TRO | When Music and Machines Find Common Ground

Your Meliora briefing on how GenAI and Creativity are unlocking a brighter, smarter future.

Author

Meliora Company
November 03, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 8 minutes

Subscribe | 3rd November, 2025

In this fast-moving GenAI economy, headlines are everywhere but optimism is rare.

Here’s our take on 3 stories that will help you be relentlessly optimistic about the future.

1. Claude launches financial services

Claude has launched new tools for financial services, bringing domain-specific models, compliance-ready guardrails, and secure data integration. It’s a deliberate move into one of the most tightly regulated sectors — and one of the hardest to crack for Gen AI.

Here’s why this matters: By building AI systems that understand financial context and speak the language of governance, Anthropic is helping institutions trust AI in the rooms where risk and regulation rule. It’s another sign that AI’s future isn’t just smarter, it’s becoming safer, more specialised, and more human-aligned by design.

2. When Music and Machines Find Common Ground

Universal Music Group has partnered with Stability AI to co-develop fully licensed, artist-centred AI music tools. The alliance will prioritise creator feedback and responsible training, building systems designed to support songwriters and producers rather than replace them.

Here’s why this matters: This is a milestone in how creative industries adopt AI - from conflict to co-creation. When rights holders and technologists build together, they set standards that reward originality while unlocking new creative speed and sound design. It’s proof that the future of music is happening at the intersection of human creativity and technology.

3. Mercor is Building the AI Feedback Loop

Mercor has raised US$350 million at a $10 billion valuation, scaling a network of 30,000 domain experts to train and refine top generative-AI systems for clients including OpenAI and Anthropic. The platform matches companies building AI models with vetted specialists - lawyers, doctors, engineers - who provide structured feedback, evaluation and fine-tuning to make systems smarter, safer, and more accurate.

Here’s why this matters: This shines a light on the next frontier of AI which is people + data + models operating together. The money Mercor has raised isn’t just for bigger models - it’s for richer feedback loops, expert-led training, and trusted foundations. Mercor has over 30,000 specialists on their database and are paying out over $1.5m per day to their contractors.

Still Curious?

Our Pursuit Of Better

This week, Google Labs launched Pomelli - a new GenAI tool to help small-to-medium-sized businesses easily generate scalable, on-brand social media campaigns. Whilst it’s early days, it interprets fonts, colours, tone of voice, even writing style, and produces cohesive marketing assets in seconds. A great tool to scale content production in a lean team.

This week we’ve taken Guidde for a spin - this GenAI tool enables you to create video documentation and feature notes quickly and easily. Whilst there are a few of these types of tools floating around, we have been liking Guidde’s simple UX and clean design so it’s worth adding this one to your list to check out.

Podwise.ai is a Gen AI application that allows you to create notes from your favourite podcasts - instead of sitting with a paper and pen, or diligently typing in your notes app- podwise will take notes as you listen and allow you to export thematic analysis or mindmaps to your favourite note-taking system, like Notion or Readwise. Handy for sure!

The Story of Shazam - The Early Years

With thanks to Meliora Strategic Partner 18Sixty, this week we’re sharing the story of The Early Years of Shazam. In 2001, in an office in Soho, up a rickety flight of stairs, four founders are building an algorithm to solve a problem as old as radio itself - ‘what’s that song?’. This is a story that’s shaped Meliora’s DNA, where creative courage, level three curiosity and years of relentless optimism culminate in the internet verb that Shazam is today.

Meliora Associate Spotlight

Krish Raja - USA

With 16 years across big tech, media, telco and startup tech, Krish has commercialised some of the largest global data sets and platforms and launched new business divisions, products, revenue models, and teams. Based in NYC, Krish has a keen interest in helping teams build AI Literacy - something really resonating with Meliora Growth Partners around the world.

Tony Moorey - UK

Tony is an award-winning product and strategy leader with a proven track record of growing both new and established brands to reach record-breaking audiences. Known for combining creativity, insight and innovation, Tony is passionate about empowering teams, leading digital and cultural transformation and unlocking potential.

The Pursuit of Better, Together

If this week’s newsletter sparked something, pass it on to a colleague. The best conversations often start with “You’ve got to read this”.