Sean Parker, who helped create Napster, has returned to the music business — and this time, he insists, he's doing things by the book. He openly admits that his earlier approach of seeking forgiveness instead of permission didn't pan out well.

Two years ago, Parker took part in an $80 million effort to rescue Stability AI, the image-generator startup that had nearly fallen apart following excessive spending and internal conflicts that resulted in the removal of its founder, Emad Mostaque. Now Parker and his old friend Prem Akkaraju, who stepped in as CEO, are revealing what they've been working on behind the scenes. According to Parker, the core vision is to transform Stability into the primary AI toolmaker for music industry professionals.

To pursue that goal, the company revealed in late August that it had secured $76 million in funding from backers including Sony, Warner, and Universal — all of whom also agreed to license their music catalogs for training purposes as part of the arrangement. Since then, Stability has rolled out three new audio models along with AI-powered music-editing software. The AI is capable of producing full instrumental tracks or brief snippets based on text prompts. Parker notes that an upcoming update will allow users to hum a melody or beatbox a drum pattern as a way to guide the system.