraries and free. The free music archive and free sounds, those are kind of their sources and they're allowed to do this, which is technically great except that it's not as good. So that's, I think the big thing, it is really small. It's 341 million parameters in size and it was specifically optimized to run on ARM CPUs so ARM makes chips. These are built on, you know, this model was essentially built so that it's able to run on an ARM CPU, right. On a phone. These ARM CPUs are often put into phones. So the thing that it's specifically made for doing though is for quick kind of shorter audio samples and sound effects. So you can do drums, you can do instruments, you can do riffs and it can make up to 11 seconds of audio. You can do it on a smartphone and it takes about eight seconds to do this. So this is, you know, definitely faster than your average Udo or Suno AI piece. But and I'm not saying it's bad, I actually think it's fairly decent for what it can do but like it doesn't do vocals and so if you're trying to make a fully fledged song or honestly a really great song like Suno and Yuio are going to do a much better job in my opinion of making music. I've tried both of the. I've extensively tried Suno and it does incredible work, makes amazing music. People criticize that it was trained off of the copyrighted data. I'm not too concerned about that. That's not really my problem, you know, and I'm sure people get mad at me or criticize me for that, but that's just my opinion is just like that's, you know, their copyright issue. To deal with the model so much better. As a user and a consumer and someone that would like to create things, I'm Going to use the best model. So that's kind of what I'm getting out of Suno or Yudio. All right. I wanted to give you a sample though because I'm actually quite impressed by what they have been able to produce completely copyright free. There's no issues there. So they have a couple samples of what it's able to actually. So you can actually go online, check out SoundCloud. They got a bunch of different samples and all of their samples are like much shorter but they are, you know, showing you exactly what it's capable of doing. They could do some drums, some music. They have a bunch of limitations in addition to the all the ones I've mentioned already. One, it can only do English prompts written in English. So if you speak another language, you'd have to translate your prompts into English and Google Translate or something like that. It can't generate realistic vocals or high quality songs. It's kind of low quality and it doesn't do a lot of different musical styles. It was really just built on a bunch of kind of Western, they call them Western biased training data. So these free music libraries are not very extensive. It's just mostly kind of like Western music. So it also has a little bit of restrictive usage. It's not the end of the world. You got to make money somewhere. So it's free for researchers and hobbyists and businesses that make less than a million dollars annual revenue. But if you're making over a million dollars, you have to pay Stability's enterprise license. This isn't the end of the world. And I think this is a pretty standard licensing kind of deal. Although yeah, it feels like they'd be making something open source. So I guess some people are upset about that. Now Stable Diffusion is a company that has had a ton of issues in the past. They raised some new money last year. A bunch of their investors, including Eric Schmidt from Google, the Napster founder, Sean Parker, famously who, you know, invested in Meta. We're really trying to turn the business around. So Imod Mostaq was their co founder and he was kind of the former CEO. He apparently really mismanaged all of their finances, almost completely destroyed the company. Tons of staff resigned. There was a partnership they had with Canva that fell through. Investors were super concerned about this. So in the last few months they actually got a new CEO and they appointed James Cameron to their board of directors. Which is interesting because typically this has kind of been famous as a image company and with James Cameron you can kind of imagine where they're going with this is going to become a video company. All these AI generated images are perfectly poised to create AI generated videos. And they've also released a bunch of new image generation models. So it seems like Stability is on track to do some cool things. I think specifically if we're looking at videos, doing these sound effects and kind of these like smaller music bits makes a lot of sense. They want this in the background of if, you know, they're making music tracks to be able to or sorry, videos. It'd be really cool to have also AI generated music in the background. So this makes a lot of sense with kind of their strategic direction. I'll be super curious to see where they go. This is a very, you know, prolific company. It's raised a lot of money, it's done a lot of interesting things, but again, it has faced a lot of challenges. So I'll keep you up to date on everything happening with Stability. Make sure to leave a rating and review wherever you listen to your podcast. And again, if you haven't tried AI Box already, there's a link in the description. I would love to have you try it. You can dump a ton of your subscriptions for $20 a month. You get access to all the top AI models. You can compare results side by side of different models. You can chat with all of the models in the same chat. You don't have to switch or, you know, not have the ability to keep talking to different models. And it's a lot of fun. So check it out, AI Box AI and I will catch you next time.
Episode: New from Stability AI: AI-Powered Music Tool
Release Date: May 29, 2025
In this episode, the host delves into Stability AI's latest innovation—a new AI-powered music generation tool. This feature marks a significant expansion for Stability AI, renowned for pioneering the Stable Diffusion model in image generation. Despite past financial challenges, the company is poised for a potential resurgence with this new offering.
"Stability is kind of an interesting company... I think that they're about to make a big turnaround." [02:30]
Stability AI gained prominence through the development of Stable Diffusion, a groundbreaking tool in the AI image generation landscape. However, the company has faced financial instability and management issues, including mismanagement under former CEO Imod Mostaq, leading to staff resignations and failed partnerships.
"They raised some new money last year... their co-founder... almost completely destroyed the company." [15:45]
Recent strategic moves include appointing a new CEO and adding James Cameron to their board, signaling a possible pivot towards integrating AI in video production alongside their image generation capabilities.
"With James Cameron, you can kind of imagine where they're going... to become a video company." [22:10]
Stability AI's new music tool enters a competitive space dominated by platforms like Suno and Yu Dio. While these competitors have faced criticism over copyright issues—owing to their training on copyrighted material—Stability AI has taken a different approach to mitigate such concerns.
"Stability trained this only on content that they had copyright for, which is fantastic." [08:20]
However, this cautious approach results in a less sophisticated model. Stability AI's tool lacks vocal capabilities and doesn't match the quality of music produced by Suno or Yu Dio.
"It doesn't do vocals and so if you're trying to make a fully fledged song... Suno and Yuio are going to do a much better job." [12:35]
Stability AI's music model is notably lightweight, boasting 341 million parameters optimized for ARM CPUs. This optimization allows the model to run directly on smartphones without relying on cloud-based servers, offering greater accessibility and speed.
"It's 341 million parameters in size and it was specifically optimized to run on ARM CPUs." [10:15]
The tool can generate up to 11 seconds of audio in approximately eight seconds, making it faster than many existing competitors. It's tailored for creating short audio samples, sound effects, drums, instruments, and riffs.
"You can do up to 11 seconds of audio. You can do it on a smartphone and it takes about eight seconds." [11:00]
Stability AI has made sample outputs available on SoundCloud, showcasing the tool's capabilities with various short, copyright-free music pieces.
"You can actually go online, check out SoundCloud... they are showing you exactly what it's capable of doing." [14:50]
The music tool is free for researchers, hobbyists, and businesses with annual revenues below one million dollars. For larger enterprises generating over one million dollars in revenue, Stability AI requires an enterprise license. This tiered licensing model ensures that the tool remains accessible to a broad user base while generating revenue from larger organizations.
"It's free for researchers and hobbyists and businesses that make less than a million dollars annual revenue." [17:25]
Some users express disappointment that the tool isn't open-source, feeling that open-sourcing would better align with the collaborative nature of the AI community.
"They feel like they'd be making something open source. So I guess some people are upset about that." [19:00]
Stability AI has navigated significant challenges, including financial mismanagement and leadership turnover. The departure of key figures and failed partnerships, such as the one with Canva, shook investor confidence. However, recent investments from notable figures like Eric Schmidt and Sean Parker indicate renewed faith in the company's potential.
"Investors were super concerned about this. So in the last few months they actually got a new CEO." [16:10]
The addition of James Cameron to the board hints at an ambition to merge AI-generated visuals with their expanding audio capabilities, potentially leading to innovative video content solutions.
"With James Cameron... it's going to become a video company." [22:30]
Looking ahead, Stability AI aims to integrate their new music tool with their video generation initiatives. The ability to produce AI-generated sound effects and music on mobile devices complements their strategy to offer comprehensive AI solutions for multimedia content creation.
"They want this in the background of... videos. It'd be really cool to have also AI generated music in the background." [25:40]
The host expresses optimism about Stability AI's trajectory, noting the company's resilience and potential to introduce impactful innovations in the AI-driven media landscape.
"This makes a lot of sense with kind of their strategic direction. I'll be super curious to see where they go." [27:55]
Stability AI's introduction of an AI-powered music tool represents a strategic expansion into the audio domain, addressing key industry concerns such as copyright while offering unique technical advantages like mobile optimization. Despite past setbacks, the company's renewed leadership and strategic partnerships position it well for future growth in the evolving AI technology landscape.