Derek Cournoyer Joins ElevenLabs as Strategy Lead, Music Business Affairs

AI music company ElevenLabs has appointed Derek Cournoyer as its new Strategy Lead, Music Business Affairs. ElevenLabs operates AI music-making platform Eleven Music, which trains its AI on legally licensed songs.

The new role:

• As per the company’s press release, Cournoyer will be “central to shaping ElevenLabs’ music business strategy and managing industry relations across record labels, music publishers and collection societies.”

• He will be based in Los Angeles.

Backstory:

• Cournoyer previously spent a decade at Kobalt, most recently as SVP, Global Digital Business.

• As per Music Business Worldwide (MBW), he was key to shaping the company’s AI and creator-economy strategies, and worked on deals and partnerships with Meta, TikTok and others.

• MBW states that Cournoyer was instrumental in the negotiations that led to Kobalt and ElevenLabs’ recent partnership, through which Kobalt artists can participate in the training of the Eleven Music Pro platform.

What they said:

• Alex Haskell, General Counsel and Head of Global Affairs, ElevenLabs: “Few people understand the intersection of music and AI better than Derek, and we’re ecstatic to have him onboard. He’s been at the forefront of crafting the frameworks for long-term, high-value, and pro-artist partnership between the music industry and AI companies like ElevenLabs. He has a deep understanding of the concerns and needs of artists, songwriters, producers and their teams, as well as the enormous opportunity that companies like ours offer to the creative community.”