Why a Singapore Startup Founder Says AI Could Save the Music Industry—And How You Might Benefit!

For Anand Roy, crafting music used to involve playing alongside his progressive rock band in Bangalore. Fast forward to today, and the former metalhead has transitioned to a different rhythm, creating music with a simple tap through his start-up, Wubble AI. This innovative platform enables users to generate, edit, and customize royalty-free music across more than 60 genres.

Founded in 2024 alongside co-founder Shaad Sufi, Wubble AI began in a modest office in Singapore's central business district. Its impact has been notable, generating soundtracks for global giants like Microsoft, HP, L’Oreal, and NBCUniversal. Notably, their AI-generated tunes have even found a home in the Taipei Metro, where they help ease the stress of daily commuters.

The rise of generative AI has sparked controversy within the creative industries. Artists, musicians, and content creators often express concern that companies might exploit copyrighted materials to train AI, ultimately leading to a diminished need for human creativity. However, Roy views Wubble as a solution to an already flawed music sector. He points out that artists receive only micro-payments on streaming platforms like Spotify, a model that primarily benefits established artists.

With nearly two decades of experience at Disney, where he managed operations across major cities such as Tokyo, Mumbai, and Los Angeles, Roy gained insight into the complexities of music licensing. “So many licensing deals were not going through because of the quantum of paperwork, the amount of red tape, and how expensive, complex, and convoluted the entire process was,” he explains. He believes that traditional music firms lack the motivation to streamline these processes.

Wubble is taking a different approach by collaborating directly with musicians and compensating them for the raw materials used to train its AI. “If we’re looking at Latino hip hop, we’ll go to a recording studio in Buenos Aires or Rio de Janeiro, and tell them we need ten hours of Latino music,” Roy elaborates. Wubble negotiates these deals and offers one-time payments that he argues are more competitive than traditional music streaming services.

Roy acknowledges that a one-time payment isn’t a perfect fix. He is actively exploring how technologies like blockchain could provide new compensation models for musicians who contribute to training Wubble's AI. Professor David Gunkel, who teaches communication studies at Northern Illinois University, agrees that using artist-commissioned material to train AI is a more prudent business strategy than relying on potentially copyrighted content. “If you’re curating your data sets and compensating artists utilized to train your model, you won’t find yourself in a lawsuit,” he explains, highlighting the long-term viability of such an approach.

The Future of AI in Music

Currently, Wubble offers instrumental music and audio effects, but Roy sees voice generation as the next frontier. By the end of January, he plans to introduce AI-generated voiceovers created from written scripts, aiming to serve clients who need narrative-driven audio tracks. “So, the entire audio content workflow for a business can be housed on Wubble,” he concludes with pride.

The landscape of AI music startups is expanding globally. Some, like Suno, focus on generating full songs, while others, such as Moises, provide tools for artists to enhance their work. In Asia, the South Korean startup Supertone specializes in voice synthesis and cloning, using samples to create new vocal tracks. Founded by Kyogu Lee, Supertone has been acquired by HYBE, the entertainment company behind K-pop sensation BTS, and has even introduced a fully virtual K-pop girl group, SYNDI8, in 2024.

At the Fortune Brainstorm AI event in Singapore last year, Lee emphasized the role of musical artists as “co-creators,” not just in licensing their voices but also in refining the technology. AI, he argued, “will democratize the creative process, so every creator or artist can experiment with this new technology to explore new ideas.” Roy shares this vision and believes that AI will lower barriers to music creation. “Music creation has always been a privilege. It’s been the domain of those who have the time and resources to learn an instrument,” he states. “We believe that every human being should be able to create—and AI enables that now.”