Shutterstock’s first-ever partnership with a video-to-music platform licenses its music catalog for AI model training—a new benchmark for responsible AI music
Sonilo, the world’s first professionally licensed video-to-music AI platform, announced a strategic partnership with Shutterstock, one of the world’s largest providers of licensed creative content.
Through this partnership, Sonilo has licensed Shutterstock’s high-quality music catalog for AI model training—making this Shutterstock’s first-ever partnership with a video-to-music AI platform. Sonilo is headquartered in San Francisco and backed by B Capital, a venture capital firm affiliated with the Boston Consulting Group focused on emerging technology startups expanding globally.
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Redefining licensed AI music for video
The AI music industry is at a crossroads. By 2025, infringement cases filed against AI companies had surged by more than 130% year over year. The dominant response from AI music platforms has been to train on unlicensed content first and deal with the legal consequences later—producing AI-generated music that not only raises serious copyright concerns, but floods the internet with low-quality content that shortchanges creators and audiences alike.
Sonilo is built to address these problems. Powered by its proprietary Sonilo v1.0 model, Sonilo takes the video itself as input rather than relying on text prompts. It reads the footage, understands its pacing, structure and emotional arc, and composes an original soundtrack to match. No prompts, no library searches, and no manual syncing. Every soundtrack generated is original, production-ready, and cleared for commercial use—no additional licensing required, whether for social content, branded video, or broadcast use.
Most AI music platforms have treated licensing as an afterthought, training on copyrighted content without authorization and leaving artists without compensation. Sonilo was built differently. By securing professional licensing partnerships upfront, Sonilo ensures that every model it trains is built on content that artists have consented to and been compensated for. This partnership with Shutterstock is a direct expression of that commitment: the music industry doesn’t have to choose between innovation and integrity.
“Music has always been the last unsolved layer of video creation, and video has always carried its own soundtrack,” said Shawn Song, CEO, Sonilo. “We built Sonilo to hear it and compose from it, without a single text prompt. But how we build matters as much as what we build. While others have chosen to take artists’ work without permission and charge creators for the privilege, we’ve chosen a different path—one where artists are compensated from day one. Partnering with Shutterstock reflects that standard. Every model we train meets a bar the music industry can stand behind, because the most innovative AI platforms don’t have to come at the expense of the artists who make all of these possible.”
“AI innovation depends on access to high-quality, rights-cleared content and trusted licensing partnerships,” said Jessica April, Vice President, Data Licensing & AI Services, Shutterstock. “Sonilo’s approach reflects the growing demand for responsibly sourced training data and commercially safe AI workflows. We’re pleased to support companies building generative AI products with licensed content and scalable data solutions that help accelerate innovation while respecting creators and rights holders.”
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Scaling across platforms, built for every creator
This partnership is part of Sonilo’s broader momentum. Earlier this month, the platform launched as a native node inside ComfyUI, the open-source AI workflow tool used by over four million creators. Sonilo is also available via API for integration into video tools, creator platforms, game engines, and AI systems, and offers Free, Pro, and Premium tiers. Further platform integrations are planned throughout the rest of this year.
