GRAI, an AI music company building a social streaming service, partnered with MassiveMusic (part of Songtradr) on October 15, 2026, on two separate tracks: commercial catalog delivery with enhanced metadata for GRAI’s upcoming platform, and a dedicated, rightsholder-approved opt-in dataset to train GRAI’s own music foundation model. The companies framed the deals under a “rights before code” pitch in announcements posted by MassiveMusic and distributed by GRAI on PR Newswire.
Under the first agreement, MassiveMusic delivers commercial repertoire to GRAI through a single feed, giving GRAI a route to participating independent and distributor catalogs under MassiveMusic’s existing rightsholder agreements. Approved titles are available on GRAI within minutes of MassiveMusic sending them, the companies said. Rightsholders are to be paid and receive usage reports for plays on GRAI under those agreements. MassiveMusic also supplies enhanced metadata across more than 30 dimensions, including mood, energy, instrumentation, key, and era, which GRAI says it will use for search and recommendations before social discovery kicks in.
A separate license for AI training
A second agreement covers AI training. GRAI trains its in-house model on a dedicated opt-in dataset that rightsholders approve specifically for AI training through MassiveMusic’s opt-in system. The model is designed to understand melody, harmony, and rhythm rather than only generate audio. The training license, the companies stressed, does not itself authorize downstream creative uses of recordings or compositions.
Dzmitry Kamarouski, CTO and co-founder of GRAI, said establishing rights before code was an “operational necessity” so that when music moves between people, the rights move with it. James Priestley, SVP Global Sales, Licensing and Technology at MassiveMusic, said the firm supplied infrastructure from a dataset licensed for ethical AI training to catalogue delivery with proprietary metadata, so GRAI can focus on the audience experience.
Hangout deal, patents, and a waitlist
GRAI said it is also one of the first two companies to license patents from Music IP Holdings covering technology for using recorded music with AI, from creation and authorization through distribution and payment. In September, GRAI announced it had acquired Hangout, the social music platform from the creators of Turntable.fm. Early builds are testing on a MassiveMusic test catalog ahead of public launch, with a waitlist at grai.fm. GRAI was founded in 2025 by the team behind Vochi (acquired by Pinterest) and has raised seed funding co-led by Khosla Ventures and Inovo VC.
Separating streaming inventory from AI training permissions is the part of the story other platforms are still arguing over in court and in product toggles. That is the same consent fight tracked in artist voice-and-likeness consent coverage, the live-discovery bets at Suno’s Songkick hire, and discovery tools such as Deezer’s AI music search toggle. GRAI’s bet is that rightsholders will opt into training if catalog delivery and reporting sit on the same pipe.