BandLab Technologies wants everyone to know its AI won’t be trained on stolen songs. The Singapore-based company — the outfit behind BandLab, Cakewalk, ReverbNation and Airbit — said on July 15 that it has acquired Aiode, an AI-powered digital music studio that lets creators generate performances from what it calls fully licensed, audio-to-audio models.
The purchase gives BandLab a third music-making platform alongside its social-first BandLab app and the desktop workhorse Cakewalk. The pitch is that these tools now cover the full spread of how people actually make music in 2026, from a phone on the bus to a fully kitted DAW — with Aiode slotting in as the AI-native option.
How Aiode works
Aiode’s workflow starts with either a blank project or your own imported audio. From there you pick from a roster of musician- and style-based models to play across the track, then direct those performances section by section. Don’t like a particular part? You can generate alternate takes for just that segment without disturbing the rest of the song, and export the finished piece as stems or a single mix.
The differentiator BandLab keeps hammering is provenance. The company says 100% of the audio used to train Aiode’s proprietary models is licensed and traceable to its source, and that models based on individual musicians are built in collaboration with them and under their artistic direction. In an era when generative-audio startups are fighting lawsuits over exactly this question, leading with a “we licensed everything” message is as much legal strategy as marketing.
“Since Aiode was founded in 2022, we’ve worked side by side with professional musicians to create technology that respects their artistry and keeps them involved in how their musical identity is represented,” said Idan Dobrecki, CEO and co-founder of Aiode, who will continue to lead the product along with COO and co-founder Blue Dobrecky.
Whether that ethos translates into output that satisfies serious producers is the open question. Aiode will keep running as a standalone product with no interruption for existing users, and its current musician partnerships and licensing deals stay in place. Native audio recording and additional DAW features are on the roadmap, though BandLab isn’t committing to timing yet.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed. For BandLab, the bet is clear: as AI seeps into every corner of music creation, the platform that can credibly say its models were built with artists rather than scraped around them may end up with the most defensible position.
