Music lab GRAI, now backed by a $9 million seed round, wants to put that control in artists’ hands, while also capitalizing on the power of AI to transform how consumers engage with music.

The company, built by Belarusian founders who previously sold their video-creation app Vochi to Pinterest, is experimenting with new AI music products. Today, this includes apps like the remixing app Music with friends for iOS and another AI music playground for Android. These apps, and others that may ship in the future, will help to inform the company how consumers want to engage with music beyond AI-enabled creation or listening alone.

“The idea that we’re building the company around is what the next thing can be in music AI interaction and consumption,” explains GRAI co-founder and CEO Ilya Liasun, who is currently based in Poland alongside much of the team. He says the main reason the founders started GRAI is that music has become one of the last major consumer categories that hasn’t gone “creator-first.”

“We have problems — discovery is broken, listening is passive, and social context is almost non-existent,” Liasun notes.