Innovative developer of artificial auditory intelligence tools leads the way on ethical AI use in the music industry
Karlsruhe, DE, August 11, 2026 — Klang.io announces that they have signed a licensing agreement with German performance rights organization GEMA. The agreement makes klang.io the first AI company to be officially involved with GEMA’s ‘PLAI by GEMA’ platform, a legal framework that ensures permission and compensation for artists whose work is used for training AI models. The agreement is the first of its kind in Europe and marks a legal and ethical victory for artists looking to partner with AI developers without losing control of their work.
A large portion of musical data utilized by AI developers comes via ‘scraping’, the process of automatic data extraction from information available on the internet and other data sources. Although this can provide a lot of information quickly, it is often done without the express permission of the creators of this data which has resulted in a growing number of legal actions against developers. The PLAI by GEMA dataset provides a different approach, empowering copyright owners to ‘opt in’ to their musical compositions being utilized for AI training, and receive compensation accordingly. In addition to this, because the data is acquired legally, it gives AI developers access to more high-quality materials such as stems and DAW files, ensuring more accurate training of tools.
“With PLAI by GEMA, we demonstrate that AI training and fair remuneration for creators are not mutually exclusive,” states Thomas Theune, Director of Broadcasting/Online at GEMA. “AI tool providers can now obtain high-quality music data, including the necessary rights, from a single source. This creates legal certainty for developers and opens up new revenue potential for music creators.”
“When both sides are committed to a responsible relationship, we can find shared solutions and enable innovation on a reliable legal foundation. Klang.io’s position as a transcription-based service provider makes them obvious partners for this platform and we’re proud to include them.”
“We’re incredibly proud to spearhead this initiative with GEMA as it shows that fair compensation and innovative AI development within the music industry can go hand in hand,” says klang.io CEO Sebastian Murgul. “We are all part of the wider music industry and therefore benefit from an ecosystem that prioritizes equitable treatment of artists and engineers in regards to the ownership of their compositions and compensation for their use in training the future’s AI tools.”
“In 2003 the music industry was losing to piracy and its answer was to sue,” he continues. “Steve Jobs of Apple saw it differently. He believed that most people aren’t thieves and would gravitate towards a legal option if made available, which led to the iTunes store and making the honest path the easy path. Two decades later, we're standing at the very same crossroads, this time for AI and music. The lesson from 2003 still holds: you don't win the future by fighting it. You win by making the fair path the easy one and with PLAI by GEMA, you have exactly that. Full licensed, rights-cleared music for AI training with the creators behind it fairly paid. We’re proud to be the first company to say yes to it, not because we had to, but because it’s simply the better way to build.”
“AI-tool development should be assisting rather than replacing humanity’s drive to create music,” he concludes. “This agreement is both a legal and ethical victory that forwards the exact partnership between human and AI-tool that we champion as a company.”
For more information about PLAI by GEMA, please visit:
https://www.gema.de/en/about-gema/ki-hub/plai-by-gema
About klang.io
Founded in 2018 by Sebastian Murgul and Alexander Lüngen, klang.io GmbH is an innovative, AI-focused music software company that develops tools to empower musicians. The company’s flagship technologies provide quick and precise transcriptions from live and recorded musical sources for a variety of production, performance, and educational purposes. Klang.io’s team of passionate experts in music theory, audio processing, AI research, and software development are based in Karlsruhe, Germany.
For more information about klang.io, please visit: https://klang.io/